Like you have, I would have looked at using the cloud as it is only for 6 months. But even if you got one Extra Mem machine at 17.1GB RAM you would still be pay

Like you have, I would have looked at using the cloud as it is only for 6 months. But even if you got one Extra Mem machine at 17.1GB RAM you would still be paying >£1400 for the 6 months use. I am sure that Sun used have something for graduate projects where you could apply and run on their servers for a set amount of time, but I can't see where it might be under the Oracle Regime. Sun also used to give you a server on sale or return 90(?) day trial at one point. I'm tending to agree with you, but I would build several computers myself (ebuyer.com or novatech.com for example), and then break them down/sell them on after the 6 months use. Failing that you could always do what the US government do, buy a shed load of PS3 and use them like a grid/blade server cluster. Then sell them on when you are done (cite: http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/09/military-purchases-2200-ps3s/ http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/09/military-purchases-2...) hth