I'm using them at $work. But they are expensive, but so is EC2. Unless you are able to get a decent deal (far better than reserved instances) then for raw CPU/

I'm using them at $work. But they are expensive, but so is EC2. Unless you are able to get a decent deal (far better than reserved instances) then for raw CPU/GPU power hosting your own is better. Its the whole package that makes AWS attractive. (RDS, S3, instant spinup) Spot prices is a good place to start if you are doing batches. just make sure you checkpoint little and often. However if you are on your own, with limited funds, Get a second hand workstation (dell or hp z620/600) they tend to have decent PSUs, loads of ram and decent support, and a couple of Geforces with more Vram. (Quadros you are paying for the double float performance and ram. transfer Bandwidth and speed are the same or slightly better on geforce class cards.)