Can I rent a powerful Windows machine to use remotely?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hxc
  • Start date Start date

Hxc

Hxc

Hxc

Soldato
Joined
29 Oct 2004
Posts
12,501
Location
London
Hi all

Not sure if this is the right forum but I'm not sure where to ask.

Basically, I'm currently writing my dissertation and need to run some modelling software which is fairly computationally intensive. I have a macbook air and whilst it is fast, it is taking upwards of 1min per run where I know I can get it down to about 10sec on a powerful machine, which would greatly help with the number of runs I am performing.

I have zero issue paying, but would need to be able to install (free) software and run it, and screengrab the results.

Cheers!
 
try just asking your lecturer/tutor? the university should have something beefier than a macbook air, you might not get a supercomputer but for example anywhere with an engineering department worth it's salt would have some cad machines stashed away in the basement, see if you can get special access to one of them.

i know your pain, having spent the last 2 weeks rendering on an i5 laptop. this is what i built a proper pc for damnit!
 
I'm sure you university will allow you to use a more powerful machine, or atleast a machine to use.
One time at uni I just acquisitioned a bog standard desktop and stuck a batch job on it that ran for a couple of days - job done.


Failing that, rent an Amazon cloud server
 
You're university should have some fairly powerful computers, I study Physics at the University of Birmingham and I know we have some good PCs here, your location says Bristol so I assume you might be at the University of Bristol - in such a case, I'm sure the situation will be the same.

But if not, then pay me and I can run it on my rig ;)
 
Hm. I work for IT services part time at the uni (Bristol indeed!) so I will ask them if I can grab something I can run 24 hours for couple of days. Was looking at AWS but I wasn't sure if you could use it via remote desktop for windows programs?

Cheers folks
 
As others have said, it's pretty likely Bristol Uni will have something you can use, only problem is their more powerful computers quite possibly won't be Windows.

At Loughborough the Electrical Engineering department has a few servers for students to remote connect to for some circuit simulation software (the front end is on the user's PC, but the processing it done by the servers), but all those servers run Unix, rather than Windows. Might be the same for you, but even if they do, they should have other PCs more powerful than a Macbook Air (I'm basing that off all the PCs in labs in my department being either i5 or i7 based PCs)
 
Hxc said:
Hm. I work for IT services part time at the uni (Bristol indeed!) so I will ask them if I can grab something I can run 24 hours for couple of days. Was looking at AWS but I wasn't sure if you could use it via remote desktop for windows programs?

Cheers folks
Click to expand...

AWS does let you use RDP to login.
 
Isn't AWS Linux not Windows? Microsoft Azure is probably a better choice, however somebody either at the Uni or a mate must have a powerful Windows machine you can borrow?

The biggest issue with your MacBook Air is the fact it has the mobile version of the i5/i7 (depending) and they have a much lower TDP.
 
LordSplodge said:
Isn't AWS Linux not Windows? Microsoft Azure is probably a better choice, however somebody either at the Uni or a mate must have a powerful Windows machine you can borrow?

The biggest issue with your MacBook Air is the fact it has the mobile version of the i5/i7 (depending) and they have a much lower TDP.
Click to expand...

You can get a windows aws from amazon, they just cost more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom