Hey InvalidSnack, thanks so much for the detailed post, again I've learned a lot from you. I'm a windoze user so I'm not so linux savvy and your tips help a lot. I'm pretty sure my problem was due to the Miner Config page as you mention, I was using the S1 'trick' of restarting cgminer by clicking save&apply... I guess that was messing things around.

I've not had a chance to fully test your method again, I need to do a little more cgminer research and I'm waiting for a new power board and PSU to be delivered today, so will concentrate on getting that all switched out an running before going back to load-balancing.

I did originally try the method of adding ["balance" : true,] in the cgminer.conf, but that didn't work for me...

Thanks again, you've been very helpful so far