Discussion AnandTech needs your help

[Skillz]

Calling to arms all the members of AnandTech.com. The BOINC team is currently participating in a BOINC event called the Pentathlon. This is the biggest BOINC competition of the year where all the biggest teams compete for bragging rights. Are we going to let other sites claim they have more CPU and GPU power than we do? I think not!

Currently, the team is overall in first place with Gold.


As you can see live here: https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/statistiken/pentathlon.php

What we need help with is helping us secure this position for the remainder of the Pentathlon which ends on the 19 May 2021 00:00 UTC.

What you can do to help.

CPUs - About 24 hours remain on this. 8PM EST on the 18th marks the final results.

1. Put all your CPUs on project called SiDock@Home: https://sidock.si/sidock/
2. Join the team which is located here: https://www.sidock.si/sidock/team_display.php?teamid=52
3. Download BOINC software here: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php (You shouldn't need the one with vbox, but it wouldn't hurt to install that version. Either version will work)
4. The invitation code is Crunch_4Science and it is case-sensitive. So copy-paste that exactly. (Thanks @Markfw I forgot about the invite code)

GPUs - This part of the competition is over. Return your GPUs to normal operation or you can remain on the project to help science.

1. Put all your GPUs on the upcoming Cross Country event. That project is Einstein@home
2. Einstein@home: https://einsteinathome.org/community
3. Join the team: https://einsteinathome.org/community/teams/172283
4. Go into your settings on your account page and make sure it does NOT run on CPU. Select AMD, Nvidia and Intel GPUs only. (You can run projects on the Intel HD Graphics)
5. Download the BOINC Software here: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php (You shouldn't need the one with vbox, but it wouldn't hurt to install that version. Either version will work)

BOINC Software: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php (You shouldn't need the one with vbox, but it wouldn't hurt to install that version. Either version will work)
You only need to install this once. Then attach which ever project you wish to help with or both of them if you want to run them on both.
If you are running them on both then ensure you go into your Esinstein@home preferences and make sure CPU is not selected. You want SiDock to use the CPUs and Einstein to use the GPUs.

Notes about SiDock@home

• There is a wingman/validation of tasks required. When you return work, someone else will need to return the same work unit. They will compare the two results, if they match, you're rewarded credits. This can take a couple days to happen sometimes.
• There is no checkpoints on SiDock@home tasks. So if you shut down the instance or restart your computer you'll lose all currently running progress on your tasks.
• SiDock tasks take a long time to complete. On some of my CPUs I am seeing times as low as 8 hours. On some of my slower CPUs I am seeing over 12 hours.

Notes about Einstein@home

• There is a wingman/validation of tasks for this project as well. When you return work, someone else will need to return the same work unit. They will compare the two results, if they match, you're rewarded credits. This can take a couple days to happen sometimes.
• AMD GPUs run slightly better then Nvidia, but not by a whole lot.
• Einstein tasks have a very short run time. They will complete quickly.
• Task availability may be low. If you attach to the project and do not get any tasks immediately give it some time. You can go into advanced mode on the BOINC client, click the project and click update to tell it to try again to fetch work. (This happens automatically as well, but sometimes the time between tries is a lot) Do not spam it. It will not help. Every ~5 minutes is the fastest you can update.

If you need help or assistance you can reply here and myself or one of the other BOINC commandos will help you with your questions or troubles. Additionally, you can check our official Pentathlon thread here: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/12th-boinc-pentathlon-2021.2592634/

Useful links

Compare your output with other team members at SiDock@home.

• Free-DC SiDock@home Team Stats: https://stats.free-dc.org/team/sid/52
• BOINCStats SiDock@Home Team Stats: https://www.boincstats.com/stats/192/user/list/0/0/52/0

Compare your out with other team members at Einstein@home.

• Free-DC Einstein@home Team Stats: https://stats.free-dc.org/team/eah/12
• BOINCStats Einstein@home Team Stats: https://www.boincstats.com/stats/5/user/list/0/0/12/0

Last year the team won Silver overall. This year we are going for the Gold. All help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all. Let's help scientists unravel the mysteries of our universe!

 

[Markfw]

I just threw my 5600X at it - it's saying it'll take a day and 3 hours to complete - probably won't make it in time to help this cause (?)
View attachment 44501

Even my 3900x's do it in 7 hours. Is anything else running ?

 

[CuriousMike]

Even my 3900x's do it in 7 hours. Is anything else running ?

No - and I just booted my old Ryzen 1700 and threw it on it - it shows the same.
I wonder if it just needs time to "settle" ?

 

[CuriousMike]

Click View | Advanced View

Then click on Tasks.

It'll show each tasks running time. My 3600 does them in about 6 hours. So it may be combining the total runtime in that calculation on the simple view.

edit
Thanks for joining.

I read it as each task will take 1 day 3 hours ?

 

[Skillz]

Yup, that does indeed say 1 day 3 hours for each task. I want to believe it's just because the rig is new and it hasn't finished one so the BOINC client is just guessing. I suspect they'll finish a lot sooner.

Like I said, I have an AMD 3600 that does them in about 6 hours which is similar to your rigs.
My oldest rig is an old Xeon, dual socket X5650 and it completes the tasks in about 11 to 12 hours.

So there's no way your rig will take over a day to complete them.

 

[Icecold]

Sometimes the estimates are all over the place when you first start a project. I'd give it a few hours before being too concerned about any of it. Sidock is kind of notorious for the estimates being somewhat all over the place as well. I'm sure it will be fine just let it run, and thanks for joining the effort!

 

[Skivelitis2]

These work units tend to complete when the progress bar reaches 60-70%.

 

[Kiska]

Yeah sidock's app doesn't report its progress back to the client, so the client has to guess what the progress is and its estimated time remaining, this will get better as more tasks are completed

 

[cellarnoise]

Hey Mike! Keep going! And welcome to the Team!

I've been doing this for only a year and it is a fun learning curve! And frustrating..

My new 5950x just did the same thing today as your's on SiDock! I spent two hours trying to find out why this puter was showing longer run times than older puters. It is a reporting thing. Likely to adjust / become much more accurate after the first tasks report back. I had experienced this in the past, but because it was on a new puter to me this week I thought there was a problem... I chased puter issues that did not exist and stressed out some.

All is well....

I hope you enjoy the rabbit hole as much as the rest of us!

Edit 1: Zen3 is fast on all Boinc! Make sure you have enough RAM for whatever you are running. SiDock so far needs at least 1/2 gig per task / thread. Normally 1 gig per thread is great on most of Boinc at this point in time.

2nd Edit: and make sure to adjust your Boinc "computing preferences" to your liking and puters ability. If you have questions ask here or P.M. the crazies' in the Anand D.C. forum.

3rd Edit to add this CornBeefHash thing: @CuriousMike

Don't even know if this is how Corned Beef works on the innerwebs...

 

[Skillz]

The Team finished in 2nd place for a Silver Medal overall. That's back to back Silver Medals the Team has won.

Next year our goal is to go for Gold. So check out the DC sub forum sometime in the next 11 months to learn how to get your little boxes loaded up for the competition. We could use the help.

 

[Endgame124]

The Team finished in 2nd place for a Silver Medal overall. That's back to back Silver Medals the Team has won.

Next year our goal is to go for Gold. So check out the DC sub forum sometime in the next 11 months to learn how to get your little boxes loaded up for the competition. We could use the help.

I contributed about 2% of the Team marathon points with my high powered trio of systems - a 5950X (daily driver), a 2700X (media center), and an A10-7870K (retired hardware I turned back on for the competition).

With just 35 more people like me, we could have gold next year!

 

[lane42]

I will have a few Grand saved for a cloudy day