Getting started again

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Hope all of you have been doing well in light of this global pandemic & general world wide madness! I haven't been contributing much the past few years. Got into old arcade cabinets & working on old electronics as a hobby outside of work (programmer/devops work). Work, other hobbies, and life have been all-consuming. Much like my old Bulldozer power draw on the electric grid. I got an aftermarket cooler for the 4770s I'm running now and been breaking it in on universe@home. So far great temps. Thinking about throwing aftermarket on the old FX8150, and getting him out of the closet from retirement. Got another 4770s but in a mini-itx case with horrible cooling. These new AMD CPUs Ryzen 3000 series look like a dream come true for a DC hobbyist. I bet you guys are loving it. Plan on catching up the next few days & seeing where you all are crunching & what rigs show up. What projects you guys been focused on?

Best Wishes,

Brad
 

Orange Kid

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,323
2,110
146
Welcome back!
Folding@home and Rosetta have been the projects of focus lately due to Covid-19.
Currently there is a Formula Boinc Sprint going on in Asteroids@home.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,219
3,800
75
Welcome back, Brad! :)

[Edit: Deleted a repost of what @Orange Kid said.]

Got another 4770s but in a mini-itx case with horrible cooling.
Try Throttlestop! Or in Linux you can enter a value in "/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/max_perf_pct". I run an i3 in a mini-STX case at roughly 60% of full speed.
 

TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
4,204
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www.google.com
Heya Brad! I am not sure if Universe still favors Linux OS, but if you want to give it a try, Linux Mint 19.* is very simple to install and learn on.

If you hold out for Ryzen 4, you will be ahead of many of us, and then we can be jealous of you!
 
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Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,120
507
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Welcome back :)

I upgraded my main rig from an i7 4930k (now my 2nd rig) to a Ryzen 5 3600.
Running F@H on my i7, with 11 threads it would draw ~225w from the wall, my Ryzen draws ~140w! Although atm it is throttled to 65w PPT as the supplied heatsink isn't up to the job! :rolleyes:. I haven't been able to compare performance yet as benchmarking DC projects is a bit of a nightmare! (Though thinking about it, I could've benched F@H! Even if it was an old version, actually, I still can IIRC...)
 

Endgame124

Senior member
Feb 11, 2008
954
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Heya Brad! I am not sure if Universe still favors Linux OS, but if you want to give it a try, Linux Mint 19.* is very simple to install and learn on.

If you hold out for Ryzen 4, you will be ahead of many of us, and then we can be jealous of you!
With Ryzen 4 and the GeForce 3000 series just on the horizon, September could be one of the best times ever to upgrade a system!
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,120
507
126
On the current F@H bench 2.3.1. for the previous core21:-
i7 4930k @4.1 GHz ..................... Ryzen 5 3600 (single core load ~4 GHz, all core ~3.8 GHz)
Exp. SP 2.42671 ......................... 2.64626 +~9%
Exp. DP 2.42903 ......................... 2.6446 +~9%
Imp. SP 12.1178 ......................... 15.5822 +~28%
Imp. DP 12.2378 ......................... 15.4938 +~27%

For both rigs, it seemed that only 1 core was being loaded for the explicit tests as CPU load was ~18%.
Implicit test seemed to load all cores as all core load was ~95%.
Both CPUs have 6 cores with HT. For regular F@H CPU crunching with 11 threads, the i7 draws ~225w. The Ryzen ~140w! -38% :), wall draw is the same with 11 or 12 threads loaded (as I noted above, the Ryzen is limited to 65w PPT atm).

For reference, my RX 580
Exp. SP 74.6522
Exp. DP 9.66499
Imp. SP 288.655
Imp. DP 26.3303
 

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Welcome back!
Folding@home and Rosetta have been the projects of focus lately due to Covid-19.
Currently there is a Formula Boinc Sprint going on in Asteroids@home.

Thank you, I'll flip one of my machines over to Rosetta & the other over to Asteroids@home. My GPU situation is pathetic at the moment (GTX 750). I got my R9 290 in my old bulldozer but it needs a good cleaning.
 

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Heya Brad! I am not sure if Universe still favors Linux OS, but if you want to give it a try, Linux Mint 19.* is very simple to install and learn on.

If you hold out for Ryzen 4, you will be ahead of many of us, and then we can be jealous of you!

Yep, seems like towards the end of my crunching days. They had some custom linux app people were using and getting insane credits. I run linux on my workstation at work. I'm planning on pulling my bulldozer outta the closet & ordering a hard drive for it. I may load Linux on it. It will be running with no monitor in a corner somewhere.
 

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Joined up on the folding@home for COVID-19 in team anandtech. I never did f@h before. Was always into Asteroids/Einstein/Universe and other astronomy related projects. Looking into the throttling program for the mini-itx PC. Thanks for the suggestion!