How many instances of F@H can you run on a Dual-CPU, HT box?

[MichaelD]

Soon, I'll be building a dual Xeon rig. (The LV Xeons from the Hot Deals thread awhile back). I'm just waiting on HS's now.

I expect 2.4-2.8GHz out of these bad boys.

I know I can run two instances (one per CPU) but can I run FOUR, being that these are HT CPUs?

BTW, #51 and climbing. I had #50 for a few days, then *POOF* it be gone. [ahnuld]I'll be back[/ahnuld]

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I would say 4, 1 for each logical processor.

edit: I'm out to pass you around thanksgiving

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I would say 4, 1 for each logical processor.

edit: I'm out to pass you around thanksgiving

Ohhhh, it's on now!!! Come and get some!!!

I'd better hurry up and get this duallie built and get to crunching!

 

[BlackMountainCow]

I'd say 4 as well. 4 separate folders with the CLI version and different IDs and you should be fine! :beer::beer:

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
I'd say 4 as well. 4 separate folders with the CLI version and different IDs and you should be fine! :beer::beer:

What's the "CLI version?" The only thing I know is the Windows client that loads at startup and stays resident in the System Tray.

 

[GLeeM]

Hey MichcaelD
It's good to see you around again. You must keep us up to date on this dually.

Are you going to have a GB of ram?

I run four BigWUs on those same procs and a GB, no problem.

I get a 45% increase in points per day by running four instead of two.

What mobo did you decide on? I thought you already had some IWTs.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: GLeeM
Hey MichcaelD
It's good to see you around again. You must keep us up to date on this dually.

Are you going to have a GB of ram?

I run four BigWUs on those same procs and a GB, no problem.

I get a 45% increase in points per day by running four instead of two.

What mobo did you decide on? I thought you already had some IWTs.

Hi there. I do stop in from time to time, but crunch away 24/7.

I got the NCCH-DL, and I DID buy some IWTs from EBay.

The prob is that the IWTs are for Prestonia Xeon motherboards. The newer, Nocona Xeon motherboards have many tiny little resistors soldered around the HS mounting holes. The mounting feet of the IWTs would sit right on top of them.

Sure, you could Dremel-out "holes" for said resistors, but the amount of resistors means that you'd wind up with mounting brackets with Swiss Cheese for a base. :roll: It's much easier and safer to just buy Nocona heatsinks. Feast your eyes on this bad boy.

Not cheap, but pretty "future proof." It's a true Nocona heatsink and complies w/all of Intel's specs for such. Eventually, I'll either burn or tire of these LV Xeons and get real Noconas. At least I'll be set, heatsink and motherboard wise.



ps
I will have 1GB of PC3200 on the board, and run XP Pro.

 

[GLeeM]

Yup, you'll need the no-nonsense console version. (At least for three of them, you can use one GUI version.) You can run at least one as a service, maybe all four. Anybody out there know for sure?

If you can't run all four as a service and if you want to hide the task bar buttons you can use "Tray It".

You MUST config each with a unique MachineID, and run each in it's own folder. You will have to learn about flags. It's all quite simple. One of the flags is: -local. If you have installed the GUI version on the computer, info is stored in the registry. The -local flag causes the console version to use it's own info from the folder it is running from. I also use the -forceasm flag.

Add flags to the right side of the text in the Target textbox of the Properties of a shortcut you create of the console client executable.

To do that: Right click the downloaded exe and select Create Shortcut. Rename if you want. Now right click that new shortcut and select Properties. The text in the Target textbox should be highlighted. Press the right arrow key, the space bar, the dash key, and the flag. Each flag is separated by a space and preceded by a dash.
Will look something like this:
F:\FaH5Cons8\FAH502-Console.exe -local -verbosity 9 -forceasm

I don't know how to add flags to a service install. There's directions here somewhere. If you have always on net connection I would run as service.

 

[MDE]

He can run more than one as a service (I run two instances as services on my 3.2C). As for adding flags to a service install, I'll just quote GLeeM from the FAQ thread:

Unfortunately, at this time, the only way to add flags to the service is to edit the registry entry for that service.

1/ Shut down that instance through the Services manager snap-in
2/ Run regedit and go to key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service name> and edit the entry ImagePath, adding whatever flags you wish to the end. Exit regedit.
3/ Re-open the Services manager snap-in, and verify that your changes appear there, and then restart the service.

NOTE: Registry editing can be dangerous if you do it wrong, although the above is pretty straight forward. Use this procedure at your own risk!

Some methodology of entering the flags at service install time has been requested for the next maintenance release of the client.

 

[Unforgiven]

wont this service installer work for him as an alternative if he doesnt want to mess around with registry entries?

linky

i was reading over on the 2cpu forums regarding dual xeon processors running 4 instances and that service installation program was suggested by many members using that configuration...

 

[GLeeM]

Those are great Heatpipes. I have the E3W-NPTXC-01's on my PC-DL. I made a bracket to mount a 120mm quiet fan pointing at the VRM, NB, and both heatpipes. Lowered temps from upper 50s C to lower 40s C.

 

[GLeeM]

@MDE
LOL, I quoted that from somewhere else

@MichaelD
lobadobadingdong will have to add more power to pass you after you get this dually going. You will double your ppd if you run and can get BigWUs.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks much, guys. I let you know when the beast is up and running. :beer:

 

[BCinSC]

I've found running one more than number of logical CPUs works well on 4+ CPUs (I have a quad and an 8-way Xeon servers) especially if you take the time to set affinity for for each but the last.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: BCinSC
I've found running one more than number of logical CPUs works well on 4+ CPUs (I have a quad and an 8-way Xeon servers) especially if you take the time to set affinity for for each but the last.

I'm sorry, but would you explain this further. I know what affinity is (you tell each process to run on a particular CPU) but I don't understand the "one more" thing.

 

[BCinSC]

You will have 4 logical processors. Run 5 instances, setting first 4 to a specific CPU respectively and let the 5th pick up the bits. Theoretically, it should lower your output because you're disturbing the flow of data of a process slated to utilize 100% of CPU. However, I theorize that the interruptions of Windows (or Linux) itself are enough to disrupt flow and another process could benefit from otherwise lost cycles, potentially utilizing cached instructions. Maybe I'm talking out my ass, but I am pretty sure I was seeing up to 10% increase in completion rates.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks for the explanation, BCinSC.

So, you're saying that even though I assign 1 instance of F@H per logical CPU, there will be "stray unused CPU cycles" floating around somewhere, and enough of them to run another instance of F@H with no affinity set?

/head explodes

 

[BCinSC]

Well, I ran 10 instances on that Quad once....

 

[kamper]

I think the only improvements you'll see from adding another process is if that process can soke up the bits of time that the others are busy doing i/o. I'd bet that only happens when one result finishes and another is being loaded from disk.

Although it's probably not authoritative here's how I'd go about checking on it: Run 1 process per logical cpu. Open up the windows task manager and observe the value of the "CPU time" for the System Idle Process. Let it run for a few days and come back and check that number again. If there's a significant difference then there probably is time you could soak up with another process. I've been running 2 instances of seti classic on a ht machine for a few weeks straight and there hasn't been enough idle time to really give any benefit.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, Kamper; it's good to get other opinions too.

This box will eventually wind up being my main, everyday rig, so I don't want to completely bog it down.

 

[GLeeM]

@MichaelD
With a GB of ram FaH won't bog it down, even if you do those double bonus point BigWUs.

I have those same Xeons @ 2.5 and don't notice any slowdown or lag in my everyday use. And I am use to a P4 3.0C@3.3. If you find that a program you use is slowed down by four FaH, run one GUI that you can easily pause

Will you have to do any mods to get your Xeon LV 1.6 Ghz CPUs to 2.8 Ghz on your NCCH-DL?

@kamper
I don't know how much I would believe Task Manager. It says 50% processor use when only one task is running.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: GLeeM
@MichaelD
With a GB of ram FaH won't bog it down, even if you do those double bonus point BigWUs.

I have those same Xeons @ 2.5 and don't notice any slowdown or lag in my everyday use. And I am use to a P4 3.0C@3.3. If you find that a program you use is slowed down by four FaH, run one GUI that you can easily pause

Will you have to do any mods to get your Xeon LV 1.6 Ghz CPUs to 2.8 Ghz on your NCCH-DL?

@kamper
I don't know how much I would believe Task Manager. It says 50% processor use when only one task is running.

Same exact mods that you did, probably. U-wire trick for 1.60 volts. The NCCH has a better VRM design than the PC-DL (dual VRMs vs. single VRM) other than that, OC-wise, it's identical.

 

[dawks]

I would definatly recomend running F@H as a service. When your not at your rig, log off, so the only things running are essential services (DHCP, DNS, Firewall). This helps to make sure F@H gets as much CPU time as possible.

Also, for the theory of running a 5th client, why not try using a different DNet program? run an instance of SETI or ORG/RC-5 and see how they perform. You might get a more accurate picture of how much CPU time they get. Just make sure the F@H clients are running at a higher priority.

 

[GLeeM]

"Same exact mods that you did, probably. U-wire trick for 1.60 volts."

I didn't do any mods. Yet. (Well I moved a jumper.)

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: GLeeM
@kamper
I don't know how much I would believe Task Manager. It says 50% processor use when only one task is running.

On a machine with two logical processors and one full on task that would be correct, no? One cpu graph will be on the ceiling and one on the floor, the average being 50. It will still give you a relatively accurate measure of the time that each process has spent executing.

I'm not saying it will give you a perfect answer to the question but I think it would be close enough for his purposes.