Seti@Home question.

[cornbread]

Hi, I'm new here...I've been reading the forums lately and I've got a question about Seti...
Right now, i'm on one machine:
AMDk6-2/450Mhz (not overclocked), a Biostar M5SAA motherboard with the SiS530/5595 Chipset
160Megs/PC133 SDRAM...
The problem is, my seti client runs SLOOOOOWWWW... Right now on the chunk I'm working, I've got 30hr 11 min, and its only 69.975% done.
Half the time, I'm not even at the computer, I have the screen kept blank, I'm running Win98SE, all updates are current. The only programs I keep running are ZoneAlarm and InnoculateIT (running in real-time protection)... I'm at 80% free system resources.. Everything else runs fine... My monitor goes blank after 10 min, I don't use the seti screensaver (don't use any screensavers), but I still have slow timing with seti.

Any suggestions for improving the speed of these chunks? I'm on a tight budget right now, so a new Motherboard is out of the question for the moment.

Thank you!!!

 

[JWMiddleton]

Hi cornbread! Welcome to the TeAm!

I would bet that you are running the newer 3.03 version of S@H. It is slower than version 3.0, by a considerable amount! But, it is supposed to check a lot more stuff; thus, better science. Also, the program runs better on the newer, faster PIII's, T-birds, and Durons. So, give it a few more Work Units to see how your times run. Then post the results back here. Someone with the same CPU can tell you if the times are similar to what they get.

Again welcome!

 

[Assimilator1]

As JWM said ,it's probably because you are running v3.03 ,are you?

Also ,other points ,are you(able?) running your RAM at CAS2?
Do you leave the SETI window minimised?

BTW are you in our team ,Team Anandtech?

 

[cornbread]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I guess I should have mentioned a few more things:
I'm running 3.03 now.. I was on 3.0. I've done 105 WU's overall, with 3.0, I was averaging about 25-27hrs/WU.. I'd like to overclock my machine, I'm just paranoid about frying my chip (I've never done much OC'ing)...

I feel really stupid about this too...I'm a PC Tech/Network Tech and I'm totally in the dark as to why my client is running so slow.

 

[cornbread]

Can't run it at CAS2... I keep the window minimized, yes. I'm about to join...
Any more suggestions?

 

[Assimilator1]

I'm afraid v3.03 is about twice as slow as v3.0 ,I suppose you could temporarily go back to v3.0!.
Pitty you can't select CAS2 ,your PC133 RAM should easily handle it.
How about selecting a lower multiplier with a high bus speed to boost your RAM & L2 cache performance?(beware going to high! ,eg PCI bus speeds)
Ref overclocking ,unless you significantly increase the cpu voltage AND clock speed you are VERY unlikely to kill that cpu in the near future ,besides I doubt a K6-2 450 will go much above 500 MHz anyway.

BTW my little bro runs SETI CLiv3.0 on his K6-2 @ 375 (75MHz bus,CAS2) on an Asus Intel TX board ,he gets average WU times of around 19-20 hrs ,I think possibly that the SiS chipset has higher latencies than some others thus adding to the times a little?

If you check the cpu utilisation with a task manager ,does SETI get around 98% cpu time when doing little else?

BTW2 ,no need to feel stupid about asking SETI questions ,it's hardly an IT necasasary qualification (unfortunaley)!

 

[lane42]

Hi Cornbread, I get some wu,s from time to time on a k6-2 400, 128megs pc100 with times of 16 or 17 hrs. give or take, on 3.0 so yours could easly handle these times. So start tweeking baby

 

[Orange Kid]

hey cornbread,
you might want to switch to the CLI version.
i am running a k6-2-350 96megs/ram and win2k and get times in the 17~18 hr range.
this box is my server/router at home for web and UT, dont know if that has any effect on the WU,s though.