Slow SETI

Gazoooo

Member
Feb 21, 2001
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I have 4 486's I just pulled out of boxes in my basement ( along with a 386dx25 MB ).
As you can tell we've been house cleaning, well, spring is just around the corner.....

Is anyone running or aware of some one running 3.03 on a 486 in the say 80-120 MHz range.
If so how many days........and I even have enough memory kicking around to get 2 or 3 of them going.........although one will be configured something like this....1x16Mb and 4x4Mb.

Let me know........
 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I'm not positive on times with a 486 but you may be looking in the neighborhood of several days to complete a single WU. I've got a handful of P2-300's that take 36+ hours on a real tough WU so imagine if one of your 486 boxes get ahold of one of them. Honestly, because the new SETI client is so harsh on CPU power I think you'd be better off devoting those boxes to the RC5 effort.

Rob
 

Fardringle

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
9,200
765
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I let a 486 DX-4 133Mhz system finish three WU's on the 3.03 client (averaging 237 hours for each Work Unit) before I killed the client on it and decided it just wasn't worth the electricty bill.. :p
 

Sukhoi

Elite Member
Dec 5, 1999
15,346
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I'd put RC5 on anything slower than a Pentium...it's far more efficient since SETI depends on RAM so much and old machines have such slow RAM. :)
 

MaxSiren

Senior member
Feb 19, 2001
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Robor, I'm surprised at the 36+ hours you report for your P2-300's. I guess it's all about RAM speed. I figured out a trick on my P2-300, where since it's unlocked, I run it at 2.5 x 133 = 333Mhz. Of course you need the right RAM and board, but man is it worth it! At stock 4.5 x 66, I'd get times around 24 hours, but with a 133 FSB, it's down to 12-15 hours. Not a bad improvement using the same chip!! :)

By the way, you guys really are the best! The advice here has been invaluable. I finally figured out how to register on the forum, so hopefully I'll be able to give something back!