/wave fellow DCers

[pandemonium]

Hi ladies and gents. ^^

I just recently starting doing some BOINC projects on my personal computer. I'm not planning on setting up 20 dedicated rigs or anything extraordinary like some of you have going on, but thought I'd help out as much as my little machine can while I'm not using it.

So far, I've registered with 4 projects and have been trying to find the best use for my PC to contribute. I've tried Milkyway, Prime, Einstein, and Spinhenge (which doesn't seem to be able to get tasks?).

Here's my PC stats, minus the CPU running at 3.3Ghz. Can anyone recommend where my machine would best serve the community?

Also, with some of the Prime tasks that utilize a GPU to help compute, for whatever reason if the task starts without a GPU, it won't assign it after the GPU is freed up. Is that normal?

Thanks!

 

[somethingsketchy]

Right now, there's a big push for World Community Grid rankings (https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp). When you join, look for "TeAm AnandTech" in the team listing.

Welcome aboard :thumbsup:

 

[Uppsala9496]

Welcome aboard. WCG is nice since there are a lot of subprojects to choose from. GPUGRID is a good use of your gpu.

 

[ZipSpeed]

Welcome to the TeAm pandemonium. We're less than a month away from breaking into the top 100 on WCG. According to Free DC, we will get there in 19.45 days!

 

[theAnimal]

Welcome!

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, welcome

Every cycle counts! (some more than others, of course, but this is the wrong subforum for that )

I second the call to WCG. High quality, well vetted projects there.

 

[GLeeM]

Welcome to the TeAm

Spinhenge has not had work to do in over a month.

Most (all?) projects don't have WUs that can morph from CPU to GPU or vice versa

GPUGRID is a good use of your gpu.

.
I think GPUGRID only runs on nvidia.

Some GPU projects that can be run on either nvidia or AMD will do much better on one or the other.
I'm not sure about other projects (maybe someone else can help?) but Milky Way and Colatz Conjecture do much better on AMD.

Have fun!

 

[zzuupp]

Welcome to the TeAm
...but Milky Way and Colatz Conjecture do much better on AMD.

Have fun!

Welcome pandemonium

For your GPU there's also Moo! Wrapper, Primegrid, and Poem*.

* = Poem requires a specific version of BOINC

 

[brownstone]

Nice to have you on board.

 

[Sunny129]

welcome to the TeAm!

as GLeeM pointed out, AMD GPUs do not currently work for GPUgrid. he is also correct that both Milkyway@Home and Collatz Conjecture run far better on AMD GPUs than they do on nVidia GPUs. unfortunately for you OP, your 68xx series GPU is not capable of double precision floating point (FP64) calculations, so Milkyway@Home is out of the question. Collatz however only requires single precision floating point (FP32) calculations, so that would be an excellent project for your GPU from an efficiency/speed standpoint, since it'll be way faster than any CPU or nVidia GPU.

you could also use your GPU for SETI@Home. while the Multibeam application i believe runs more efficiently on nVidia GPUs, AMD GPUs are somewhat respectable running this app b/c they still far outproduce any CPU. the Astropulse application is a different story, as AMD GPUs run far more efficiently on this app. Astropulse work is intermittent and scarce though, so if you attach to the project, it might be wise to either use it as a back-up project or crunch Multibeam when Astropulse is unavailable.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Howdy!!

 

[petrusbroder]

Welcome! /waves/

 

[pandemonium]

Thanks for all the greetings!

I managed to find out a lot of what you guys said about which projects are AMD GPU capable at the same time you guys were posting it, lol (I usually only check the boards once a day while I'm at work). I started doing Collatz and POEM. I'll have to look into doing some WCG to help that push into the top 100.

This'll be the first night I'll be running 100% CPU time. I know the computer is stable since I've OCCT'd and memtested for 18+ hours on it before, but I never made it work like this before. It's a little disconcerting. >.<

 

[Sunny129]

This'll be the first night I'll be running 100% CPU time. I know the computer is stable since I've OCCT'd and memtested for 18+ hours on it before, but I never made it work like this before. It's a little disconcerting. >.<

to my knowledge, no benchmark, game, or stress test will stress your CPU more than a DC project (assuming you're allowing the DC project(s) to utilize the CPU in full). and some projects stress the CPU more than others, even if they both appear to stress the CPU by the same amount...that is to say, sometimes you'll notice that while 2 different projects might both put your CPU under 100% load, one of those projects will result in higher CPU temps than the other. just monitor your temps to make sure you have sufficient cooling, and everything should be alright.

 

[pandemonium]

That's definitely true. I had to take my side cover off because I was getting beyond 60°C CPU and 85°C GPU. Sadly, it's not warm enough here to start running the A/C yet, and not cold enough outside to have open windows really help. My situation kinda sucks with my computer being in my carpeted bedroom.

I sure did get some crunching done for Collatz yesterday though. These GPUs seem to eat Collatz tasks up faster than anything else so far. ^^

 

[somethingsketchy]

The biggest thing you can do to help (at least your CPU temps) would be to limit how many cores/threads you have running at once. Right now I'm only running three out of eight available threads on my i7-860, and that is mostly to keep the temps and electrical costs down.

This will work to your benefit come summer time and your cooling costs (A/C) are through the roof. As for the GPU, as long as you are within the thermal limits (most are 100°C), you should be fine. You could upgrade the cooler to an aftermarket one, if needed.

 

[pandemonium]

Ya, I'm doing some testing now with it. The first week I was playing around with BOINC I was trying different cores/CPU time out to see what would work best. Right now I'm going for the stress test and reading the logs on temps when I get home.

I have aftermarket HSFs on both CPU and GPUs, as well as aftermarket case fans.

 

[Spacehead]

Welcome to the TeAm pandemonium

 

[pandemonium]

Thanks!

I must say, it's oddly rewarding just seeing some of the numbers you can produce get posted. I know the credits aren't anything but bragging rights, but somehow I feel proud for helping out.

Governments or sponsorships should give us tax incentives/breaks for crunching, lol.

 

[ZipSpeed]

Thanks!

I must say, it's oddly rewarding just seeing some of the numbers you can produce get posted. I know the credits aren't anything but bragging rights, but somehow I feel proud for helping out.

Governments or sponsorships should give us tax incentives/breaks for crunching, lol.

And the addiction begins! :biggrin: As WCG succinctly puts it, "Technology Solving Problems". I haven't done any volunteering in awhile so instead of donating my time, I donate my electricity and computers.