Welcome to the Distributed Computing Forum ... say Hello

[Smoke]

Welcome to the Team Anandtech Distributed Computing Forum!

Here you will find plenty of great folks who would be glad to help you with the technical side of setting up and running distributed computing applications. You will find a great community who are more passionate about numbers than some mathematicians, people who enjoy having [slightly] off topic discussions and helping each other immensely in real life.


Posted by TeAm member Hurricane Andrew
The amazing thing about this forum over the years has been the camaraderie. I've never witnessed such civil discourse on an internet forum, even ones where everyone claims to be there for the same purpose. Everyone here respects each other, and the vast majority truly care about each other, and what happens in the "real world". I'm constantly amazed at the diversity represented on this board. Folks of all ages, from around the world, with vastly different personal views, faiths, interests, etc. come together to pursue different goals. Some are here for the science, some simply enjoy the thrill of the race, and some crunch just to be a part of this wonderful community.


So what is this "distributed computing" thing anyway? Distributed computing describes a system in which client systems receive work involving calculation of some sort from a server, perform the computation, and then send the results back to the server. Thus, it is possible to employ thousands or millions of personal computers, surpassing the power of many supercomputers.


You might ask, why would I want to donate my spare CPU time and electricity to something like this? A quick review of the variety of projects in which we participate may well convince you that the very small cost of electricity required to run a computer 24/7 (hint: turn off the monitor to save power) is well worth the difference you can make in your project's area of scientific research.


Some projects look outward into space, to look for extraterrestrial life, pulsars, and other things. Others look around, to chart the development of life on the planet, or predict future weather patterns. Yet others look inward, to analyze the structure of atoms, molecules, or proteins. Each project can have a great impact on the development of science in its area, and you can help!


General DC Notes


Some projects, BOINC & non-BOINC, are down for extended periods due to re-coding their clients, re-aiming their scientific search, dealing with a lack of funds or many other reasons, not knowing when they will be open again. For a complete list of Team Anandtech (TeAm) run projects, please check out the adjoining thread titled, “Distributed Computing Project List”.



Look over the various projects. Most are very easy to set up and run, don't require 24 hour/day operation (but once addicted, you may just do that), and have almost no effect on the operation of your everyday PC(s). Many of the projects have daily stats threads posted by members here on the forums. If you have any questions about a certain project please post in the stats thread. If no thread is available, feel free to start your own thread.


If you have a question please jump right in and ask ... and if you would like to join the TeAm, just post here and say hello! You'll be glad you did, and we will, too!

 

[Smoke]

The thread is open. Don't be shy ... say Hello!

 

[Spacehead]

Hiya Smoke!!! Great to see you posting here again

 

[iwajabitw]

Hey everyone. Long time Seti cruncher. March will be 17 years, but do to the new credit system there, I will be focusing more on Milkyway in the upcoming year. Crunch On....

 

[Smoke]

Spacehead, sorry I've been so out of touch. Sort of have the DC bug again.


iwajabitw, 17 years! Wow! Can you remember what you did in those early days of DC?

Thank you for all your contributions to the TeAm.

 

[iwajabitw]

It was slow Smoke. AMD K6-2, gosh it was slow.

 

[Kiska]

Hi
*Pokes Smoke*
*RUNS away and hides from Mod*


Too late, you've been spotted.
Watch it!
AnandTech Mean Moderator

 

[petrusbroder]

Been with Distributed Computing since December 2, 2001, 15 years.
Started with seti@home classic: 15,529 classic workunits, CPU time classic WUs: 76 594 hours
Yes, it was slow. I remember seti-queue ...

 

[Wiz]

Hey!
Hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year!
Seti since early pre - beta days.
Still crunching after all these years and I do some Rosetta.

 

[Smoke]

Wiz, I've been trying to reach you. The old PMs are now Conversations. Check out just to the right of your icon at the very top right of this page.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Howdy Wiz!

I suppose I can chime in here as well. As best I can remember, I've done DC off and on since at least 2000, possibly before. SETI had a SCREEN SAVER so I just had to run that cool screen saver, right?

SETI moved to something called BOINC, which I found confusing, and then along came United Devices so I switched to cancer research. I was quite heavy into UD until they just up and quit. Never solved the cancer problem or anything. Just poof-gone. After that, I ran BOINC only after a new system was built as a stability test of sorts, and new system builds got further and further away from each other in time as the computing power increased to the point I was actually still sorta running modern hardware years after it being built.

Then, lo, one day I was chilly at my desk, and didn't want to warm up the whole house so I fired up BOINC and whoa! my GPU was being used! (Radeon HD4850, already 5-6 years old then) and it was crunching in a few minutes what it took the CPU hours to do!

But Spring came, and I moved, and many moons passed. Winter came along, the central heat died, Milkyway began to get crunched, and more HD4850s got ordered for about $30 each. Then I bought a 280X off ebay, and it did Milkyway tasks in 1/4th of the time the 4850's did, then another 280X, because I was tired of paying for repairs to the heat....had nothing to due with a points addiction, right?

Eventually I lost my mind and am where I am today: Still single, more broke, and always smiling because I have no idea what's going on.

The 280X Fleet hit 9 cards. I've tried downsizing, and now have one dead, and 5 functional (but not all installed).

Then the Folding at Home annual race hit last year and the 980Ti became my new friend, and some 980s, then finally some 1070's. Whew. The 1070's are staying, but the 980s are now gone, some Ti's are gone, and the other 980Ti's will soon be for sale.

That will leave me with only 5 R9-280X's, and three GTX1070's, and 4 dedicated Xeon e5-2683-v3 (28 thread) machines on the CPU side.

 

[Smoke]

I think Tony has hit on something here. This thread might be also good for our current members to do a little profile of themselves. It will give newcomers an idea of just what kind of folks they would be associating if they joined this fine TeAm.

New member, don't be shy. Say hello and introduce yourself.

 

[Markfw]

OK, so I started seti back in the command line days, did it for a few months and that was it. Then decided to come back, but in something close to home that mean something. Cancer research. So I looked at all the projects, circa 2000 I think, and decided on F@H. So fast forward 16 years and almost 2 BILLION points later (I will hit that in like 10 days or so), and I am now 48th in the world for F@H (see link below), so if you have F@H questions, I am probably the best expert.

http://fah-web2.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&username=Mark_F_Williams

BTW, in 2010 I lost my dad to cancer, so it means more than ever to me.

 

[bds71]

2010......wow, rough year for me too. my son (13) and stepsister (57) got cancer, and my dad's heart failed. both my son and stepsister are fine, and my dad was able to be resuscitated. but, my dad suffered some brain damage due to lack of oxygen to the brain for close to 20 minutes (minus whatever compressions my stepmom was able to administer before EMS arrived on scene). because of this, my dad is on Alzheimer's medication (patches). it mostly works - he can operate (mostly) normally but can never live alone. the research that F@H does for both cancer and Alzheimer's is why I fold.

I actually discovered distributed computing (DC) when a roommate showed me SETI around 2002. at the time I thought it was a cool idea, but I never got into it though until 2006 when I found that my ps3 had F@H preinstalled. from that point on, I folded off and on with both PC and ps3 until 2010. then everything changed, and my world was flipped upside down.

it's all good now though. they are all fine. and, though their lives will never be the same, they all live happy, productive lives. well, except dad - he retired and pretty much lazes about for most of the day, but he's earned it

 

[IJump]

I think I've been doing this stuff since way back in 2001. I joined Anandtech to buy and sell some hardware, then found this group and have been around off and on ever since. I used to have a fairly formidable fleet of crunchers, mainly working on Seventeen or Bust. We were the #1 team in the world in that project at one time.

Now, I'm just a guy with a couple of computers that helps out when I can.

On the personal side of things, I've been in IT in one way or another for 25 years, doing a little bit of everything (PC repair, help desk, networking, programming).

 

[crashtech]

I wanted to thank everyone who has made me feel welcome here in the Distributed Computing forums. The sense of camaraderie that I get here is a breath of fresh air in an online world that seeks to make hostility its favorite pastime. Thanks for allowing me to check my quirks and politics at the door and just be "one of the guys." I need that more now than ever, hope you all feel the same. Cheers!

 

[indydude345]

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new here. I joined the forums around the end of last year but haven't really been participating in anything. However, my dad (crashtech) is a very avid member here, so I'm sure I will feel just about as home as he does on the forums. I'm looking to get into DC soon, and I so far have 2 machines up and running, minus the DC apps of course. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the company I bring, and I'll try to be more active on the forums. Indy out.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hey, cool to have you here, IndyDude. Your dad's cool, too.

I've recently just spun up a third Ryzen rig, doing CPU crunching, and GPU crunching on an RX 460. Temps are begging for water cooling. I've got it shoved into a tiny mATX case.

 

[iwajabitw]

Good to have you Indy, jump right in! @crashtech. Wish my kids were interested in this. Just Xbox.

 

[crashtech]

indydude is a new member of the "PC Master Race." While gaming was his primary motivation, he's really taken to PC building and is far more meticulous than me at cable management, etc. I'm lucky because he can help me with front panel connectors and such now, since my eyesight is starting to go.

 

[Ken g6]

Good to have you Indy, jump right in! @crashtech. Wish my kids were interested in this. Just Xbox.

Wish Xbox could do DC, like PS2 used to be able to do Folding@Home.

 

[Thebobo]

Howdy, decided to put my game PC to use when I'm not playing on it. I'll be running bionic for Seti. I use to do seti @ home while back with DSL. I've joined up to the Anandtech team. Hope to learn some more here.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Welcome to the TeAm, Thebobo. I don't participate in that particular project, but I'm sure that some of us do, and someone might be able to give you some pointers at getting the most out of your "fleet".

I think SETI can use GPUs. Also, I've heard of "optimized" SETI apps that you can download. Not sure if those are still a thing.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Hello, everyone. Recently, I've got pretty cheap and decent second hand parts mainly for studying. It runs on 860k w/ R7 360 and crunch SETI@home pretty well when it's not used. I can also confirm SETI push my GPU to its limit, so I won't leave it working without my watch because I live with around 30 C ambient temp all-year-long.
I'm really exited to join TeAm and contribute my effort in community.
Cheers.

 

[Kiska]

Hello, everyone. Recently, I've got pretty cheap and decent second hand parts mainly for studying. It runs on 860k w/ R7 360 and crunch SETI@home pretty well when it's not used. I can also confirm SETI push my GPU to its limit, so I won't leave it working without my watch because I live with around 30 C ambient temp all-year-long.
I'm really exited to join TeAm and contribute my effort in community.
Cheers.

Welcome to the team.
Is this location that is constantly around 30C Australia?