Newbie Help - Want Max Utilization

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Profile ErichVonDäniken

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Message 135675 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 20:20:11 UTC

Ok so I just Downloaded BOINC last nigght, and am somewhat lazy, not wanting to read thru all the posts to get an "Optimal" Solution, if somebody's already achieved it.

My problem : BOINC is SLOW, and Confusing !! iT'S been processing one WU for over 7 hrs, yet the BOINC manager says "CPU Time" is 4 hrs !!!???

I installed the 4.45 version client as a "Run for this User" option, and then Set "Run Always" once I got it started ... should I have installed it as a "Service" ? Would that make it process any faster ? Like the old Cmd Line Interface with SETI classic ....
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Message 135679 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 20:25:32 UTC

If you hate reading through post after post so much, what are you doing on a forum then? But okay. Read through this thread at minimum.

Btw, Boinc isn't slow. Boinc isn't doing any crunching. The science applications that connect through Boinc can be slow. If you don't like slow, do not connect to Climate Prediction, please. It can take up quite a while (3 to 9 months).
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Message 135682 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 20:33:14 UTC - in response to Message 135679.  

Ok, that wasn't as bad a flame as I expected =) The only reason I dont like this forum, is a lack of Searching capabilities ... =|

But now I have hunkered down to do some reading ... and this is a fairly good thread too :

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=16839

I still dont understand why the BOINC manager reflects a disparity in the amount of time spent on the WU. (i.e it's been processing the WU for more than 7 hrs, but shows 4 hrs of "CPU time").

Should we be getting comparable times to SETI Classic on the WU's ? The Cmd Line Client (3.18 I think...) used to take 3 hours per WU on this self-same computer before ...
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Profile Jord
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Message 135693 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 20:51:18 UTC

You should do better than Classic on your Pentium M. :)

Anyway, if you have the time, read throught the Boinc Wiki. It has many an answer to unknown questions. It's still a work in progress, but the link's in my signature.

Sorry to bite to your flamebait. It was too easy. ;)
And welcome around here. Hope your next book is better. ;)
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Message 135698 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 21:04:00 UTC - in response to Message 135693.  

Heh Heh ... Yea my books are classic Aren't they ? ;D

Gawd, talk about scary, U can view just about everything there is to know 'bout my 'puters through the profile ! Durn, guess I gotta figure out how to make that a little less transparent ...

K, Happy Crunchin Y'all ....
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Message 135707 - Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 21:12:24 UTC
Last modified: 11 Jul 2005, 21:13:04 UTC

Well no, we can't.

All I can see is this. For the Pentium-M 2GHz:

Computer information
Owner ErichVonDäniken
Created 11 Jul 2005 3:57:50 UTC
Total Credit 33.15
Recent average credit 77.51
CPU type GenuineIntel
Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.00GHz
Number of CPUs 1
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Edition, Service Pack 1, (05.01.2600.00)
Memory 255.43 MB
Cache 976.56 KB
Measured floating point speed 1004.3 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 2051.92 million ops/sec
Average upload rate 8.73 KB/sec
Average download rate 34.9 KB/sec
Average turnaround time 0.19 days
Maximum daily WU quota per CPU 99/day
Results 4


And for the Pentium 4 1.8GHz:

Owner ErichVonDäniken
Created 11 Jul 2005 3:40:57 UTC
Total Credit 19.37
Recent average credit 44.12
CPU type GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz
Number of CPUs 1
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)
Memory 254.73 MB
Cache 976.56 KB
Measured floating point speed 783.96 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 1559.73 million ops/sec
Average upload rate 6.69 KB/sec
Average download rate 45.82 KB/sec
Average turnaround time 0.31 days
Maximum daily WU quota per CPU 100/day
Results 5


As Fuzzy said in the other thread, we can't see much more. You take a look at my computers. We don't see IP addresses, we don't see anything. Just what you run. And which work units you run. So we can compare, etc.

Leaving computer visible for now helps if you run into trouble. Some of us can see in the error message of work units what's wrong with your computer, so for now, if you don't mind showing off what you have running, leave the showing on.
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Profile Paul D. Buck
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Message 135789 - Posted: 12 Jul 2005, 21:09:41 UTC - in response to Message 135675.  
Last modified: 12 Jul 2005, 21:11:31 UTC

I installed the 4.45 version client as a "Run for this User" option, and then Set "Run Always" once I got it started ... should I have installed it as a "Service" ? Would that make it process any faster ? Like the old Cmd Line Interface with SETI classic ....


The big overhead of the old screen saver vs. the command line client is not really present in the BOINC universe. Installing as a service vs. the other installations , to *MY* knowledge has not been shown to make a difference.

There are some who have reported times of up to 3% of the CPU for BOINC which will be running no matter how you install. There has been discussion in the developers list about changing the frequency of some calls to reduce that overhead. So, because BOINC is a work in progress (very much in progress ... others disagree and say we are in big trouble ... but I think BOINC is stable and operational ... but what do I know ) we are still seeing changes that make it better ...

Now, if they can just get the next version frozen and out the door ...

{edit}
Oh, and don't be lazy, mouse around the Wiki, save us ALL some time ... most questions are already answered and in far more detail than we can give here ... usually we give a simple answer and point you there anyway ...
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Message 135896 - Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 3:15:34 UTC - in response to Message 135682.  

Ok, that wasn't as bad a flame as I expected =) The only reason I dont like this forum, is a lack of Searching capabilities ... =|


If you click on the "Message boards" at the top of the page, the page it takes you to has a link to the "keyword search".
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Message 136038 - Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 13:45:35 UTC - in response to Message 135789.  

I installed the 4.45 version client as a "Run for this User" option, and then Set "Run Always" once I got it started ... should I have installed it as a "Service" ? Would that make it process any faster ? Like the old Cmd Line Interface with SETI classic ....


The big overhead of the old screen saver vs. the command line client is not really present in the BOINC universe. Installing as a service vs. the other installations , to *MY* knowledge has not been shown to make a difference.

There are some who have reported times of up to 3% of the CPU for BOINC which will be running no matter how you install. There has been discussion in the developers list about changing the frequency of some calls to reduce that overhead. So, because BOINC is a work in progress (very much in progress ... others disagree and say we are in big trouble ... but I think BOINC is stable and operational ... but what do I know ) we are still seeing changes that make it better ...



Another user convinced me to run boinc.exe first, then you can open boincmgr.exe to see what you want to see. When you close boincmgr, boinc is still running and you aren't wasting 3% of CPU. I have not "orphaned" any WUs using this strategy yet.

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Profile Paul D. Buck
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Message 136039 - Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 13:46:13 UTC

Oh, and the Wiki has search also ... more importantly, Paul is very anal about using linking of each and every word or phrase that is defined. Maybe it is distracting, but it means that I never "assume" that you know everything ...

Two of the other nice things is that you can have it give you random pages so you can just jump around ... in the old site I had 700 pages of material. We have already exceeded that in the Wiki as we have ALL of the old definitions and a whole bunch of new ones, almost all of the old Owner's Manual (I am still migrating/updating the install guide) and now even some pages from the Web Site Owner's Manual, a much more comprehensive list of error messages (all of the ones documented in the old FAQ are over and almost all of those have examples ...

The second feature is you can look at the new pages as they are being constructed and see what we have recently added ...

Two ways you can learn about the "leading edge" of what is going on in the world of BOINC.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Newbie Help - Want Max Utilization


 
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