Perhaps somebody could help me, after all....you are all SETI Boinc users!

My current system is a Intel P4 3,0 Prescott with WinXP SP2 and I'm looking for a way to change the process priority of "setihome 4.18 windows_intelx86" permanently from "low" to "normal".

If I change the priority manually in "task manager" from "low" to "normal", the process will automatically change back to "low" if my PC processes a new WU.

During a little test I noticed that if I changed the proces to normal, the procestime of a WU is shorter [unfortunatly not significant]

Is there a simple solution for this problem? TIA

yes.

don't change the priority.

There is little point to it. The point of BOINC is to use idle time. Having the priority raised will garner slightly more processing time at the expense of other processes runing at normal.

But this is not the intended operational mode of BOINC.

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yes.

don't change the priority.

There is little point to it. The point of BOINC is to use idle time. Having the priority raised will garner slightly more processing time at the expense of other processes runing at normal.

But this is not the intended operational mode of BOINC.

Thanks for your fast reply. Although my cpu is fast enough, I'll leave the priority as it is.

...don't change the priority.

There is little point to it. The point of BOINC is to use idle time...

...I'll leave the priority as it is.

I agree.

Boinc will get just as much CPU time at the low priority as it would at a higher priority if the computer is not doing anything else. However, at the high priority, you would have your computer appear to be 'less responsive'.


I have Boinc competing with another background task and so I have a timed job run (cron, this is on Linux) to keep Boinc at a slightly higher priority to balance the CPU share to my liking. It all works well.


Aside: Anyone know how to have Boinc itself set a specified project process priority?

Happy crunchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Aside: Anyone know how to have Boinc itself set a specified project process priority?

This is not available. It has been pondered as a feature, but it has not come up for development (yet).

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BOINC WIKI

In reply to black piet:

If you are changing the priority in order to crunch faster, a better solution is to evaluate wich programs and processes need to be running at all times. When you close some of them, the crunching will improve slightly.

An example: When i shutdown msn, on average my cunchtime shortens with 60 seconds.

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My personal opinion, if this is to be offered as a feature, it may be best if it is hidden. It is too easy to "think" you know how you want your computer priority set up, it is another thing to do it and then see how easily it is to lock things up.

I did a lot of experimenting in the old days with classic seti, and on one machine, I could set it to the highest priority, and everything ran fine, On another machine, of a faster speed CPU, I couldn't move it to normal without the computer almost locking up.

It all depends upon many factors on ones own computer, and sometimes it will lock so bad that even the good old three finger salute will take a minute or more to start up, and most people won't wait that long, so they will pull the plug, and then sometimes crash the wu they are working on so that it is invalid when uploaded.

I've been through all of the above.

So I would suggest it to have a default setting still of low, and the only way to change it would be to change a setting manually in the xml file. I know people will cry and complain that they don't know how to do that, but if they don't know how to do that type of thing, then maybe they shouldn't be changing priority anyway.

Just my 1.5c

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Thanks, and Keep on crunchin'
John Henry KI4JPL
Sevierville TN

I started with nothing,
and I still have some of it left.
<img src="http://www.boincstats.com/stats/banner.php?cpid=989478996ebd8eadba8f0809051cdde2">

Perhaps somebody could help me, after all....you are all SETI Boinc users!

My current system is a Intel P4 3,0 Prescott with WinXP SP2 and I'm looking for a way to change the process priority of "setihome 4.18 windows_intelx86" permanently from "low" to "normal".

If I change the priority manually in "task manager" from "low" to "normal", the process will automatically change back to "low" if my PC processes a new WU.

Is there a simple solution for this problem? TIA

Does your system have HyperThreading? I have a P4 with Northwood core and I found that if I set the processor affinity for SETI (either 0 or 1) my performance is increased (system idle time is reduced). If you also make this change in Task Manager to Boinc and Boincmgr (set to same value as SETI), the change stays in effect until the next reboot.

I am also processing another compute-intensive application (Prime95), and I set it to the opposite value that I used for SETI/Boinc/Boincmgr -- it may be that fact that makes the difference for me.

Chuck

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First of all....thanks you your replies! I was suprised to see all of them

@harry.nl
In Nederlands: Op mijn P4 Prescott draaien juist geen zware programma's, zelfs niet in de achtergrond, daarom wil ik de prioriteit wijzigen....lol :)
In English: My computer isn't running any heavy programs, even in the background [Photoshop is the only heavy program and is rarely used], That's why I wanted to change my priority settings from low to normal!!!

@John McLeod VII
If this feature is implemented in future versions, I will update my client!! :)

@jshenry1963
I'm not a nOOb in computers, and I my computer is quite stabile [prime95, superpi, etc]......and I'm not a person to jank the electricity cabel out of my computer....haha.
But your right on one thing....if such a feature is implemented in feature versions, it should be hidden. Otherwise the risk of corrupting a Wu is much higher. And after all....that is the reason why we do it [Besides looking for ET]... This tweaker is constantly looking how to increase its CPU speed!

@chuckEdmondson
hmmmm....nice suggestion..didn't think of that..... And I will have a look in the xml file....perhaps some changes are possible over there....

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Proud member of the Dutch Power Cows

Black Piet,
I'm sorry if my tone offended you, I was not referring to you as a nOOb as you thought, just stating that if you make a feature like this easy to use, then many will use it, lock up their computers, and then bitch about it on here. No where did I infer that you were unkowingst of computers, I'm sorry you took it that way. Good Day to you too.

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Thanks, and Keep on crunchin'
John Henry KI4JPL
Sevierville TN

I started with nothing,
and I still have some of it left.
<img src="http://www.boincstats.com/stats/banner.php?cpid=989478996ebd8eadba8f0809051cdde2">