So the obvious question is : is the difference in computing power attributed to system hardware or for example better cooling. I find this interesting because I recently bought a nvidia 295 card (built by asus) and my credits went from about 2000 to about 10,000. My motherboard is an asus P5Q-E and the CPU is intel Q9300. I was getting very low scores but lately I've been using A/C (compressor cooled) air to the system and with that I'm at about 10,000 credits per day. The obvious problem with this is that running an A/C unit 24/7 is quite expensive. 1kW unit costs me about 2,25euros/day or $3,24(at present exchange rates).

Also, I have to switch boinc to snooze while watching blu-ray movies because otherwise the picture will freeze often. Even wathing hulu I have to go to snooze or the picture will lag the sound +jerkyness.

If I open the case, the card is still very hot (asus sofware indicates about 50-65 degrees even if I set the cooler on the card to 99%.) to touch. So I'm wondering how some guys are getting over double my scores? You live in the poles, perhapes?

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So the obvious question is : is the difference in computing power attributed to system hardware or for example better cooling. I find this interesting because I recently bought a nvidia 295 card (built by asus) and my credits went from about 2000 to about 10,000. My motherboard is an asus P5Q-E and the CPU is intel Q9300. I was getting very low scores but lately I've been using A/C (compressor cooled) air to the system and with that I'm at about 10,000 credits per day. The obvious problem with this is that running an A/C unit 24/7 is quite expensive. 1kW unit costs me about 2,25euros/day or $3,24(at present exchange rates).

Also, I have to switch boinc to snooze while watching blu-ray movies because otherwise the picture will freeze often. Even wathing hulu I have to go to snooze or the picture will lag the sound +jerkyness.

If I open the case, the card is still very hot (asus sofware indicates about 50-65 degrees even if I set the cooler on the card to 99%.) to touch. So I'm wondering how some guys are getting over double my scores? You live in the poles, perhapes?

Without AC your room could be 10C hotter....then your GPU will also run 10C hotter...70C for GPU is not that hot, I have mine runing at 75-80C when ambient reachs 30C...(I think that a GPU could run up to 100C without giving any errors)
Im absolutly sure than a GPU speed doesn't varies with the temperature...at least when the temperature is less than 100C

And for the main thread. I think that a GT295 could be in the 14k range or even more.

I'm not a 24/7 cruncher but from my calculates my 9800GT is about 6k.
GT295 is a double card faster than a double 9800GT, so will be more than 12k for sure

I have read that you have to disable SLI function of your GT295.
To get the best results, you have to
-run the lastest nvidia driver
-download V12 cuda optimized application
-download Cuda 2.3 DLLs
( 0.2 version of the optimiced aplication package includes cuda 2.2 dlls....remplace them with the 2.3 dlls...you can download from here

http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?module=Downloads;sa=dlview;id=208[/url]

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Without AC your room could be 10C hotter....then your GPU will also run 10C hotter...70C for GPU is not that hot, I have mine runing at 75-80C when ambient reachs 30C...(I think that a GPU could run up to 100C without giving any errors)
Im absolutly sure than a GPU speed doesn't varies with the temperature...at least when the temperature is less than 100C

I would beg to differ.

My room tmp is about 25-30C. My actual results were that if I turn the A/C off I get maybe half the credits. I'm pumping the cool air directly to the PC (pipes connected in front of the fans), so the air going in the PC is about 17C (A/C gives about 10-11C but it warms a bit in the long pipes).

If I don't cool the chassis, my hard drive gives 55C(critical tmp) on hdtune.
(Chassis is NZXT Apollo : side fan 12cm & fan in the back + a few added fans after I got the nvidia295).

The 295 card dumps a lot of heat inside the chassis and even though the air coming out the cards own vents is hot, a lot of it still stays inside. Maybe a waterblock is the only answer, but I'd hate to dismantle the card and void the 3yr warranty - since it is rather expensive hardware.

I'm guessing there might be "pockets" of heat due to airflow restrictions like cabling etc. and the board itself is a big obstacle. I did even notice this by touching the side of PC - some parts were cool while some were much waremer. I tried to add fans but it still didn't completely remove the problem.

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Without AC your room could be 10C hotter....then your GPU will also run 10C hotter...70C for GPU is not that hot, I have mine runing at 75-80C when ambient reachs 30C...(I think that a GPU could run up to 100C without giving any errors)
Im absolutly sure than a GPU speed doesn't varies with the temperature...at least when the temperature is less than 100C

I would beg to differ.

My room tmp is about 25-30C. My actual results were that if I turn the A/C off I get maybe half the credits. I'm pumping the cool air directly to the PC (pipes connected in front of the fans), so the air going in the PC is about 17C (A/C gives about 10-11C but it warms a bit in the long pipes).

If I don't cool the chassis, my hard drive gives 55C(critical tmp) on hdtune.
(Chassis is NZXT Apollo : side fan 12cm & fan in the back + a few added fans after I got the nvidia295).

The 295 card dumps a lot of heat inside the chassis and even though the air coming out the cards own vents is hot, a lot of it still stays inside. Maybe a waterblock is the only answer, but I'd hate to dismantle the card and void the 3yr warranty - since it is rather expensive hardware.

I'm guessing there might be "pockets" of heat due to airflow restrictions like cabling etc. and the board itself is a big obstacle. I did even notice this by touching the side of PC - some parts were cool while some were much waremer. I tried to add fans but it still didn't completely remove the problem.

you are right on the money about trapped heat etc. i have a thermaltake armor case with fans everywhere you can think of. most of them have been replaced with high cfm counterparts with speed adjustments which helped by fine tuning each fan. amazing what changing one fan that is out of the way and seems not to be 'the one' to do good can do :)

i also added 2 of the highest cfm rate pci slot cooling fans i could find (only about 32cfm each). placed one above the first card with intake aiming at the card and the other at the bottom of the case intake aiming at the 2nd card. those 2 little fans did more to help keep the 2 cards cool than anything else i tried. the final thing that helped a lot since my side fan is positioned more over the center of the mobo rather than the gpus, was to add a 3rd intake high cfm fan aiming right between the cards. this combination gets rid of most of the heat buildup in the lower quarter of the case nicely. with this entire combination i find i can run the 110cfm fans (which all but 2 are now. total of 9 fans not including cpu/gpu coolers) at approx 60% speed since there is a point where too fast an air flow through the case will not cool components properly. yes there is a bit of fan noise. anyone who wants to build a supercomputer and expects a properly cooled case not to sound like a mini jet engine is fooling themselves unless they move on to other methods of cooling which raise expense expotentially.

i live in florida so ambient temp is always a fight. there is something to be said for living in the freezing colder northern environments.. far easier to control thermal probs (just aim intake piping outside) :)

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