So here I am again, I say this because back in 2005 I tried to use Seti but I did not understand a thing and it slowed my Pc down. Now I want back, but I have a few questions.

Last night I downloaded and installed S@H on a dual core laptop, I set everything up, made the CPU 50% available (fear of overheating) did not understand why the CPU usage is up 100% when my girlfriend played facebook games.

So I noticed some things in Boinc advanced view.

She has a fast internet at home yet Seti's download rate was abysmall, is it normal? does it processes the data while downloading?

Why are the packages say 70MB and yet it can use all 100 % CPU power and the clock is at 20 hours to download finishes(?) ?

Back home I have an Amd x3 720 proccesor and a 1Gb HD 4870 GPU but relatively slow internet, will it go better?

Sorry for the amateur questions, probably I will have more but for now please someone can explain all these? (Excuse my bad English it's not my natural language)

How can you have any observations of how the program runs if you have NO computer attached to SETI?!

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

I had last night, but my girlfriend would not understand why is his notebook working at 100% so I had to uninstall, that was the session when I saw these things and questions needed to be answered.

Mind you I made a Seti account in her name, so this account won't be working on Seti task until I get home 6-7 more hours.

Can you answer some of my questions or should I get home start up Seti and ask from there?

You may give link to her account or (if you know the password) Log-out from "Snapi" and Log-in her account and post from it.
But no need for this if you do not intent to use her account anymore.

You can click on my "name" BilBg to "View" my Computers (the info is from last contact with server - no need for the Computer to be online to see this info)

made the CPU 50% available

Which setting do you mean:
On multiprocessors, use at most 50% of the processors
Use at most 50% of CPU time

The first setting will make use of the 1/2 of the number of CPUs (for dual core - one core will work at 100% load and the other core will be idle)

The "Use at most 50% of CPU time" means:
use all cores at 100% for 1 second, pause for 1 second, .....

download rate was abysmall

Usually it is 5-50 KB/s if the servers are not overloaded.

does it processes the data while downloading?

Not the data (tasks, WUs) which are in process off downloading
but of course it processes the tasks which are on board (already finished downloading)

Why are the packages say 70MB .....

There are no such big "packages" at SETI (we call them Tasks or WorkUnits).

There are 2 types of tasks:
~360 KB (SETI@home Enhanced = Multibeam) (compute on CPU in a few hours)
~8 MB (Astropulse) (compute on CPU in a few days)

Back home I have an AMD x3 720 processor and a 1 GB HD4870 GPU but relatively slow Internet, will it go better?

Try it.
Desktop is better cooled than laptop - you can use it at 100% CPU load (No slowdown for me even on 500 MHz CPU)
Speed of Internet have no importance - it is used a few minutes per day with speed <100 KB/s

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

On multiprocessors, use at most 50% of the processors
Use at most 50% of CPU time

The first setting will make use of the 1/2 of the number of CPUs (for dual core - one core will work at 100% load and the other core will be idle)

The "Use at most 50% of CPU time" means:
use all cores at 100% for 1 second, pause for 1 second, .....

OK so for a 3 core Pc I want to dedicate 1 core to Seti I set CPU available 33% and 100% CPU for time. This way 1 core will be fully dedicated to processing Seti tasks.

If I set all cores to be used all the time will Seti use up my CPU 100% all the time? I'm asking this because I would love to do this, but I usually run so many side programs and usually 1 game that my normal day to day usage is around 60-70% CPU and around half of the 4gb ram that I have.

Can I have multiple tasks running at the same time say with 1 core usage? or this is limited to the server bandwith?

Also thank you, for you other explanations now I understand that it's lots of time to process these tasks.

OK so for a 3 core Pc I want to dedicate 1 core to Seti I set CPU available 33% and 100% CPU for time. This way 1 core will be fully dedicated to processing Seti tasks.

Yes - this will use 1 core at 100% all the time.

If I set all cores to be used all the time will Seti use up my CPU 100% all the time?

Yes, most of us let the SETI use 100% CPU all the time.

I'm asking this because I would love to do this, but I usually run so many side programs and usually 1 game that my normal day to day usage is around 60-70% CPU and around half of the 4gb ram that I have.

The SETI tasks run at the lowest possible priority - all other programs will use the CPU as they need (and the SETI will use just what % of CPU remains)
The RAM usage is about 20-30 MB per task so for 3 tasks running you need ~100 MB RAM

Try it and you will find that even if this very low priority process is using the CPU at 100%
you will not see any slowdown in other programs (games).

Can I have multiple tasks running at the same time say with 1 core usage?
or this is limited to the server bandwidth?

What "server bandwidth"?? I don't understand what you mean - there is no relevance.
At SETI (and most other projects) the programs are single-threaded so you will see 1 task per core running (= 3 tasks running if you enable 3 cores).

Better run the program for a while, experiment a few days and see what happens.

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

What "server bandwidth"?? I don't understand what you mean - there is no relevance.
At SETI (and most other projects) the programs are single-threaded so you will see 1 task per core running (= 3 tasks running if you enable 3 cores).

Better run the program for a while, experiment a few days and see what happens.

Ok, I do understand it, Initially I thought that the amount of tasks your Pc can work on is limited to how many can you download, but I see now it's core bound.

Now one last question will the constant 100% usage of the CPU damage my processors on the long run? I have to watch my CPU how can it handle overheating. What is your experience?

*Thank you very much for your kind reply's, I will test it at home, you helped me clear up things.*

Ok, I do understand it, Initially I thought that the amount of tasks your Pc can work on is limited to how many can you download, but I see now it's core bound.

"how many can you download" depends (mainly) on
1) how fast your computer processes the tasks
2) how many days of work you set in the two "Network usage" preferences:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/prefs.php?subset=global

"how many can you run simultaneously" depends on how many CPU cores you have/allow to be used.

Now one last question will the constant 100% usage of the CPU damage my processors on the long run? I have to watch my CPU how can it handle overheating. What is your experience?

45-50 C are mine CPUs at 100% constant load for years. My 3 CPUs have Max allowed temp of 70, 75, 90 C
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=59292
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=62044

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

Absolutely first class help. :)

Thank you very much.

* Preemptive question answer for when he comes back...

To get credit you and your wingman need to finish and report the same work unit. Two copies of each work unit is sent out at a time. Your work marked pending is waiting for the other person to complete the work and have it match at the SETI end. As soon as the two are verified you will be issued credit.

Credit has no value, it is just to give you an idea how well you are doing and for bragging rights.

Welcome to SETI!!

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

* Preemptive question answer for when he comes back...

To get credit you and your wingman need to finish and report the same work unit. Two copies of each work unit is sent out at a time. Your work marked pending is waiting for the other person to complete the work and have it match at the SETI end. As soon as the two are verified you will be issued credit.

Credit has no value, it is just to give you an idea how well you are doing and for bragging rights.

Welcome to SETI!!

Thank you very much. I had an idea about credit and made a little research, but thank you.

A little technical question if you don't mind. When I started Seti, I launched other programs as well to see the temperature of my processor under heavy load. I got a maximum of 52 C . Now I couldn't dig up a better description then at Cpu world.

Where it says maximum operating between 55- 73 C How can I know which is my processors limit?

According to AMD, your Phenom II X3 720 has a max temp of about 73 degrees celcius. Anything under 60C is very cool for that CPU.

In earlier post I gave you this link:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=59292

In the second post "Know your CPU" there is this link:
http://mysite.verizon.net/pchardwarelinks/elec.htm


If you search/find in page for the string "Phenom II X3 720" you will find:

Phenom II X3 720 (tri 2.8GHz - 3x 512KB - 6MB L3)
Core Voltage (0.85V~1.425V)
TDP 95W
Max. Case Temp. 73°C


[AMD defines max "CPU case" temperature (measured at the centre-top of the CPU package)]

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)