A big good morning from Belgium (and some questions)

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Nangwaya
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Message 1583360 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 8:36:52 UTC

Good morning, I hope you are all well and crunching away :D

I'm very new to Seti@home but I've done my best to optimize my machine for crunching by reading through this forum. I know how frustrating it can be to answer the same questions over and over again So apologies if i have missed something.

I'm currently running my old gaming PC (I don't game anymore) had i known about this project a year and a half ago when i stopped i would have set it up straight away to run BOINC.

I made the mistake of not building it myself when i bought it which was stupid but it is what it is. An upgrade to a gtx 750ti isn't possible due to the motherboard unfortunately and due to limited cash at the minute building a new rig is out of the question for now. Current specs are :-

GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz [Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7]
(8 processors)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 545 (3072MB) driver: 344.11 OpenCL: 1.1
Microsoft Windows 7
Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)

I currently split load between SETI on GPU only and World Community Grid on CPU.

What would be my best option regarding a gpu upgrade in the 150 euro/190 dollar range?. the power source is rated at only 350w the gt545 currently pulls 50w at 90% load. the rest is drawing 110w running cpu at around the 90-95% mark. The motherboard is a Predator g3610. I've looked and i think i'm limited to the gtx 400 series but i'm unsure what is best specifically for SETI.

I've removed all the parts that are no longer necessary to reduce power consumption as much as possible so i'm happy with that side of things.

I'm slightly concerned over temperature on the gpu, I've given it a good clean and have reduced it to 80 running at 94% load. I know the running specs give the 545 a maximum of 100 but I'm wondering what your thoughts are.

I've also set up WCG to use only 99% of processors as I know I need cpu to feed the GPU, it only currently uses 0.0241 CPU + GPU. Is that ok considering the GPU load is mid 90% or do i need to change this further?

I'm also having a hard time convincing my better half to allow me to run 24/7 due to her perceiving a fire risk. Is there anything that I could do to remove said risk or anything I can say to calm her fears?

I also took the time to read the ultimate rig thread you have going on. A lot of you are opting for the GTX 750ti is that due to the low power usage?

My GPU seems to average between 30-45 minutes for a cuda 50, is that normal for a 545 (if you have experience i with them of course) I'm also interested in how many gpu tasks a 750ti can run simultaneously and how quickly.

And my last question, I'm currently running at 1.6 cents per hour while crunching with a high estimate of cost and no night time rate set up (I'm English and Dutch is a second language which makes things hard enough but the energy bills here are incredibly complicated once i have precise numbers I can update this) Is that a reasonable cost for the crunching i am doing or should i be looking to build a new rig asap?

Well many thanks for your time and patience, it is appreciated.

Regards

Nangwaya
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Profile BilBg
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Message 1583378 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 9:21:12 UTC - in response to Message 1583360.  

An upgrade to a gtx 750ti isn't possible due to the motherboard unfortunately
...
The motherboard is a Predator g3610

I don't see why GTX 750 Ti will not be possible

Acer Predator G3610
http://www.pc-specs.com/mobo/Acer/Acer_Predator_G3610/563
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1834214/pci-motherboard.html

GTX 750 Ti (640 CUDA Cores, 60 W)
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-750-ti/specifications
 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
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Nangwaya
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Message 1583401 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 10:35:31 UTC - in response to Message 1583378.  

Hi BilBg and thanks for your reply.

Mmmm that is interesting, my concern was that the g3610 is only PCI Express 2.0 and the 750ti requires PCI Express 3.0. I did check pc-specs but it only listed up to 600 series as compatible.

Is it still do-able considering the PCIe difference or will the loss of performance be too much?

I did check the tomshardware link you gave however there are conflicting answers with no resolution on this issue. I'll have a look around and see what i can come up with

Regards

Nangwaya
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Richard Haselgrove Project Donor
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Message 1583405 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 10:54:26 UTC - in response to Message 1583401.  

GTX 750 Ti don't "require" PCIe 3.0, they can simply use it if available. They are fully backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0 - I'm running three of them in 7 year old Windows XP motherboards.

I also ran one for a while in a newer host with a 300 watt PSU (actually, the spec plate says 'total power 290W max'). Again, no problem - unless the machine is loaded with other power-hungry peripherals.
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Message 1583410 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 11:06:55 UTC - in response to Message 1583401.  

my concern was that the g3610 is only PCI Express 2.0 and the 750ti requires PCI Express 3.0

Not 'requires' but 'compatible with' PCI Express 3.0
PCI Express 3.0 cards have to work even on PCI Express 1.x

"PCI Express 3.0 Base specification revision 3.0 was made available in November 2010, after multiple delays. In August 2007, PCI-SIG announced that PCI Express 3.0 would carry a bit rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), and that it would be backward compatible with existing PCI Express implementations"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_3.x


I did check pc-specs but it only listed up to 600 series as compatible.

Because the docs are old


Is it still do-able considering the PCIe difference or will the loss of performance be too much?

For SETI@home some people use GPUs even on PCIe 1x slots with no difference in performance (or maybe 1-2%)
For most games using PCIe 2.0 16x probably will also not make much difference (compared to PCIe 3.0).


What do you see as "conflicting answers"? (Copy/Paste)
 


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Nangwaya
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Message 1583481 - Posted: 8 Oct 2014, 15:11:38 UTC - in response to Message 1583410.  

Hi there,

Thanks for the answers I'm going to hopefully pick up a 750ti this week or weekend if the Mrs gives the OK :D

What do you see as "conflicting answers"? (Copy/Paste)


That was my mistake i must have miss-read the first time so my apologies.

Thank you again

Regards

Nangwaya
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Message boards : Number crunching : A big good morning from Belgium (and some questions)


 
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