All, in all, MMCiastro's setup is a decent rule-of-thumb set-up.

Well, I have 900MB free on a 6.68GB primary partition (Sun OEM Fujitsu MAG3182).

SO I've allocated for BOINC 0.1953GB max (BOINC & applications total: 61.6MB), leave at least 0.05GB free, no more than 11.6953% of total, and 80% virutal memory.

I leave applications in memory while preempted. I have 768MB RAM, 384MB is max disk cache defined by Cacheman [ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1], and a dynamic swap file size min=0, max=everything.

I switch applications every 198 minutes, which allows 5 projects one time slice per 0.69% of each day that BOINC seems to be running. Due to my SCSI HDD's, I allow disk writes no more than once per minute. SCSI is good with interactive processing so I don't notice any disc activity (not serial oriented like IDE).

Connect every 2 days.

I concurrently process United Devices Rosetta (and Ligandfit when available) simultaneosly with whatever BOINC science application is executing. I suspend both whenever I climb into my F-16, F12002, Unreal, or Decent3.

What's the worst that can happen with this setup? I would certainly hope that SETI, Einstein, Rosetta and Predictor would checkpoint at least once in their 3.3 hours. I had to detach from WCG when I realized its Rosetta processing was akin to UD Agent processing of Rosetta (checkpoints frequently in the 400 minute range on my PIII1000 @ 112FSB asynch SDRAM @ 4:3 mem/clock ratio). However, for UD Agent, I have UD Monitor that allows me to objectively discern the time since last checkpoint. As such, any decision when to shut my machine down will be objective: do I want to sacrifice 10 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour?

The problems I've seen over the years is when people get stingy. I haven't had any memory or hard drive, or virtual memory issues yet. It will only use what it needs, when it doesn't get it, problems occur. I even have these setting on my celeron 500 with 128M ram win98se(of course It just sits quietly in the corner, and is not used except for boinc projects)

I think the 400GB is far too generous, and .25 GB free too little.

Also, I wouldn't set 100% virtual memory (I use 50%), a rougue application could bring windows to its knees.

Glad to see you use 4 days cache, and I also use 180 minute switch between applications - mignt not save much overhead, but it all helps.

I run Civ3, while boinc is running no problems. I have multiple display windows, play streaming audio, and type on the computer with no issues and that's on a P4 1.8 with 512 M ram

Damn Tony 400gb, that's a Little big no......

all that means is it can use as much as it wants, I've never had a disc space problem even on my old 20G drive. These setting were put in place back when people had 4 gig drives and such. they're almost meaningless now as far as I can tell

Whoa! Do work while running on batteries? If Boinc is the only thing you do with your notebook, fine - for me this proved disasterous - battery life drops like a stone with this set to yes.

Do work while computer is in use - unfortunately this doesn't work for me either - Boinc just doesn't seem to share very well and performance drops - Boinc's important to me, but so's my framerate in Quake4! Sometimes I have work to do as well...

I haven't had any issues allowing Boinc to use mutiple CPU's though ;)

Other than those I'd say good call. Not everyone seems to agree on setting the cache larger but if Berkelely didn't want us to do it the option wouldn't be there now would it?

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Tomcat's Taekwondo Pages

I think the 400GB is far too generous, and .25 GB free too little.

Also, I wouldn't set 100% virtual memory (I use 50%), a rougue application could bring windows to its knees.

Glad to see you use 4 days cache, and I also use 180 minute switch between applications - mignt not save much overhead, but it all helps.

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Damn Tony 400gb, that's a Little big no......

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And the beat goes on
Sonny and Cher

BOINC Wiki

HI, I just thought of this. Having manned the help desk with many other fine folk, I think that comparison with others might help them set up boinc faster. General preference setting are global. I had these same setting when I was dial up as well. I have win98se, winxpsp1 and winxpsp2 machines. I have from 40GB to 250GB drives. In that light, here are my General Preference setting:

Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) yes
Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while preempted?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') yes
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 180 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 1 processors
Disk and memory usage
Use no more than 400 GB disk space
Leave at least .25 GB disk space free
Use no more than 85% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 600 seconds
Use no more than 100% of total virtual memory
Network usage
Connect to network about every
(determines size of work cache; maximum 10 days) 4 days
Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Maximum download rate: 200 KB/s
Maximum upload rate: 200 KB/s
Use network only between the hours of
Enforced by versions 4.46 and greater (no restriction)
Skip image file verification?
Check this ONLY if your Internet provider modifies image files (UMTS does this, for example).
Skipping verification reduces the security of BOINC. no


Hope this helps someone

tony

PS those with HT or duals and such should set the processor setting to the desired level, and everyone should pick a "connect to" setting appropriate for their needs.

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