Hi folks, I'm John from Ireland, some of you will know me already by now.

Look I have been reading some of the threads in here and the language just goes over my head. In one way i am good with computers, I have been using them for 15 years now. But in another way I just dont understand the terminology and the names you might put on things.

I want to compile a list of simple to medium tasks that an average Idiot can do with his computer to make it crunch more seti@home work units and faster.

Once your average Idiot (ME) connects to seti@home for the first time, what simple tricks should I be doing assuming that i want to compleetly donate the majority of my computer to seti ?

Also, once I have been running seti@home for a few weeks, and now I am a little more fimilar what what it is doing, what other tricks can I do to make the thing crunch faster ?

If you reply to this thread, try to explain the tricks like you are talking to your mother, who could'nt use a computer to save her life !

Trick 1;
Leave your computer switched on and running seti@home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week !

Trick 2;
If you have a broadband connection or "always on" internet, leave the phone line plugged into your computer all the time !

Trick 3;
If you dont have "always on" internet, try to connect to the Internet as often as possible !

Folks, I believe this thread may be of value to a lot of people just like me. Some of you are good with computers so try to keep it simple and to the point !

Thank you in advance for your time,
John in Ireland.

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Use an Optimized Version of the Boinc Client. It will help you finish units about 20% faster.
Chicken's can be gotten here, they are free and allowed by Berkeley.
http://lunatics.at/ then click on Downloads
There are other Optimized Versions available but I do not have a link to them.

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Use an Optimized Version of the Boinc Client. It will help you finish units about 20% faster.
Chicken's can be gotten here, they are free and allowed by Berkeley.
http://lunatics.at/ then click on Downloads
There are other Optimized Versions available but I do not have a link to them.

Sorry but you messed it up ;)

an optimized boinc client won't help you at all...

What U need is an optimized seti@home APPLICATION to do work faster ;)

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Join BOINC United now!

Use an Optimized Version of the Boinc Client. It will help you finish units about 20% faster.
Chicken's can be gotten here, they are free and allowed by Berkeley.
http://lunatics.at/ then click on Downloads
There are other Optimized Versions available but I do not have a link to them.

Mikey, what is Linux ?. I dont know whitch one to download ?

This needs to be simple.

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Is there a new version of the Crunch3r opmized app ? :)

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Dell XPS L702x
smokin' weed and searching for aliens .... ;]
TRUSTNO1

Use an Optimized Version of the Boinc Client. It will help you finish units about 20% faster.
Chicken's can be gotten here, they are free and allowed by Berkeley.
http://lunatics.at/ then click on Downloads
There are other Optimized Versions available but I do not have a link to them.

Mikey, what is Linux ?. I dont know whitch one to download ?

This needs to be simple.

Linux is another operating system. If you don't know what it is you don't have it. ;-)

If you have a Windows operating system go here: http://lunatics.at/index.php?module=Downloads;catd=9

Download the revision 2.0 with or without graphics (screen saver) automatic installer as it will install the correct application for your CPU.

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Is there a new version of the Crunch3r opmized app ? :)

Yes there is but you know, you have to stick to the chicken app, as i'm doing only
64 bit boinc clients and some itanum2 stuff atm.


If you got some of the old "5.12" releases an your using only intel cpu's then the old 5.12 is the way to go... If you're computers mostly got AMD cpus ( AMD64 ) use the latest Chicken release... that will improve performance...

Bend Herndon an Joe Segure did a great job on that one !

P.S.

Still alex kan's apps are way faster though ... sorry could not resitst ;)
(even faster than on os X, if ported to windows)

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Join BOINC United now!

Trick 2;
If you have a broadband connection or "always on" internet, leave the phone line plugged into your computer all the time !

Doh.........that was the problem

Trick 2;
If you have a broadband connection or "always on" internet, leave the phone line plugged into your computer all the time !

Doh.........that was the problem

Might need to revise it to "leave the network cable plugged in to your PC and have the network card enabled at all times." Or if you have a wireless connection "leave your wireless card connected and enabled at all times". I don't even want to touch firewall settings. I dunno.. to many variables.

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Still alex kan's apps are way faster though ... sorry could not resitst ;)
(even faster than on os X, if ported to windows)

Hi Crunch3r,

How would we port this to Windows? I thought Alex's apps were all Mac specific. Not having a Mac, I've no idea, but I've got MS Visual Studio and am willing to have a crack if you reckon it'd be quicker.

Cheers,

Steve.

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Still alex kan's apps are way faster though ... sorry could not resitst ;)
(even faster than on os X, if ported to windows)

Hi Crunch3r,

How would we port this to Windows? I thought Alex's apps were all Mac specific. Not having a Mac, I've no idea, but I've got MS Visual Studio and am willing to have a crack if you reckon it'd be quicker.

Cheers,

Steve.

Well that's not an easy thing to do , though i did it with his V6.1 app. and it was fast!

The only thing was that it missed some signals in some cases that would lead to so called "week similarity" ( sometimes invalid results ... round about 30% of it) that's why i stoped playing around with it any further ( and of course that my main computer crashed twice and lost all data... the second time last week due to an power outage).

A good start would be to ask alex if he would drop the use of apples accelerate framework and use intels mkl or ipp (depending on the functions used like matrix transposition etc...) which of coures would spped things up and would make it more portable to linux and windows ... Though i'm not sure what he did in his latest app. (V7.2 ???) because the source is not available... at least not at the time i checked.

EDIT

Forgotten go mention ... the good thing about alex kan's source code is that he uses intrinsic instead of those crapy inline asembler stuff... that's the right way to go both in case of cross os and 32/64 bit development, anything else is worthless IMHO.

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Join BOINC United now!

This thread is not going the way I had hoped.

I was just looking for some simple tips !

Simple and Idiot proof !

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Simple tips for SETI@Home for windows:
a) hard drive always on
b) system always on
d) disable screen saver
e) run optimized application (I got Chicken's version 2)

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As far as leaving things hooked up... you can set the number of days of contact in your account properties higher which will d/l more work for you to do.
Then when you have time (during that time period) you can get on line and read this forum and let it upload. :) It is not really necessary to upload the moment they get "ready to report". Although, sometimes I can not help myself!! LOL

Ahh, this is one that no one has mentioned but it might help... during the install it asks how to be installed... install as a service.
now this is getting into the more not mom friendly end so you may have to go over to her metaphorical house. ;)
The reason to install as a service is that it will crunch even if your not logged in. To run as a service I do recommend creating a user account (very little permissions) just for the service to run as. (not hard but again not mom friendly).

Also check and see what files your anti-virus is checking. If it checking EVERY file then that can cause slower processing.


If you have some one that uses the pc and does not like the slight lag that seti can cause some pc's (think my wife here on her new laptop) then you can set seti up to suspend during use. Think of it like a pause. ** and yes I know, but it is running at a low priority honey but... but ... but... ** never can win those arguments. ahh that does not make it faster but does keep it running on a pc that might not other wise be used.
:)

well, time for bed... zeesh 2am again. :(

-searcher

ps... dang it i keep thinking of things... if your pc has multiple processors seti can make use of all. Something you also set in your account and sometimes need to enable in your/her bios (for your mom). :D

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Use an Optimized Version of the Boinc Client. It will help you finish units about 20% faster.
Chicken's can be gotten here, they are free and allowed by Berkeley.
http://lunatics.at/ then click on Downloads
There are other Optimized Versions available but I do not have a link to them.

Sorry but you messed it up ;)
an optimized boinc client won't help you at all...
What U need is an optimized seti@home APPLICATION to do work faster ;)

Sorry wrong word!

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Here's a guide to the majority of performance robbing "Services" running under Windoze XP. It explains what they do and which ones can be disabled.

Windoze XP Services Guide

Remember.......Backup !!!.

OK folks, these tip and tricks are getting good, keep adding them if you think of one.

Remember as "Searcher" said, they need to be "MOM FRIENDLY".

I know it is dificult to put yourself into the shoes of a compleet amiture but that is what i am looking for.

There are thousands of very very powerful computers that are running seti@home and the owner has'nt a clue just how powerful there machine realy is. I am talking about all the computers that have very small RAC (maybe less than 20) but when you view that persons profile and computers, you discover that they have a monster computer that is only switched on for 1 hour a day. What a waste of a super crunching machine !

Folks, keep them simple tips coming in.

Thank you,
John in Ireland.

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Make sure that when MUM wants new computer YOU get what she really needs and not that pretty little red one with gold highlights. (insert MUM's favourite fashion colour this season, as required)

One small tip: if leaving BOINC Manager open, switch it to the Statistics or Disk pane when you’re not actually looking at it. Most of the others (Tasks especially) use some processing power in continually updating the running times, percentages, deferral countdowns, and so on. This only saves a couple percent of a CPU … but every little bit helps.

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Keep them tip's coming, no matter how insignificent you think they are. Or how basic you think the tip is, these are for Idiots like me!. You would be surprised how many seti users are not making the most out of their computer !

Well done everybody. The tips are great so far !

Tell me what ever tips and tricks you can think of to crunch more work units.

Especally changes you can make to your personal settings for how BOINC uses your computer !

My personal RAC is starting to climb up from the changes.

Thank You From,
John in Ireland.

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