Good stuff. The power efficiency of the 750ti is impressive for such an old GPU. rated for 75W, but when I had some of them, they were only really reporting about 30-35W or so.

it's only recently with the Turing cards that they have surpassed it in the (SETI)credit/watt metric

It is still neat to see the 750Ti is in the Top 15 Credit/Watt-Hour chart. I have six of them and run them here and on PrimeGrid. Those were probably the best investments I made in 2015.

Everything seems to be working well. The new 1070 is working fine in the 14 GPU machine, and the Dual fan 1050 it replaced went into the older Core2 Quad machine. I think the old Intel board is around 12 years old now. It's the one with the 3 double spaced x16 slots, two at x8 and the third at x4 when all three slots are used. The double fan GPU was just what it needed to work in between the two single fan 750 Ti. The bottom two cards aren't a problem and run at auto fan settings. The top 750 Ti needs adjustment though, and luckily it is a Zotac whose shroud can be removed without unmounting the fan. Remove the shroud, set the Zotac fan at 95%, and mount a 130mm fan on the side panel centered on the hot card. Success. An old machine running 3 GPUs at around 70-75c and producing results around Three times as fast as the same Hardware in Windows. With the stock settings the CPU use is around 10-15% when running BLC tasks and around 20% when running all non-vlar Arecibo tasks. Considering it's producing around Three times as much work as it would otherwise, I'm not going to worry about that ~10-20% CPU use at all. I suppose I could fool around with the fan settings on the lower cards, maybe later.
Oh, this machine https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/results.php?hostid=6979629&offset=100

Still have to wonder if the performance boost really justifies the hassle of SSDs.

Can't say I have ever had any hassle. These machines I converted are mostly old Windows machines, with existing HHD's which are still in place but disconnected.
I have never has much success with trying to dual boot with Windows, so a new clean SSD is easy and simple and doesn't require a 3.5 inch drive bay as they are so light they can be put anywhere.
If I want to boot to Win (unlikely on these machines) just swap the drive cables.

. . Strange you should say that because all the machines I have installed Linux on are Windows boxes and have their Windows setup still intact. But when making Linux the default boot drive it is Windows aware and offers a start up screen which lets you select to boot into Windows if you want, and it boots FAST once selected. This machine (the Ryzen box) is crunching under Windows but I boot through the Linux drive. No need to muck around changing cables. Linux is a pain in the rear as far as I am concerned, and I wouldn't be running it at all if it were not for Petri and TBar and their wonderful special sauce, but there are things it does really well, and a fast, easy, painless dual boot is one of them.

Stephen

<shrug>

Another nod for Intel boards... it's a shame Intel stopped making them(?) as they were very durable. This computer has 3x970s which would otherwise be dust-collecting spares stuffed into a 12-year-old Intel board (that old and already had 3xPCIe slots... amazing) the first multicore setup I ever bought, and it's been used continuously ever since.

And another vote for me on not overspending on the CPU/board and reusing older ones... a mediocre GPU will outperform a top-of-the-line CPU so I don't overspend on them.

. . First paragraph, absolutely. Second paragraph ... errrr, not quite. My Ryzen 7-1700 has 2 x GTX1060-6GB cards and under Windows/SoG the CPU is outperforming each of the GPUs by about 10 to 20%. Of course, if I can ever whip Linux into line that will change. And 1060s are a tad better than a mediocre unit. But for those running Special Sauce then yes, the GPUs will trounce the CPU output.

Stephen

:)

I added a 1050ti along with the 1070. Both cards are seen as 1050ti. Does this matter?

[2] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4040MB) driver: 418.56

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nope, doesn't matter. BOINC takes what it thinks is the "best" card for display, then just puts the number of cards next to it.

as you can see, BOINC doesn't always correctly select what it actually the "best" card. but it does most of the time.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

A New version of the BOINC-All-In-One has been posted in the usual location, http://www.arkayn.us/lunatics/BOINC.7z
The only change is the addition of a recompiled version of the boinc 7.14.2 App to work in Ubuntu 19.04 and hopefully upcoming versions. The file is in the BOINC/docs folder.
It should work without dependencies, if not, you know the drill. Open a terminal, enter ldd and a space, then drag and drop the boinc App into the terminal window. Install any needed packages using the Synaptic Package Manager.
The new App has the same 'features' as previously, plus the new 'finish file present too long' fix.

but that doesn't take into account the power consumption of the entire system, old inefficient CPUs usually use more power hungry base hardware such as the RAM and MB, it all adds up. hook up a watt-meter and you'll see a more substantial difference being pulled from the wall, which is what really matters at the end of the day.
I've also stopped running CPU WUs altogether for power consumption reasons. just doesn't make sense anymore when the GPUs as a whole are so much more power efficient while doing the job so much faster.

. . My HP Core2Duo (E7600) only has a TDP of 65W and that rig draws about 115W from the wall. But with only 2 cores it is just life support for the GTX1050ti which draws more than half of that power, about 70W at full crunch. (I have power meters on all my rigs). This unit is running SS and does about 12 to 15 WUs per hour.

. . My Ryzen 7-1700 with 2 x GTX1060-6 cards draws 260W to 280W from the wall at full crunch and nearly 200W of that is consumed by the GPUs. So with a TDP of 65W and the drain from mobo (ram etc) while crunching 8 WUs at a time AND supporting the GPUs it is drawing not much more than 80W (probably less). So while doing approx 10 WUs per hour for around 80W it is pretty comparable to the GPUs doing doing about 8 each per hour running SoG for closer to 100W a piece.

Stephen

. .

at this point, i would just stop trying to save it and just re-install the whole thing.
See if you can get things installed to the SSD. or at the very least get yourself a larger USB stick. 64GB models are cheap. but I strongly advise against using a USB stick. running SETI has a lot of random writes back and forth to the storage media as WUs are processed. the Flash memory isn't known for its longevity with a lot of use like this, they aren't nearly as robust as an SSD or HDD.

+ 1

@Keith (or anyone who wants to help)

. . OK, I have Lubuntu 18.04 on the SSD, nvidia-430(open source) installed and a copy of the latest distro from TBar.

. . So if I install and run his latest version of BOINC to set up my account with SETI-Beta to test it out first will that prevent me from successfully migrating my SETI account for this machine from the Flashdrive with Ubuntu 14.04?

. . Whichever way that goes, exactly how do I migrate the account to the new drive? You said before to copy ALL the account related files into the new project directory but is there somewhere I can get a list of exactly which files go where? I am sure some must go in the BOINC directory and some in the SETI project folder, but I have been wrong before.

Stephen

?

You don't need to do anything with the Seti project folder with the AIO. The whole point of the package is it is self-contained. The only files you need to copy are the account files from the 14.04 installation in the BOINC directory. Those are what identifies you and your host ID.

The account files you need to copy from the distro 14.04 installation should be located in /var/lib/boinc-client if your distro follows standard protocol and locations.
The file you need to copy is located at:
/var/lib/boinc-client folder

The file you need to copy is:

account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml

and any other project account file for the other projects you are attached to.

The account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml file contains your account name and identity and hostID. That is the only necessary file you need. If you copy that file to your new AIO BOINC folder, that will automatically have you joined you to your projects. Normally, with a virgin AIO installation you have to join all your projects. With that file, you are already joined.
You could also grab the other statistical files and configuration files like:
cc_config.xml
global_prefs.xml
gui_rpc_auth.cfg
remote_hosts.cfg
statistics_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml
time_stats_log


If you move that file to the new Lubuntu 18.04/AIO installation, nothing will change for your account except the applications in the new app_info file. You should be able to start right off with the new AIO applications right where you left off with the 14.04 installation.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Well, I haven't looked at the Repository version of BOINC in Years, and my understanding is the boinc-client folder basically contains the same files as the Berkeley BOINC version. Hopefully you Zipped a copy of the boinc-client folder while still running the old system? You need to Zip the folder to preserve the Execute bit settings, otherwise, you will have to reset All the Execute bits after moving it to a different drive. Theoretically, it should be as simple as having the All-In-One BOINC folder in your new Downloads folder, then Expanding your old boinc-client folder to your new Home folder and renaming it BOINC. Then copy and paste all the files from the All-In-One folder, Except the Projects folder, into your new Home/BOINC folder overwriting files of the same name. You want to keep your old Projects folder and the different projects it contains. You can always just copy the SETI project files over afterwards. You might have to delete the other folders from the old boinc-client folder first as I think it will balk at replacing folders, maybe not. Anyway, you want to move the New BOINC files from the Downloads/BOINC into the Home/BOINC. Theoretically, that should work, as long as the files that need replacing are named the same in the boinc-client folder as the Berkeley BOINC folder. Again, I haven't used the Repository version in Years....

Can you just start up the new AIO folder, then merge the systems on the seti website? unless you had tasks in progress that you're trying to preserve. I know for merging the system checks the OS, but is ubuntu 14.04 and Lubuntu 18.04 different enough that it would complain?

how did you manage to get it installed to the SSD? did you have to change BIOS settings?

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

Can you just start up the new AIO folder, then merge the systems on the seti website? unless you had tasks in progress that you're trying to preserve. I know for merging the system checks the OS, but is ubuntu 14.04 and Lubuntu 18.04 different enough that it would complain?
how did you manage to get it installed to the SSD? did you have to change BIOS settings?

. . I am working on the i5-6600 with the 970s first and I am trying to preserve the Account and host ID. I don't want to casually just add more and more host IDs to the database when they are the same rigs.

. . And yes, I had to change the BIOS settings to make the Live Disk boot from the legacy loader. Then I installed the Nvidia-430 drivers and put on the AIO which I am going to set up then try to migrate the account details across. One thing that surprises me is that Keith didn't mention the client_state.xml file.

Stephen

? ?

. . And yes, I had to change the BIOS settings to make the Live Disk boot from the legacy loader. Then I installed the Nvidia-430 drivers and put on the AIO which I am going to set up then try to migrate the account details across. One thing that surprises me is that Keith didn't mention the client_state.xml file.

I didn't mention it as I assume you would have run all your tasks out before beginning the move. The client_state file contains the apps that you were using before the move. You don't want any remnant of those older apps around since you are upgrading to the AIO applications. A new client_state will be created the first time you contact the project and ask for work for the new apps.

You could strip out all the science app references in the old client_state but that much surgery on that file normally leads to a typo or syntax error and you dump all your work. You can always recover the old host ID by editing the file after the new host is created. There is a thread detailing how to do that in the forum. It is what I did for each host that I converted from Windows to Linux so I could keep the same host ID, creation date and host credit totals.

Basically, just edit the client state and put the old host ID back in from the original host. Then increment the <rpc_seqno>xxxxxxx</rpc_seqno> value by one that is shown on the website for the hosts number of times it has contacted the project. That prevents the client and schedulers from creating a new host ID. That's all it takes, two edits in client_state to maintain the same host number.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

what I am talking about is creating a new host ID only temporarily.

then you go onto the seti website and merge the systems, which deletes the new one and merges it with the old one. but that only works if the hostname is the same (which can be changed if you didn't initially make then the same during OS install) and the OS has to be the same also. Windows to Linux is a no go, but I'm not sure if Ubuntu 14 to Ubuntu 18 is too different to merge or not.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

Have you done a merge? Have you been able to merge a new host ID into an older one? Every time I attempted in the past, the merge went the other direction. I merged the old host ID into the newer one. I could never find a mechanism that allowed one to be able to choose the direction of the merge.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Have you done a merge? Have you been able to merge a new host ID into an older one? Every time I attempted in the past, the merge went the other direction. I merged the old host ID into the newer one. I could never find a mechanism that allowed one to be able to choose the direction of the merge.

My experience also. The new one always wins ...

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Have you done a merge? Have you been able to merge a new host ID into an older one? Every time I attempted in the past, the merge went the other direction. I merged the old host ID into the newer one. I could never find a mechanism that allowed one to be able to choose the direction of the merge.

i've done it several times, but I never paid much attention to the direction of the merge. I thought it rolled everything into the old one, but if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. *shrug*

the end result is the same. you are left with one system, and not two, which seemed to be the main issue for Stephen. If he has some sentimental attachment to the old "number" of the HostID, then he will have to do the client state edits that you mentioned to preserve that. but if he just doesn't want two entries, and the merge system doesn't throw a fit about Ubuntu 14 vs Ubuntu 18, then that could be an option.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

. . I am working on the i5-6600 with the 970s first and I am trying to preserve the Account and host ID. I don't want to casually just add more and more host IDs to the database when they are the same rigs.
. . And yes, I had to change the BIOS settings to make the Live Disk boot from the legacy loader. Then I installed the Nvidia-430 drivers and put on the AIO which I am going to set up then try to migrate the account details across. One thing that surprises me is that Keith didn't mention the client_state.xml file.
Stephen

Stephen, just in case you don't realize it, You can Disable Ubuntu Networking Very Easily. It's what experienced 'Testers' do when they are Testing things and don't want boinc calling home. Second, with the Berkeley BOINC, ALL the BOINC files are in that One BOINC folder in your Home folder. Just delete that One Folder in your Home Folder and it's ALL gone. So, You can disable Ubuntu Networking, try doing as I suggested earlier, and if it doesn't work as you wish simply Delete the BOINC Folder from Home. Then expand a Fresh copy of your Zipped boinc-client folder back to Home and rinse & repeat until you are Happy. After you have it working as you wish, Turn Ubuntu Networking back on. I do hope you are doing something as all this suspense is getting old ;-)

the end result is the same. you are left with one system, and not two, which seemed to be the main issue for Stephen. If he has some sentimental attachment to the old "number" of the HostID, then he will have to do the client state edits that you mentioned to preserve that. but if he just doesn't want two entries, and the merge system doesn't throw a fit about Ubuntu 14 vs Ubuntu 18, then that could be an option.

That is my wish. I have a sentimental attachment to my original hosts and their creation dates and credit totals. I like having low Host ID numbers which show I have been with the project for a very long time. The only way I know of preserving the original host ID is the client state edit. I lost my original host ID and creation date on my very first host at Einstein. How I learned that merge only goes from old >> new.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)