Posts by Bob Mahoney Design
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21)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
BOINC v6.6.31 available
(Message 903584)
Posted 4 Jun 2009 by  Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Wow, two crashed and trashed computers for me this morning. Unfortunately, that's my whole SETI Farm! (Currently at 75,000 RAC.) Recently switched to BOINC 6.6.31. This morning my QX9770 has 36 CUDA tasks designated "Waiting to run", since they have been preempted by tasks with later deadlines. Huh? What about my new dual XEON W5580 box? This is the second time this week the hard drive has been wiped out since the BOINC upgrades. This problem also appears to be related to the task pre-empting situation. I can't give any helpful post mortem info. Sigh. Both systems have: Win XP64 BOINC 6.6.31 V11 noperflog Do NOT keep suspended tasks in memory Both systems were running AP on the CPU and MB on CUDA. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
To IE8 or not to IE8?
(Message 902576)
Posted 1 Jun 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Earlier, I complained about the sluggish behvior of IE8 on my system. I suspected it was a compatibility issue with my hardware. I was wrong. The extreme slowness came from a list of 10,000 entries in my restricted sites list. Such a list is deposited on your computer by some protection software, such as Spyware Blaster or Spybot S&D. I had used Spybot in the past, and after using the immunization feature, it places approximately 10,000 entries in the restricted sites list. IE8 falters on this long list, making initial load or tab loads very slow. MS might fix this in the future. Until then, download the following small program, place it in a folder on your computer, right click on it, and select the "install" option. Nothing will show on your screen. The program runs and deletes the list of restricted sites. Here is the program: deldomains.inf Bob |
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Message boards :
Technical News :
Upwards and Onwards (May 28 2009)
(Message 900973)
Posted 29 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: As in the few AP tasks I have there are several _6's, I do think, even though I agree we should be doing both applications, that the time has come for AP to be user selected only. I second that also. I just completed a _8 AP task. It was rattling around the world since February. Perhaps we do not need to go as strict as 'user-selected only', but some form of 'go/no-go for AP' based on host system power would be helpful. This would be SETI server based, not BOINC based. If that is not possible, 'user-selected only' makes sense. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
your opinion-best spyware & antivirus.
(Message 899405)
Posted 25 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: A heads up on ZoneAlarm. I used it exclusively for a few years, on many computers. After experiencing multiple, strange problems with hard drives, system stability, disk corruption, etc., I tried removing ZoneAlarm. The problems went away. SATA hard drives that failed in the past suddenly worked correctly. ZoneAlarm seems to be fine for very standard PC installations, such as a non-modified laptop. In more advanced installations, I suffered with numerous compatibility issues. This might just be an isolated experience, but it cost me countless hours of troubleshooting. I like middle of the road stuff, stable and having a large installed base. So I switched to Norton 360. All the hardware issues went away, plus Norton has a 64-bit version. It has worked well so far. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
50,000 Credit Question
(Message 897423)
Posted 20 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: OK, I finally hit the 50k mark. Phew. Does that mean I am the second winner or the first loser? I have a theory - the computer made by Vyper (the one that beat me) is an abomination. Why? Because if God intended for a computer to have 4xPCIe slots, my computer would have four PCIe slots, not three. Just kidding. Bob |
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26)
Questions and Answers :
GPU applications :
Cuda Making video cards over heat!
(Message 897234)
Posted 20 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Before anyone decides their CUDA card lacks auto fan control, you need to let it get over 74C or more. My GTX295 and GTX285 cards sit at 40% fan until the temp gets up towards 80C, then the fans slowly increase in speed. For example, the two GTX285 sweltering in my new build are running at 82C and 79C, respective fan speeds (on auto, exactly as new out of box) are at 58% and 47%. My priority is noise abatement before equipment longevity, and the auto fan setting has kept noise very low. Disclaimer: I can't guarantee how long they will live at those temperatures. I have had a few GTX295 running in the low 80's for 4 months now. These temps are what I see in Rivatuner, EVGA Precision, and Realtemp, which all agree with eachother, a nice surprise. Bob |
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27)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
Hyperthreading effect on AP v5 on the Frozen Nehi
(Message 897003)
Posted 19 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: ... That certainly makes sense. I'm running cheap memory at stock speeds. On the Frozen Penny and now the Frozen Nehi the time it takes to process a WU is faster than can be explained by just the MHz of the processor. That extra improvement (about 5% extra speed, from what I've seen?) must be coming from the additional tuning you've done on the memory speeds and data transfer speeds via the Northbridge or IOH. It seems to give a nice multiplier to your entire overclock. I guess this means there is extra total speed with Hyperthreading on, but my memory is getting saturated, so I cannot utilize the extra horsepower that would otherwise be available. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
50,000 Credit Question
(Message 896972)
Posted 19 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Vyper - congratulations - that is a blazing fast computer you designed and constructed. This is a fitting tribute to the diversity and inventiveness of SETI participants and the SETI@home project over the past 10 years. This project does not fear new technology, does it? Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
50,000 Credit Question
(Message 896790)
Posted 19 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post:
Curses! Bob |
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30)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
Hyperthreading effect on AP v5 on the Frozen Nehi
(Message 896484)
Posted 18 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: ... with HT on, my processor will lost 5% speed (down to 3800 mhz from 4000mhz with HT off), and will run 10°C hotter. Yes, 10°C hotter at 3.8ghz than it runs at 4.0ghz, using the same voltage (1.3v) and other settings. I've experienced something similar. (My system is running only AP on the CPU.) I'm running my 'HT-capable' system with HT off at this time. With HT on an AP workunit (no blanking) took 64,000 seconds at 3,333MHz processor speed. With HT off it takes 31,000 seconds at 3,333MHz processor speed. HT off gives me a speed improvement of 3.1%, the power draw went from 720 watts down to 670 watts, plus the CPU temps went down by 5°C. We need more input of this type, since there is not a consistent answer yet. MSattler does some crazy tuning on his rigs, so his mileage certainly may vary. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
50,000 Credit Question
(Message 896445)
Posted 18 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Vyper and I have been in a friendly competition for a few months now. We both want to be the first to hit 50,000 Recent Average Credit (RAC) with a single computer host. To do so near the 10th anniversary of SETI@home would be an extra sweet victory. We both should hit the 50,000 RAC target today. The unofficial rules of this competition are as follows: The score that counts is the one shown in the Top Computers screen on the SETI@home website. Click here: Top Computers Who will win? Betting is not allowed on these premises! :) (Yes, humankind will make anything into a competition. It makes life more interesting, and sometimes it does advance science a little faster.) Bob |
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32)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
Panic Mode On (15) Server problems
(Message 896430)
Posted 18 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: After a few months of pondering, I recently built a cruncher that will primarily run AP work, instead of my usual heavy emphasis on CUDA MB tasks. The new machine went online at the start of the weekend, 3 days ago. It ran out of work last night. The best laid plans . . . Waaahh! I wanna play with my new toy! :( Bob |
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Questions and Answers :
GPU applications :
Anyone know the requirements of Tesla C1060
(Message 896173)
Posted 17 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: I forgot about resale value - you could eventually sell that computer on eBay. A business or consultant would probably buy it. My GTX2xx stuff would only be of interest to gamers. That is a big difference. It sounds like the fan and heatsink are doing a better job in the C1060. It seemed quite daring of NVIDIA to invite people to install 3 or 4 of the C1060 next to eachother in a computer case. At first impression, this seemed dangerous for heat management. It sounds like heat management is not a problem after all. That's a nice desk-side supercomputer you put together there - and I am jealous of those professional quality crunching cards! Most of the new animated movies, and CG in regular movies, is done with cards exactly like yours. Another good example is the complex motion graphics on TV - such as on cable channel Palladia - they have this intense animation of black crows growing in numbers and sprouting into tree branches (hard to explain). They are using cards like yours to put that new-age stuff together without the use of rooms full of networked computers. And they do need the extra memory in the card to crunch those special effects. Cool stuff, eh? Pyxey is your wife? Cute name. Please say hi for me. Yes, I did think Pyxey was the cat. :) Bob |
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Questions and Answers :
GPU applications :
Anyone know the requirements of Tesla C1060
(Message 896126)
Posted 17 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Ignoring the 'bang for buck' issue with the C1060, there are some other advantages... It is a product designed for mission critical applications in a business or governmental environment. The C1060 would certainly be built to a higher standard, using the best components and assembly care. Product support may also be better. Let's just say I'm building a new Army-style tank, and it needs enormous processing power to resolve ballistics equations on-the-fly. I would trust my life to the C1060 rather than a GTX285, making the extra money of no consequence. This may also indicate that your C1060 cards will survive longer than a GTX285 when jammed next to eachother in a hot computer box. Finally, Westsail my friend (and Pyxey too!), there is a chance that future project applications, for SETI or other BOINC programs, will take advantage of all that extra memory in your GPU cards. Then the C1060 would be a nice advantage. Bob |
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35)
Questions and Answers :
GPU applications :
Anyone know the requirements of Tesla C1060
(Message 896099)
Posted 17 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: From checking out the specs, it looks like a C1060 is a GTX285 with 3GB extra memory, and a mediocre shader speed. Example: BFG GTX285 OC+ 1GB memory, shader speed 1548MHz. $370 at CompUSA today. NVIDIA C1060 4GB memory, shader speed 1300MHz. $1,800 on Amazon today. On SETI calculations, the GTX285 is measurably faster than the C1060. If you do not need the extra memory on the GPU for other science projects, the GTX285 is a better deal. We should be happy, since NVIDIA is digging deeeep into the pockets of corporate customers to pay for the heavy development costs of this technology. Then NVIDA gives us consumers the same (or better) performance at a whopping 80% discount! (Calculation based on $1800-$370 / 1800) (Note - NVIDIA C1060 product specifications state "Processor core clock: 1.296 GHz". Beware - they are calling the shaders the "Processor core clock". The shaders do the heavy math.) Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
CLOSED** SETI/BOINC Milestones (tm) XVII **CLOSED
(Message 893049)
Posted 9 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: 10th year...80,703 classic WU's...649,624 hours...50,000,000 points...RAC of 355,000...#1 spot...#4 position with 28,300 RAC...2 machines in top 20...12 more in top 100...team #10 and climbing...$12,000...$100...awesome run. Leading edge. Very cool! 355,000? 355,000? Wow. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
To IE8 or not to IE8?
(Message 892630)
Posted 8 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: OK OzzFan and Grant, I guess it is time for me to admit that a 3 year old dual-AMD Opteron system on a server board in a tower case with an obsolete 3ware RAID card might not be the exact centroid of the target demographic for latest OPSYS releases. All the components were originally purchased on eBay, used. All the vendors had at least 50% positive feedback. How could there possibly be a problem on my end? ;) I feel Newegg tugging at my credit card. Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
To IE8 or not to IE8?
(Message 892356)
Posted 7 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: I can't stand IE8. It takes about 5 times longer to load, the recent history pulldown menu now has a "delete" icon exactly where I normally click to select a site, so IE8 deletes it from my list. MS Search and MS this and MS that are all pushed on you and you need to opt out. It gives the impression of trying way too hard to fix something that was not broken. Is Microsoft really this afraid of Google? |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
CLOSED** SETI/BOINC Milestones (tm) XVII **CLOSED
(Message 892083)
Posted 6 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: Come on Bob, tell us more about your pop! I dig war hero details. You should get a snack. This is going to be a severely long story. :> Bob |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
CLOSED** SETI/BOINC Milestones (tm) XVII **CLOSED
(Message 891977)
Posted 6 May 2009 by Bob Mahoney Design
Post: My host hit an RAC of 45,081 on the Top Computers list today. It processed 4,000,000 credits along the way. Old Sarge is now living the dream of every workhorse: Out to pasture! I'll let it run as is, no more surgery or transplants for this loyal machine. Some personal trivia... This computer project started last year when I needed more power for Photoshop. As is typical for many of us here, building a better computer became a 'reason unto itself', while my Photoshopping drags along on an older computer. v.Sarge1 was named for my dad. He was a popular 1st Sergeant in World War II. He also designed a cool little ice making machine that was installed on nuclear submarines. Ten-Hut, Soldier! I imagine him peeking down from heaven saying "Do you really need all those blue LED lights inside that thing?" Bob Mahoney |
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