This is both a post with Info about something your computer can do while you are doing nothing
also its Information on how to Get the Best out of this Program.
If you use the BOINC Manager Program to Run Projects Like SETI@ Home,Einstein.Climate Prediction,Rosetta,Milkyway and a Cast of many more besides (There is in the region of 50 projects to choose from) Some are very poor (in the supply of work or credits)Some are dead! Most on the Initial list (on the BOINC Manager Program) are very prolific and Some are both Fast and "Pay" well The SETI Project uses both the Main Processor and The Graphic card/s Processor (GPU) to Handle the Work coming in In the case of the GPU (provided it is of a certain specification) The Seti server will send Out a CUDA workunit Which will only take 2 hours to process at most ,often as little as Half an Hour The other way (currently) is an AstroPulse Workunit is issued which is ca 200 Hours to produce a result .Obviously You get a big credit(When it has finished) On my machine it will take about 2 weeks with the Computer running better than 10 hours per day...and I have several other Projects on the Go too So I have to Juggle around boosting them up the table by suspending another Project for a few hours (case of Logistics) To date I have never lost a credit before the Deadline time
And here's the Clever Bit they do run in separate instances So if you have a Basic setup you will see 1 unit running But with a suitable Graphic card that will run a CUDA Unit Maybe 2 together? With SLI enabled (2 cards ) it will still be Limited to 2 x CUDA's But it will be a lot smoother
In practice it "does" a few seconds on 1 Unit pauses then looks at the Other work unit...has to share the load.
The only "Hard" and KEY thing about This program Is Getting the Balance right in Preferences Allocating How much Processor Power is Needed for Different states of running If you have set sizes for Things like System Restore or Virtual Memory before, this is in that League.The job is not difficult Its a case of Sharing the cake out!
Also download and upload speeds and additional top up work buffer size Don't be Scared at this. Set the Rate @ Double the same numbers as your best upload download speed on your connection as a starting point say 250 Kbps and Half that for Uploads (Based on a 1MB connection) The top up work Buffer set at a Small setting(say 1 day?) Though you can stretch it to 10 days ..which means it may be Running idly waiting for the signal to look for more work.Have to Look for it(Work) manually if its set in this state
Mine is set @ .66 days) NOTE: Setting it at 0 days is the same as shutting the Program down! I Tried that and Got Zilch
Once that is set then the settings are carried automatically over to every new version
In Fact, Mine date, Here is the actual entry plucked off the list
quote:
11/06/2009 13:15:21 SETI@home General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 26-Dec-2006 23:13:32)
That is from When the BOINC Manager Program First started running
The Limiting Factors are the Speed of the GPU,The RAM of the Same I have 256K on each of the Cards and Performance is good
The CPU Has (on this machine ) 2 GB RAM to work with When Idle But I have tuned it to Use about 75% when its running programs ( NO Priority set in Task Manager) Setting it (BOINC Manager) as "Priority" does Cause a severe slowdown on the Program!
I Have changed Graphic cards over several Times and This Program Has coped with the Changes without Prompting for new settings (they are held on the Server)
In conclusion. Having run this program since it started (2006) I Like it as it Has No load(thanks to tweaking the Processing settings) and B) NO Bloat! (It runs isolated)
Next Downloading or Updating the Program There are some things you Have to do before setting the Program going
A) Make sure your Graphic Card Display drivers are up to Date Case of Look in to
www.filehippo.com and check the list. though a better way is Download the FileHippo Updatechecker of 145KB. Run it (does not install) and it will show you the correct download for your computer.
The Download for this is over 150 MB's
B) The Boinc Progam Download is Next...It is available from many of the Sites connected with this
My Preference is from the SETI site as the Layout is very clear (Click on the Link in the Left frame) DownLoad is just 6 MBs
But read below... before commiting yourself http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/3 Easy steps to getting this Under Way (after downloading and installing)
1) Click on Advanced>Preferences and alter the settings to what I suggested above as a starting point on the Processor Usage page Tick the GPU Box (if you have Version 6.6.36) If this unticked then The CUDA workunits are Not Processed/or run !
The Older stable version 6.6.20, has no Tick box for this feature
I would advise you go for Version 6.6.36 as it Has a rewrite of several routines and It is Much Better at "Picking up" new work and sending off /reporting finished work .It Feels like a New Full Version Upgrade
You are not expected to use Seti There are 30 choices on the Tool Menu (Some retired) start on the Activity manager when online click on the Link And there are even more listed on
http://boincstats.com where you can chart your Progress (Hint) do check out the Project Popularity lists to see How many are Joining up ) Does link through for most sites.
www.gridrepublic.org/index.php?page=home is similar but Not as much info .As soon as your computer returns a result it is recorded on these sites and the league position is Identical even though their results update at different times BOINCStats deadline Is at 4:15PM UK plus 5 or 10 minutes
2)Click Tools >
Attach to Project... Wizard To get your first program under way
2a)Click on Tools>
Attach to acconnts Manager... this wizard formally signs you up to the League tables
BAM! Will take you to
http://boincstats.com and the ExtremeDura@home site is in Spanish and was inaccessible when I tried it!
3) Input your screenname/password at the site if you like it,then in a few moments you'll have your First Work unit running (A No brainer!)
While I was putting this together offline The Program has "Finished" All 16 Seti CUDA workunits. As soon as I go online they will be Automatically uploaded and reported to the Seti server and I'll recieve credit on my account plus another batch of Seti CUDA workunits in return .No Prompting
As I type this I got 20 units back (enough for 6 to 8 hours)
Setups that won't run CUDA are Integrated Graphics Chips of 128/256MB Unless they are on Top of the range Motherboards(Of 512MB) which I doubt Nobody will run in that configuration
(No Card!)
Older Graphic cards of 256MB or less
Mine escapes that because I have a dedicated Processor and "fast" DDR3 RAM also it can be used in combination (SLI)
The Older cards have to rely on the Main CPU to Function.Big difference Technology-wise!
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