TPU's WCG/BOINC Team

[[Ion]]

One of the dual E5540 systems is down again. Odds are 9/10 at least that some of the RAM has died. Will investigate tomorrow.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

I'm hoping for some SSD's under $40 on Black Friday.

I was a year early.

 

[[Ion]]

I am back in business. My friend hosting the 4P 6128 setup is back in town so it is up and running--and I got my T7500 going again so that's the dual E5540 going too.

 

[Peter1986C]

@Norton , I have changed my WCG username into Peter1986C. I have asked @W1zzard to do the same here (or point me to the person who handles that).

 

[Norton]

@Norton , I have changed my WCG username into Peter1986C. I have asked @W1zzard to do the same here (or point me to the person who handles that).

Definitely need to contact @W1zzard for name changes on the forum- he's the only one that can do that AFAIK

 

[stinger608]

@Norton , I have changed my WCG username into Peter1986C. I have asked @W1zzard to do the same here (or point me to the person who handles that).

And, why a name change after all this time bro?

 

[t_ski]

And, why a name change after all this time bro?

Because every time I see it, it reminds me of Chevy Cavalier

 

[Peter1986C]

Because honestly it is a little bit too silly (years ago might have been different, I dunno). I first never bothered changing it, because I kinda used it it in too many places for that. Since all new(er) accounts of mine do not use it, and because I have already changed many others, I decided to get rid of it here too.

 

[xvi]

Because honestly it is a little bit too silly

I came up with this username because on my 16th birthday, I decided I was tired of the old one I used. I'm not terribly imaginative.

 

[Nordic]

I have a new name I use most places but here. I don't think I will change for awhile. This was just something I chose when I was young. James is not even my name.

 

[FireFox]

Hi there.
Yesterday i built a Cruncher Machine, in bios i have 3 options regarding power setting:

1- Power saving mode
1- Normal mode
1- Performance

Which one would be the most suitable for Crunching?

Cheers.

 

[[Ion]]

Performance! How is this even a question?

 

[FireFox]

9

Performance! How is this even a question?

What it would happen if I set it to normal?

 

[Peter1986C]

Normal should be fine, although changing preset will possibly reset your individual settings so you have to put them right again.

 

[stevorob]

Question about work units - I've noticed that the Xeon is taking it's sweet time crunching work units - MCM is pushing upwards of close to 6 hours per work unit, and OET at ~3-4h... this seems way off to me... rig has been running like this for several days.

Now, I know it's older tech, but that doesn't make sense when my i5 750 is doing those work units in half the time at just slightly faster clocks (4.0 v 3.3), and my 4690k (4.6ghz) is crushing it at ~2h for MCM and ~30m for OET.

Is this just the nature of how HT works? Does increased clocks make that much difference in power for these work units?

 

[[Ion]]

Yeah, that would be HT for you. Enabling HT lets the CPU run two WUs per core, but at the expense of each taking (nearly) twice as long as it otherwise would. And WCG scales linearly with clock speed, too
If you can put Linux on things that helps quite a bit--I have a dual Xeon E5649 system (HT enabled) running Linux that finishes its OET WUs in just over an hour and a half each.

 

[Peter1986C]

Clock ticks are more important than anything else since the WUs are not programmed/compiled for multithreading, AVX and the like. And indeed HT is not as strong as a full core as @[Ion] pointed out.

 

[stevorob]

Yeah, that would be HT for you. Enabling HT lets the CPU run two WUs per core, but at the expense of each taking (nearly) twice as long as it otherwise would. And WCG scales linearly with clock speed, too
If you can put Linux on things that helps quite a bit--I have a dual Xeon E5649 system (HT enabled) running Linux that finishes its OET WUs in just over an hour and a half each.

Figured as much re: HT. I've looked into Linux, but not much. TBH I'm pretty Linux illiterate - I don't know much other than I knew to grab a copy of Ubuntu, but haven't tried installing it. Will research this a bit further. Since this is a dedicated cruncher, I should go ahead with Linux, but I put Win7 on it just to get it going asap.

Clock ticks are more important than anything else since the WUs are not programmed/compiled for multithreading, AVX and the like.

Suspicions confirmed. I've tried upping the clocks but I have run into stability and power issues (random reboots under load, even on stock clocks). I think the PSU I'm using is on it's last leg - I need to look into getting a replacement. Once I get that replaced I can try to clock this a bit more.

Thanks guys

 

[[Ion]]

Honestly getting a dedicated WCG system set up with Linux is even easier than Windows--more of the drivers "just work"
Create a bootable USB drive of Linux Mint, the installer you can mostly just stumble your way through blindly, and then once it's installed, open up a Terminal window and type: "sudo apt-get install lm-sensors boinc openssh-server", type in your password, wait for it to finish, reboot, and open BOINC and do the usual stuff. That's it, you're done

 

[thebluebumblebee]

I put Win7 on it just to get it going asap.

Once you get even a little familiar with Linux (Ubuntu or Mint), you'll laugh at yourself for saying that.

 

[stevorob]

Once you get even a little familiar with Linux (Ubuntu or Mint), you'll laugh at yourself for saying that.

You're right - I just got Ubuntu installed - didn't take anytime at all...

 

[Nordic]

Once installed press "Control -> Alt -> Delete" to open a terminal.
Then type "sudo apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager"
It will install with that. Much quicker than using the GUI.
Then in terminal type "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade" to update the system.

Then open boinc and set it up just like you would on windows.

 

[stevorob]

So I think my PSU has finally had it - I have been having issues with random reboots lately and now I can barely get into the OS before it shuts itself down and reboots.

Stock clocks, temps are good (in BIOS), but as soon as the CPU gets any sort of load, instant shut down.

./lesigh

 

[thebluebumblebee]

You just missed the CS450M for $25 after MIR at NE.

 

[stevorob]

You just missed the CS450M for $25 after MIR at NE.

I know

I'm back up - swapped out GPUs... I guess maybe what I had in there was too much for the PSU - so far under load no issues with reboots. I will continue to monitor, but I definitely need to be looking for a PSU - got a few things lines up