World Community Grid 10th Birthday Challenge -- 16 November - 25 November!

[[Ion]]

Alright guys, I know it hasn't been long since the last challenge, but it's almost time once more for another one!
Coming up in less than two weeks is a challenge celebrating the tenth birthday of the World Community Grid project, which has enabled volunteers to put their computers to work tackling tough scientific issues!

So, to celebrate, a competition is being held from 16 November to 25 November, open to any teams that want to join in. Naturally, TPU! will be taking part

Official Challenge link here!

I would like to thank our fellow crunchers at SETI.GERMANY for creating this excellent challenge. They're running a countdown to the challenge start and more, available here!

If you have any questions on how to set up your system, just ask! We'll be glad to assist!

SETI.GERMANY has done a wonderful job preparing Challenge resources; you can see a direct stats link and much more here

 

[[Ion]]

Naturally, we have prizes too! These prizes are donated by Team members and awarded to Team members that meet the requirements listed below.

If you’re interested in donating a prize, and it is greatly appreciated, please post here and send me a PM!

Our current list of prizes is:
- 4x Windows 7 Professional key (donated by [Ion])
- Sony Vaio 4L1L laptop (ULV Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, Windows 7) (donated by [Ion])
- Transcend 128GB USB3 SSD (donated by AthlonX2)
- 2x $25 Paypal gift (donated by Norton)
- 1x$100 Newegg Gift Card (donated by twilyth)
- $100 via Paypal (donated by mjkmike)
- Sandisk Extreme 128GB SSD (donated by T-Bob)
- EVGA Geforce GTX680 (donated by 64K, United States winners only)
- NZXT Kraken X31; 120mm AIO cooler (donated by sneekypeet)
- NZXT Kraken X41; 140mm AIO cooler (donated by sneekypeet)
- Reeven Ouranos (donated by xvi)
- Alpenfohn Brocken 2 (donated by xvi)

- More prizes pending; will be added to the list once confirmed


Grand Prize: Cruncher rig (donated by BarbaricSoul)
CPU- 3930k
MB- ASUS P9X79 Deluxe
Heatsink- Deep Cool Lucifer
RAM- 2x4 gb Corsair Vengence Blue DDR3 1600 CL9
GPU- ASUS HD 7770
PSU- Corsair TX850
HDD- 500GB Seagate (donated by T-Bob)
Case- TBA
OS- TBA
For a dedicated TPU cruncher; additional terms & conditions apply


We'll be running a separate game giveaway, hosted by manofthem; link will be added here once it's created


Requirements to qualify for a prize

in order for your name to be drawn- you would need to be an active member of this forum also (we will draw according to forum name so please post here if your WCG name is different and send me a PM)
- Participate for the duration of the TechPowerUp 10th Birthday Challenge
- Earn a minimum of 5,000 BOINC points for Team WCG-TPU during the Qualifying period (16 November through 25 November)
- Winners will be chosen randomly at the end of the qualifying period.
- Participation in the Game giveaway will require that you are actively crunching during this Challenge
How Random Winners Will be Drawn (thanks to theonedub):

To ensure everyone gets a fair shake and to minimize any potential conflict of interest while maintaining the highest level of transparency- I have drafted a new way to draw winners. The system uses (3) members and works as follows:
Originally Posted by The System
Member 1: This member creates a list of all qualified participants usernames. This list is sent to Member 2.
Member 2: Using the list of names, Member 2 will assign each entrant a unique number. A list of the usernames with the unique numbers is sent back to Person 1. The list of just the random numbers is sent to Member 3.
Member 3: Member 3 has a list of just numbers. They use Random.Org or whatever random system to select which number wins a given prize. The list of winning numbers and the associated prize is then sent back to Member 1.
Member 1: Using the lists, Member 1 ‘decodes’ the winning numbers into the winning usernames and posts the results.
The lists are sent as Private Messages through the forum. This establishes an electronic record of everything while also preventing alterations of lists after the drawing.
When the winning usernames are posted by Member 1, Member 2 can verify that the number belongs to the correct username and Member 3 verifies that the number was actually pulled as a winner.
The system makes sure that there is no bias or other favoritism at play when winners are drawn. Winners are drawn based on a random number instead of usernames- where a possibility exists to redraw if that person doesn’t like who won, draw a friend, draw themselves, pass on new members, or skip doing a random drawing all together.
My hope is that this will alleviate any concerns about drawings and their legitimacy. If it works smoothly, I would like to see this become the new standard when conducting giveaways that have prizes donated by the community.
If there are any questions about this system, drop me a PM.

 

[Norton]

Please add the following to the prize pool:
- Transcend 128GB USB 3.0 SSD provided by @AthlonX2
- 2x$25 Paypal gifts provided by @Norton
- 1x$100 NewEgg gift card provided by @twilyth

More items to come!

The Challenge is hosted by SETI.Germany and they have a special stats site setup here:

http://www.seti-germany.de/wcg/1_en_Welcome.html

There are also some mini challenges in addition to the main one

 

[t_ski]

I think I will be in for this one, although on a small scale.

 

[Tallencor]

Count me in of course.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

As usual I will be in ☺

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I'm in on a smaller scale but in.

 

[Nordic]

Never spooled down so in.

 

[adulaamin]

I'm always in.

 

[nightriderjt]

I am in mates!

 

[Bow]

like always count me in, I have the games I won in the last one, maybe I will just put them back up for the prize draw.

 

[stinger608]

Do I really need to say I'm in?????

Come on, ANSWER ME!

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Do I really need to say I'm in?????

Come on, ANSWER ME!

 

[twilyth]

 

[Peter1986C]

In with Darwin, not sure whether Edison will run along because of bad PPD/watt and some other small matters.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

I'm in with everything I got. The Opty 6180 server has issues with WCG. It will spool down to 60% usage after a few hours and just sit there. Have to constantly re-start. No issues with F@H though....dunno what it is. I may try to re-install Ubuntu.

 

[[Ion]]

I'm in with everything I got. The Opty 6180 server has issues with WCG. It will spool down to 60% usage after a few hours and just sit there. Have to constantly re-start. No issues with F@H though....dunno what it is. I may try to re-install Ubuntu.

60% CPU usage or 60% clock speeds, or both? If the former, does it only run 60% of the threads, or does it run full threads, just at lower CPU utilization?

 

[brandonwh64]

Im down like a rodeo clown for this challenge! Also NORTON! I still have a whole list of games to give away that was suppose to be in the last challenge but was never given any

 

[Norton]

Im down like a rodeo clown for this challenge! Also NORTON! I still have a whole list of games to give away that was suppose to be in the last challenge but was never given any

Send a PM to @manofthem about the games- he's going to host the game giveaway

 

[brandonwh64]

Send a PM to @manofthem about the games- he's going to host the game giveaway

Will do. Here is a list of games.

- Deadlight
- The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Complete Pack
- Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
- Terraria
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION
- Legend of Grimrock
- Orcs Must Die! 2: Complete Pack
- PixelJunk Eden

 

[BUCK NASTY]

60% CPU usage or 60% clock speeds, or both? If the former, does it only run 60% of the threads, or does it run full threads, just at lower CPU utilization?

60% threads used and clocks are locked in the modded bios. Of course the work floats from core to core on theses 4P boards, but i will have 40% of the cores sitting idle at any given time.

 

[[Ion]]

60% threads used and clocks are locked in the modded bios. Of course the work floats from core to core on theses 4P boards, but i will have 40% of the cores sitting idle at any given time.

Bizarre. Is yours using the same [H] modded BIOS? I haven't had that issue on mine with either of the OS installs--currently running Ubuntu 14.10 on it and it's comfortably chewing through 32 WUs:

Do you have another HDD that you can do a test OS reinstall on?

 

[BUCK NASTY]

Bizarre. Is yours using the same [H] modded BIOS? I haven't had that issue on mine with either of the OS installs--currently running Ubuntu 14.10 on it and it's comfortably chewing through 32 WUs:

Do you have another HDD that you can do a test OS reinstall on?

Yes, I have a spare HDD to load the fresh OS. Going to try that this weekend.

 

[Zachary85]

I'm in for yet another TPU challenge !!! ..... Plus it was starting to get cold in here ..... A good enough reason to "Fire" up a few more crunchers for now.

 

[manofthem]

I can't believe I haven't posted "I'm in" yet! I'm in with my 3 +1 for the challenge



Also, if anyone has any ideas for the game giveaway (to make it more interesting/different/interactive/spicy), I'd love to hear them (post or pm)