Couple of newish'be questions

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UBT - Glenn
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Couple of newish'be questions

Post by UBT - Glenn »

Hi Guys,

So I want to start seriously crunching these Boinc projects rather than just "playing" during the odd sprint or project request.

My pc is a i5 3600 quad core CPU, 8GB sdr ram, with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB. I've just installed Boinc as default and short of know how to add projects, turn tasks on / off. But is there a config that makes it work at it's best? I allow tasks to run via the gpu as I read a long time ago that this is usually better. So is anyone savvy to be able to talk me thru (or can Teamviewer) setting this up correctly.

I've also just bought (but not used properly) a Raspberry pi 3 model B so wondered if I could use this for crunching Boinc tasks? Would I be able to crunch a task on the pc and also crunch the same task using the same login details on the pi? I'm thinking the pi can be running 24/7 with the pc crunching when i'm not driving my favourite truck (ATS, ETS2) / farm simulator FS17.

So any and all help greatly appreciated.

Best wishes UBT - Glenn
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UBT - Timbo
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Re: Couple of newish'be questions

Post by UBT - Timbo »

UBT - Glenn wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:27 pm Hi Guys,

So I want to start seriously crunching these Boinc projects rather than just "playing" during the odd sprint or project request.
Hi Glenn

Excellent stuff - I'm sure a few members will add some tips and tricks, but I'll try and make a start
My pc is a i5 3600 quad core CPU, 8GB sdr ram, with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB. I've just installed Boinc as default and short of know how to add projects, turn tasks on / off. But is there a config that makes it work at it's best? I allow tasks to run via the gpu as I read a long time ago that this is usually better. So is anyone savvy to be able to talk me thru (or can Teamviewer) setting this up correctly.


Firstly, a quad core CPU plus a GTX1050 is going to be good enough to crunch tasks from most projects. And the standard config will be good enough. But some projects do support optimised apps, or even bespoke "app_config.xml" files that are used to "tweak" the specific settings of BOINC Manager of some specific projects - eg the current Sprint involving RakeSearch has some "optimised apps" on GitHub which need no further configuring and they work a treat.

My first question for you is this: Do you have a particular preference in terms on what sort of project you would like to help. Obviously most are either science or maths related - so if you have a preference then a start can be made.

Most projects support CPUs, but some will crunch tasks faster if a GPU is used...and for some projects using a GPU will earn you more credits, which might also be important for you.
I've also just bought (but not used properly) a Raspberry pi 3 model B so wondered if I could use this for crunching Boinc tasks? Would I be able to crunch a task on the pc and also crunch the same task using the same login details on the pi? I'm thinking the pi can be running 24/7 with the pc crunching when i'm not driving my favourite truck (ATS, ETS2) / farm simulator FS17.

So any and all help greatly appreciated.

Best wishes UBT - Glenn
The Raspberry Pi can certainly crunch a small number of projects, using a specific flavour of Linux. Given the low power requirements of the Pi, this indeed can be left on 24/7 and it'll just crunch tasks, until you tell it to stop or shutdown the PSU !! However, the credits earned on the Pi will probably be quite a bit less than the Intel CPU and much less than the NVidia GPU.

OTOH, if lots of people used a Pi then by the sheer volume of processing power, it would be worthwhile setting it up.

regards
Tim
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Re: Couple of newish'be questions

Post by Woodles »

Hi Glenn,

Firstly, apologies for the (very) long post.

Careful, it can get addictive! :D

A very capable machine you have there, it would benefit a lot of projects.

Yes, the correct GPU application will produce a lot more/quicker work than a CPU application. The specs for the 1050 state it has 640 cores, your CPU has 4 :D Not all projects have GPU applications, sometimes they're too small an operation to be able to do the coding, sometimes their tasks don't lend themselves to running in parallel so it wouldn't be worth it anyway.

I don't do Teamviewer but I'm happy to talk you through any setting up that you want to do either in this thread, through PMs or emails if you like?

Initially:

The basic install of Boinc is a pretty good starting point, there's little that you can do to improve the actual Boinc operation. However, there are a few tweaks that can be made to it but most of them are for personal preferences rather than better performance.

Set your computing preferences to reasonable values.

"Use at most n% of the CPUs" defines how much of the CPU gets used for Boinc. This is set to 100% for a dedicated CPU cruncher, it's set to 99% for most PCs with a GPU as that reserves a core to feed the GPU. Always set "Use at most n% of CPU time" to 100%. All it does is enable and disable Boinc to meet the percentage time that you enter. So for an entry of 90%, the CPU will run flat out for 90% of a time slice then switch off for 10 % of the time slice then repeat. All this means is that the CPU will get hot, then cold, then hot, then cold ... etc. Basically, heat cycling the chip. this is not a good thing to do, it wears it out quickly. If you want to limit the power used by the CPU, change the "Use at most n% of the CPUs" and have it run at an average temperature.

All Boinc tasks run at the lowest priority so any other work you do on the PC will take precedence. The CPU will still run at 100% utilisation but Boinc will only use the bits that you're not. There will always be a hiccup when you change applications or ask more from the one that you're running while the CPU re-balances the load split. For this reason, there is an option to "Suspend when computer is in use". Ticking this pauses Boinc completely when you start to use the PC, it starts up again when you stop using it. If you know what programmes you want to run with no Boinc interference, a better option in my opinion is the "Exclusive applications" tab but we'll get to that later :) The other options in that section are for tuning the suspend operation (no activity time to restart, amount of other CPU use before suspending)

If you're not connected to the internet continuously then you need enough work to keep your PC running until it can get more. "Store at least" defines how much work is normally available on the PC, "Store up to an additional" allows a bit of bloat. Setting both values to zero means that the PC only ever has work in progress. While this limits wasted time swapping between projects it does mean that every time a running task finishes the PC must request another task. This can reduce overall throughput on short tasks with long download times. Best to always have it set to something, I find 1.0 / 0.1 work well.

"Switch between tasks" determines how long one projects tasks will run before another project gets a chance. If you only have work from one project at a time then it doesn't matter what you put in here. Otherwise, set it to t reasonable value based on the length of time the PC will be on for. "Checkpoint at most" sets the maximum time that a task is allowed to run before it saves a snapshot of it's state on the hard disc. Effectively this is the most computing time that you will lose if the PC crashes or gets turned off unexpectedly. Note that not all projects implement checkpoints.

No need to limit up/downloads unless you're on a limited internet connection. Leave everything unticked.

Every project that you connect to will download a set of executables and configuration files. These need to be stored on the disc. Any tasks that get downloaded also need to be stored on the disc and will grow as they create their output files. These task dependent files will be removed once the task has finished and been reported but the main project files remain. You need to ensure that there is enough free disc space for both these set of files. These days most hard discs are big enough that the default settings work fine. Very rarely do any tasks take more than ~250MB of RAM so your 8GB will be more than enough. Set the "When computer is in use" value to ~50% and the "When computer is not in use" to 90%. Tick the "Leave non-GPU tasks in memory" box. This means that when the PC switches from one (unfinished) task to a different project then that task will be left in memory and will resume quicker when the PC switches back. Page/swap file won't be an issue with 8GB, set it to whatever you like, it won't get used.

The daily schedule tab is used to limit Boinc to certain times of the day to run, not often used in my experience.

Now about truck driving and farming :) There's a tab under "options" called "Exclusive applications" Any application (.com or .exe file) listed under here will stop Boinc while it's loaded. In my opinion, this is a better option than limiting on general usage as it's programme specific and allows Boinc to run more of the time (brief spikes of general activity above the usage threshold would stop then restart Boinc using the other method)

There is a configuration file that Boinc reads each time it starts which gives other options. These are mainly used for debug flags but there's a few that improve performance albeit only slightly. The only ones I use are reporting results as soon as they finish, requesting work at that time and skipping the benchmarks.

By default, Boinc collects finished work up and reports a bunch when it gets to a critical mass. This can mean that finished work isn't reported until up to 24 hours (I believe, I've had it turned off for so long) after it actually completed. This isn't good for sprints or small caches. Boinc will periodically request work when it thinks it's getting low, it doesn't always get it right so I prefer to get another task as soon as the previous one is finished. This is less important with larger caches. Most projects used to base their credits on the performance of the PC and the amount of time it was running. As this performance measure was very easily hacked, projects don't tend to use it any more. Boinc still wants to run benchmarks periodically though.

Open explorer, navigate to your Boinc data directory and edit/create a file called cc_config.xml. This needs to be a pure text file, use notepad or something similar that doesn't add formatting codes. Ensure it contains the following:

Code: Select all

<cc_config>
    <options>
        <report_results_immediately>1</report_results_immediately>
	<fetch_on_update>1</fetch_on_update>
        <skip_cpu_benchmarks>1</skip_cpu_benchmarks>
    </options>
</cc_config>
Save it and make sure Windows doesn't try to change the extension to ".txt" (Or you'll end up with a file called cc_config.xml.txt which Boinc won't recognise)

The next time you start Boinc it will use these new settings (or click on "options", "Read config files" to update a running Boinc instance)

As Tim said, there are sometimes configurations for specific projects but we'll deal with that once you pick some projects :D

Your project login details are specific to each project (you should preferably use the same username and email address at each project to ensure that they're all collected together under the same username on the stats sites) Any host that you connect to the project uses the same username and password so two PCs or a PC and a Raspberry Pi will happily co-exist on the project. You won't crunch the same task, you'll crunch two different tasks.

I had a couple of Raspberry Pis running a while ago, they're much slower than PCs but also much lower power. There's not many projects that support them, Neil (bigsinky) has a few so he might have a better idea of which projects are best. Look for project applications for ARM processors. You'll need to install Linux on it (Windows won't fit) and then Boinc but operation the same after that.

Mark
UBT - Glenn
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Re: Couple of newish'be questions

Post by UBT - Glenn »

Hi Tim & Mark,

Thank you both the fab info its answered a lot of questions i had. Im glad the pc is of a good spec to crunch well. I think im more inclined to go more for the medical projects being that im disabled with a rare bleeding conditon with diseases like Aids / HIV a real risk to me (inject human blood products every 2 weeks at home) and also because of my spinal injuries caused by that.

i think ill get the pc running well crunching wise before i look to get the Raspberry Pi3 Model B running smaller jobs 24 / 7.
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UBT - Timbo
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Re: Couple of newish'be questions

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi Glenn

No worries...

There are plenty of biology / medical reseach projects you can choose from and you can always to choose to split your crunching between any number of them, so each project benefits from your crunching.

If you need more assistance, just ask away - that's one reason why this forum exists:-)

regards
Tim
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Re: Couple of newish'be questions

Post by Woodles »

Hi Glenn,

Glad to have been of assistance. Once you pick your project(s), check back to see if there's any optimisation that can be done for them.

Mark
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