Tips for crunching BOINC

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UBT - Timbo
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Tips for crunching BOINC

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Just to start off with some basic tips:

#1 Laptops are not good at running most BOINC projects, as the CPU's do not have good heatsinks and hence the laptops tend to overheat. However, running NCI (non-computing intensive) tasks shouldn't be a problem.

#2 You'll earn far more credits if you fit a good quality GPU to your PC...as the projects that support GPUs recognise that your "investment" in the hardware gives them more benefits as GPUs can crunch more tasks more efficiently (than a CPU).

#3 BOINC tasks can use up a fair bit of memory, so these days, it makes sense to have as much RAM on your PC as you can afford...but be aware that older operating systems (like Windows XP) can only support up to 3GB of RAM...and if you are crunching multiple memory intensive tasks, then you can run out of memory quite quickly...making your PC unresponsive at times. So, for these projects you may have to limit the number of concurrent tasks.

#4 If you are using an SSD as your boot drive, you might be better off adding a second hard disk drive and letting BOINC use that for the project directory...as the high number of read/write BOINC operations can shorten the life of an SSD.

#5 There are some specific files, located within BOINC directories that can be manually "tweaked" to make crunching more efficient. These are covered in separate posts, but they are:

cc_config.xml - located in your BOINC folder
app_info.xml - located in specific project folders and are specific to each project
app_config.xml - located in specific project folders and are specific to each project

These files are best edited with BOINC Manager shutdown and using Notepad (or any other plain text editor) to edit the files.

#6 There are a small number of NCI projects where the processing power required is small and hence these projects can be run at the same time as any of the major projects. So I recommend you add these projects as you will build up plenty of credits, over time.

There are two at present:
Goofyxgrid

Code: Select all

http://goofyxgridathome.net/
and

WU-Prop

Code: Select all

http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/
#7 Make sure you have joined "UK BOINC Team" on every project you have signed up for.

#8 Make sure the BOINC account you have with every project, uses the same email address - and then all the statistics websites will show your total credits. If they aren't all the same, then choose one of your email addresses and use that for each and every project...note also that the "username" you choose can be different on every project, if you want...the important thing that ensures all your credits are assigned to your crunching is the email address.

Be aware, that you can have as many accounts as you want on each project...but the credits for each account are not totalled together - as each account must have a unique email address.

#9 If you are running BOINC on your own PC, you can allow it to crunch tasks whenever you want. However, if you want to use your employers PC(s), please ensure you ask the relevant person for permission to do so.

#10 Newer PCs have far better processors these days and the "flavour" of BOINC you install, will be slightly dependant on the operating system. Older PCs use a 32bit OS and newer ones can use the 64bit version. The main benefit of using a 64bit OS is that it can address far more memory and hence it is less likely to slow down any other work you are doing at the same time, especially on memory intensive tasks.

#11 Be aware that some BOINC projects will issue credits straight away, if they only need ONE completed task returned. Other projects maybe require 2 (or more) tasks to be successfully completed before any credits are issued. As such there might be a delay between returning a task and getting the credit assigned to your account. This is quite normal and shouldn't put you off.

#12 Be aware that crunching BOINC tasks will use up more of your PCs power than if it were just sitting there, idling away. As such, you should budget for a slightly higher electricity bill. You should also be aware that crunching tasks can also push your hardware to the limit and hence you may require additional cooling fans inside the case to remove the build of warm air inside. Likewise, it makes sense to keep an eye on the build up of dust/animal hair etc within your PC as this can affect the hardware significantly, which could result in earlier failure of certain parts (esp cooling fans).
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