Can I say "NI" now?

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:15 am

Hiya all

I'm Greg, and I used to do boinc many years ago. I got me a nice quad core q6600 and decided to use it to be productive so here I am.

I ran boinc for a few days or so and was jumping approximately 60,000 people per day so I guess that's it - I'm here until I get to number one :p

Anyway, gotta run, having this browser open is lowering the processor time dedicated to seti@home

sigma-7 · Post by **sigma-7** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:11 am

Welcome to the team

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:14 am

Hi Greg and welcome to UBT and the forum

Post by **UBT-mark3346** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:16 am

Welcome aboard :hello2:

Post by **UBT - bobuk** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:27 pm

welcome sah!
may your stay be a long one ....

b.

UBT - Terry · Post by **UBT - Terry** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:30 pm

Hi Greg enjoy our forum and don't forget there are many projects you could put that Q6600 to good use on

Terry

UBT - The Prof.... · Post by **UBT - The Prof....** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:38 pm

Hi there welcome to the team and forum/madhouse. :!:

UBT - Rick Horn · Post by **UBT - Rick Horn** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:07 pm

A warm welcome to the team Greg. :D

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:29 pm

Thanks all for the welcome:)

Right my first question: How do I make one of these nice pretty PHP signatures? I don't mean a predesigned one, I can hold my own with PHP and have a nice little dedicated server all to myself, where do I get the information from so I can create my own (the main forum I use in everyday life limits the size, width and height)? I want to add my stats to my signature there and maybe even drag some more users over here

Joshrandom · Post by **Joshrandom** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:02 pm

Welcome to the team.

Oh, and good luck with the signature thing, while there are a few people about the forum with the technical savvy to be able to help you out, sadly, I am not counted amongst them.

melter65 · Post by **melter65** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:05 pm

Hello and Welcome!

Ditto on making your own stats sig! Most of us just use the UBT link or the Boinc Stats link

Darren · Post by **Darren** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:18 pm

If you want to do your own signature I suggest you start looking at this file....

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/userw.php?id=3144984
3144984 is your seti id.

If you do other projects then each will have a similar link that can be forund in the "Your Account" page.

This gives you virtually live information.

If you parse that file and look for

Code: Select all

User TotCred: 6,580.47<br/>User AvgCred: 452.53

You should get the data you need to create one.

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:19 pm

Perfect brb with a prototype sig

Hopefully it should be underneath here now - and I did say prototype (ie work in process, revision 1!) didn't I?

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:27 pm

Welcome aboard! Are you running a 64-bit OS?

Also do you know about the optimised SETI app?

melter65 · Post by **melter65** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:36 pm

Nice One, Greg! The sig looks good!

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:00 pm

I have XP 32 bit and yes I have seen the optimised SETI app but I need to read the post more - at the moment it reads a little heavy for me (I would need to review the data files and figure out what goes where).

When I get to the "oh is that all" stage of reading it I will doubtlessly hook myself up with an optimised client for sure

As for the signature, signature_id.jpg will allow any user stats to be shown if you replace id with the number (yay for rewriterule!).

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:06 pm

gregoryfenton wrote:I have XP 32 bit and yes I have seen the optimised SETI app but I need to read the post more - at the moment it reads a little heavy for me (I would need to review the data files and figure out what goes where).

When I get to the "oh is that all" stage of reading it I will doubtlessly hook myself up with an optimised client for sure

As for the signature, signature_id.jpg will allow any user stats to be shown if you replace id with the number (yay for rewriterule!).

Ahh good man. Basically it is just a matter of copy and paste (over writing the older files). The optimised app is soooo much quicker :D

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:16 pm

I just downloaded an optimised client, astropulse. here is the log

22/10/2008 20:28:12||Starting BOINC client version 6.2.19 for windows_intelx86
22/10/2008 20:28:12||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8e zlib/1.2.3
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Data directory: C:\pf\BOINC
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Running under account Greg
22/10/2008 20:28:12|SETI@home|Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11]
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 mmx
22/10/2008 20:28:12||OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Professional x86 Editon, Service Pack 3, (05.01.2600.00)
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Memory: 1.98 GB physical, 3.83 GB virtual
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Disk: 52.67 GB total, 18.09 GB free
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Local time is UTC +1 hours
22/10/2008 20:28:12|SETI@home|URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: 4619664; location: home; project prefs: default
22/10/2008 20:28:12||No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Preferences limit memory usage when active to 1014.67MB
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 1826.41MB
22/10/2008 20:28:12||Preferences limit disk usage to 9.31GB
22/10/2008 20:28:12|SETI@home|Started download of ap_04se08aa_B1_P0_00250_20081015_23164.wu
22/10/2008 20:28:12|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 90720 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
22/10/2008 20:28:17|SETI@home|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
22/10/2008 20:28:17|SETI@home|Message from server: No work sent
22/10/2008 20:28:17|SETI@home|Message from server: No work is available for Astropulse
22/10/2008 20:28:28|SETI@home|Finished download of ap_04se08aa_B1_P0_00250_20081015_23164.wu
22/10/2008 20:28:29|SETI@home|Starting ap_04se08aa_B1_P0_00250_20081015_23164.wu_2
22/10/2008 20:28:29|SETI@home|Starting task ap_04se08aa_B1_P0_00250_20081015_23164.wu_2 using astropulse version 435
22/10/2008 20:29:18|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 90720 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
22/10/2008 20:29:23|SETI@home|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
22/10/2008 20:29:23|SETI@home|Message from server: No work sent
22/10/2008 20:29:23|SETI@home|Message from server: No work is available for Astropulse
22/10/2008 20:30:23|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 90720 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
22/10/2008 20:30:28|SETI@home|Scheduler request succeeded: got 1 new tasks
22/10/2008 20:30:30|SETI@home|Started download of ap_03se08ah_B4_P0_00312_20081015_29553.wu
22/10/2008 20:30:44|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 60480 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
22/10/2008 20:30:49|SETI@home|Scheduler request succeeded: got 1 new tasks
22/10/2008 20:30:51|SETI@home|Started download of ap_16au08ab_B1_P1_00104_20080922_14374.wu
22/10/2008 20:30:57|SETI@home|Finished download of ap_03se08ah_B4_P0_00312_20081015_29553.wu
22/10/2008 20:30:58|SETI@home|Starting ap_03se08ah_B4_P0_00312_20081015_29553.wu_2
22/10/2008 20:30:58|SETI@home|Starting task ap_03se08ah_B4_P0_00312_20081015_29553.wu_2 using astropulse version 435
22/10/2008 20:31:04|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 30240 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
22/10/2008 20:31:09|SETI@home|Scheduler request succeeded: got 1 new tasks
22/10/2008 20:31:11|SETI@home|Started download of ap_04se08af_B5_P1_00188_20081018_24719.wu
22/10/2008 20:31:16|SETI@home|Finished download of ap_16au08ab_B1_P1_00104_20080922_14374.wu
22/10/2008 20:31:17|SETI@home|Starting ap_16au08ab_B1_P1_00104_20080922_14374.wu_2
22/10/2008 20:31:17|SETI@home|Starting task ap_16au08ab_B1_P1_00104_20080922_14374.wu_2 using astropulse version 435
22/10/2008 20:31:37|SETI@home|Finished download of ap_04se08af_B5_P1_00188_20081018_24719.wu
22/10/2008 20:31:38|SETI@home|Starting ap_04se08af_B5_P1_00188_20081018_24719.wu_2
22/10/2008 20:31:38|SETI@home|Starting task ap_04se08af_B5_P1_00188_20081018_24719.wu_2 using astropulse version 435
22/10/2008 20:57:15||Running CPU benchmarks
22/10/2008 20:57:15||Suspending computation - running CPU benchmarks
22/10/2008 20:57:46||Benchmark results:
22/10/2008 20:57:46|| Number of CPUs: 4
22/10/2008 20:57:46|| 2320 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
22/10/2008 20:57:46|| 5283 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
22/10/2008 20:57:47||Resuming computation

Will I get massive results for these (90,000 seconds is a long time for one unit!)

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:45 pm

Not sure about the credit side... I myself stick with the classic seti (if you login you can customise which projects you want to run). Much quicker WU's

melter65 · Post by **melter65** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:04 pm

Astropulse is the seti version of CPDN. Long wu's with trickle-up credits.

UBT - Nogbo · Post by **UBT - Nogbo** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:01 am

Hi Greg & Welcome!

UBT - mickyb69 · Post by **UBT - mickyb69** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:40 pm

:lol: :lol: Hi greg

NaRyan · Post by **NaRyan** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:36 am

Gawd blind as a bat me is.

Hi Greg and welcome to the Loony bin.
Please keep your medication away from Micky, and any shiny objects hidden from Ben.
And anything you don't want Jinxed well away from me!!!

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:14 pm

NaRyan wrote:Gawd blind as a bat me is.

Hi Greg and welcome to the Loony bin.
Please keep your medication away from Micky, and any shiny objects hidden from Ben.
And anything you don't want Jinxed well away from me!!!

Mmmm shiny...

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:33 pm

Hi all

After a rather poorly computer forced an upgrade (so sad

) I have got a new motherboard and graphics card.

I am now running a Q6600@2.4GHz and HD4850 X2 (2x 1GB) graphics card. Currently the GPU is spitting out milkyway@home WUs every couple of minutes while my CPU is eating through world community grid WUs.

This motherboard has quad SLI so I may keep my eye out for some more of these HD4850 X2s and see what a real beast can do.

Glad to be back all

Greg

UBT - Rick Horn · Post by **UBT - Rick Horn** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:37 pm

Welcome back Greg.

Post by **UBT - bobuk** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:54 pm

Welcome back to the best team in the UK. May your stay be along one this time.

Need any help ? Then just ask there is always someone around to give advice.

Fancy a chat with fellow team members ?

The chat room at the top of the main forum page has the decorators in (been needed for some time).

So we have moved to MSN for a while.

Contact MELTER65 (Dave) through a PM as he is the key holder.

New comers must get the first round of drinks in, so get in early will be cheaper for you.....lol

b.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:04 pm

Welcome back Greg!

Looks like you have the same setup as me! Great little rig, although mine can get a bit noisy!! Once the HD4850x2 starts going full welly!

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:13 pm

currently the minibeast has 2 PSUs powering it, and as it is a midi tower case there is physically no room for the second PSU so it is sat on the top of the case and indeed there is a massive racket.

I bought a PSU from ebay but it was DOA so it is being sent back and they are sending me a replacement. Until then I have to put up with concorde.

Still, the WUs are making sure the system is stable even if it is turning me into a gibbering wreck. I think that is definitely happening - currently I am actually sat with my feet up watching Heartbeat and enjoying it. The brain rot is setting in.

Poke me in a few hours to see if I have dissolved into a pile of grey gloop.

Zydor · Post by **Zydor** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:45 am

Welcome back from a Team Newb

Gentle question in case it was not a typo - you expressed a wish to go for more cards as the board supported quad SLI. The board needs to support ATI Crossfire for those cards - please forgive if you twigged that already, I just would hate you to go get more 4850s and discover the board will not support Crossfire.

Whats the mobo designation/type number?

Regards
Zy

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:37 am

Yeah sorry I am of the nVidia mindset, I must remember that sli!=crossfire

I have Asus P5Q Premium
"CrossFire
Support ATI CrossFireX™ technology, up to Quad CrossFireX"
Got it for an incredible steal from ebay (£35+P&P), couldn't believe it.

One thing I am a little unsure of is the card that I have - HD4850 X2 - does that do the equivalent of crossfire between the two graphics cards internally somehow or do I need to do anything?

Zydor · Post by **Zydor** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:58 am

Leave it to its own devices it will sort itself out - there is an internal crossfire logic connecting the two GPUs. For Crossfire purposes on your GPU machine slots, just treat any dual gpu cards as a "card" never mind it has 2 gpus. The term Crossfire applies between Cards, and although a similar logic exists inside the cards for the 2 gpus, for your purposes ignore that, the card will look after the 2 gpus.

It can need some planning, be careful over card placement and heat issues. Much depends on individual mainboard layout and how the internal airflow of the PC is. Take time over this aspect, else you will regret it later. Make sure that airflow is as restriction free as you can get it - tidy up cables, clean fans, replace dodgy case fans etc.

Then carefully plan the placement on the motherboard slots. On many boards there is no choice - only 2 x16 slots - but some there is a choice. With those you can achieve separation of the cards and not have them on top of each other, that increases air flow and stops one card cooking the other.

Downside of separation like that is you need to get the 10cm Crossfire strap (standard issue is 7cm). You can get them via E-Bay, watch the price some sell em for £10+, sharks, they are actually £2-4 each. The longer crossfire straps are a godsend to separation and airflow, but not popular with OEMs due to allegations that they cause a small drop in framerate. That maybe so, but I have not had any issues. Anyway, it they don't work for you, its only a couple of £'s gone down the pan so no big deal.

You don't have to run two of them crossfire for BOINC, you can put on dummy plugs to con the card into thinking it has a screen attatched, its a safe, routine technique. Using dummy plugs, you have no issues re the crossfire strap and separation for airflow. Horses for courses and the route to follow is an individual choice as everyones setup is different.

All a bit wordy wordy, sorry, but its real important with two dual gpu cards to pause and think about these issues, some get lucky, slam them in, and all's well, most end cooking one ..... but they will not tell you that bit .....

It'll run fine, don't over-react to my cautionary tales above, but don't ignore them either and you will be fine. Just pause for thought and do some thinking/housekeeping and it'll be fine. I'll nip off and have a look at that motherboard now - back shortly.

Regards
Zy

Zydor · Post by **Zydor** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 10:43 am

Nice Board ! And for that price ..... give yourself a pat on the back - well done

There are a number of reviews on the web, but this is as good as any.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/p5q_prem/3.htm

In that photo you need to use the blue slot(must), and then any white slot. So you can achieve separation if you need to, and with that setup assume you do need to.

For a review of the card in Crossfire mode together with a full account of the issues you need to consider see:

Guru3d 4850 & 4870 Crossfire

Its not a dual 4850 review, but for your purposes the issues are the same, so its a good one to read in depth, and please do read it, its worthwhile to protect your not so small cash investment in this beast.

If you have not come across Guru3D before, I recommend it unresevedly, it has - and its fabulous attached Forum - has saved my bacon over the years a few times. They are very very rarely wrong, can only think of one opps I have ever seen. So, if they are saying somethingf different to a personal long held belief , pause .... its dam near certain they are right and you have been wrong - don't let pride get in the way, trust these guys, they are good. Worth nosing around their hardware review section.

Overall you will have two main "gotchas" - power supply, and heat - do not, absolutely not, gloss over either of those issues. Of the two, the really nasty is heat. Do anything and everything you can, howsoever small each tweek will be, to reduce the temperature inside that case, and to get the air flowing unobstructed - even if you have to reposition hard disks to improve flow across the two cards - do it, take the time, you will be glad you did.

Good luck! And post if you hit issues, one of us will doubtless be able to help.

Regards
Zy

Joshrandom · Post by **Joshrandom** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 6:07 pm

Welcome back Greg

Oh, and as someone who has, in the past, cooked both motherboards and graphics cards (fortunately nothing too high end or expensive), I would definitely recommend following Zydor's sage advice about the importance of keeping your system cool.

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 6:25 pm

Don't worry, I am.

As for air cooling, the side is currently off and the system has 4 case fans (2 in (front), 2 out (side [currently off] and rear).

My next investment will have to be a full tower case as my current case is definitely too cramped. Either that or I might see what I can come up with by cannibalising one of my existing cases for brackets etc and building a nice big bespoke one from some steel sheets.

Zydor · Post by **Zydor** » Sat Nov 13, 2010 3:52 am

This doesnt apply to all cases, it depends very much how they are designed, and what case fans are in there.

The basic design principle on cases is to create a slight over-pressure inside the case, that encourages airflow going out as its being pulled into a lower pressure area. Its therefore sometimes true that keeping the side panel on, and screwing it down at the back, will give a better cooling performance, as the airflow through the case is totaled by having the side off with no over pressure.

I say the above cautiously as its very much dependent on individual setups, however its always worth baring in mind, and if cooling is an issue with any case, and you have the side off, try putting the panel back. As a vague indicator it helps kind of two out of ten setups, so its not a magic wand, but worth keeping in the back of the mind.

EDIT:
Further on cases that might help ..... These are not cheap new, Lian Li cases are superb and ideal for those building their own systems, the modular design is nearly unbeatable. The airflow inside is amazing.

Lian Li Case Range Nose around a bit there, they give good screen shots of each case on the individual product page.

Of the multitude of cases they do, the mid-range I would go for a for the Armoursuit PC-P50 ATX case (I use one on my second machine), and for a full tower the PC-A77F E-ATX case (I use one for my main machine with a twin 5970). They are pricey and it makes you swollow a bit, but having got one it will last a decade or more of PC builds and rebuilds, so cheaper in the long run.

Fabulous second hand buy, keep your eyes open for one on second hand outlets. Lian Li are good at making available piece parts, and have extensive mod kits, so its easy to refurbish them.

Regards
Zy

gregoryfenton · Post by **gregoryfenton** » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:42 am

Thanks for taking all this time to help me, believe me i am taking it all under advisement.

I told the wife I am going to build my own case from scratch and she begged me to buy one readymade. Result \o/

Zydor · Post by **Zydor** » Sat Nov 13, 2010 1:05 pm

ROFL - you crafty begger - love it :laughing5:

Here's a "boys toys" equivalent for PC Building, you'll get any piece part you need, plus any "Bling" accessory if that your bent. The range of coolers and cooling kits is very good.

More Bling and B its (UK Based)

PC Builds - Piece Parts - Bling - Cooling Kits (US Based)

Regards
Zy

UBT - Liamlee · Post by **UBT - Liamlee** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:11 pm

Shold this not be moved some where else

melter65 · Post by **melter65** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:33 pm

Good point. Back on topic please folks. Take it to the tech section, please

UK BOINC Team Forum

Can I say "NI" now?

Can I say "NI" now?

I'm back in the fold