UK BOINC Team Forum

Hi all,

Just a little heads-up for the unawares

We've done brilliantly well, when one looks at the combined total stats for ALL projects, including Bitcoin - we're 1st in UK, and 5th in the world and as a result, United Kingdom (counting all UK-based teams) is riding high at 3rd overall.

However, taking out the Bitcoin stats and things are a little different: UBT is currently 25th and if one looks at our daily RAC, we're in 41st place...and we'll soon be overtaken by a few other teams.

Somehow I think we need to generate some more credits, to help arrest our fall....

If you have a GPU, then please "enable" GPU crunching on your desktop PC and take a look at a number of projects that can use your GPU resources, namely: SETI@home, MilkyWay, Asteroids, Einstein, Moo! Wrapper etc.

On the desktop CPU side, there are lots of projects to choose from, so feel free to crunch for as many as you can.

On laptops, I don't normally recommend one uses BOINC, as it can be a bit processor intensive (and hence can cause laptops to overheat due to the restricted airflows within them). However, WU-Prop is a non-intensive application, suitable for use on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms, so it can be left on in the background and it'll earn a few credits - about 14 for every 6 hours worth of crunching.

So, please do what you can. Our current RAC is around 4.4 million per day and it would be nice to increase this, if we can.

regards
Tim

Don't forget 'Collatz Conjecture' on the GPU side of things. It's consistant, pays well and we need the credits as we're quite a bit behind TSBT (just the 1.5 billion!)

Mike

I'm currently doing my part on milkyway@home (most crunched daily in the team & 3rd most daily in the country) and hopefully this weekend I'll be ordering a 2nd GPU for my system to crossfire it to provide even more credits.
(Tim, I'll probably be consulting you on the finer points of that should it go ahead).

We're planning a house move in the next few months, if that goes ahead then I may be able to invest in some further equipment, but that's for after the move.

rich2000k wrote:I'm currently doing my part on milkyway@home (most crunched daily in the team & 3rd most daily in the country) and hopefully this weekend I'll be ordering a 2nd GPU for my system to crossfire it to provide even more credits.
(Tim, I'll probably be consulting you on the finer points of that should it go ahead).

Hi rich,

Excellent news.

I've actually had a pair of GTX580's (yup, I know, old tech, but they still work fine on BOINC) running a number of projects - at one point, the pair were churning out some nice credits on Einstein and MilkyWay.

They worked well, BUT, I didn't have enough air-cooling for the case and the GPU's were running very hot - at one point, over 90 deg C

That's when I "discovered" the Afterburner app, which allowed me to underclock the GPU's and things went well for a while. The only issue was that the PSU failed (as you might have guessed) and for the time being, I've not got around to getting another high-wattage PSU. So, I'm just running the single 580 using a 600W PSU.

In simple terms, if you have 2 GPU's then (IIRC) there's a simple edit that is needed so that BOINC "sees" both GPU's. Be aware that you will also probably need to "reserve" 1x CPU task, so that it can help "run" the 2x GPU's.


I *think* the changes are like this:

In config.xml file, in BOINC directory:
<cc_config>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

In app_config.xml file, within specific project directory:
<app_config>
<app>
<name>project_name</name>
<max_concurrent>x</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>.50</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>1</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>

(notes)
*The Max_concurrent figure is usually "1" so that 1x WU runs per GPU....but some projects can run more, esp if video card has lots of memory and project doesn't use much memory. I recall I could run 2x MilkyWay WU's on each GTX580 card.
*The GPU usage figure is the inverse of the number of GPU's you have, so for 3x GPU, it would be 0.33

We're planning a house move in the next few months, if that goes ahead then I may be able to invest in some further equipment, but that's for after the move.

Hope the move goes well for you.

regards
Tim

Hi Tim
Thanks for the info, however I cannot find an app_config.xml file in the milkyway folder...there's one for bcu?

Do I need to created one?

Apologies for the delay GPU took ages to arrive.

I've created an app config file it is working (both) but now each task is taking twice as long.

Whereas before it was 24 seconds it's now 48 on each.

Is there any way of getting 100% out the both of them?

Ignore me

I never enabled my system to crossfire...DOH!

All done and working wonders now, looking forward to what I will achieve.

rich2000k wrote:Hi Tim
Thanks for the info, however I cannot find an app_config.xml file in the milkyway folder...there's one for bcu?

Do I need to created one?

Apologies for the delay GPU took ages to arrive.

Hi Rich

Yes, you do need to create a new "app_config.xml" file - (assuming one isn't there to begin wit) - it's best to use notepad and then "save as".

BU needs one too, but it has slightly different codes within it, to suit an ASIC rather than a GPU

regards
Tim

I'm all up and running (eventually) now to contend with the heat my system is producing.

I'm already beginning to question my system after it overheated and crashed last night.

Half a day of cautionary checks later it's back crossfired, moved onto my desk next to an open window....not an ideal solution but it's got the temps on the gpu down to 75ish.

I think investing in an additional fan tomorrow might be a good purchase.

Overall I think a new modular psu a larger case and a fan or 2 might be  in order

Damn heat bain of my life

rich2000k wrote:I'm all up and running (eventually) now to contend with the heat my system is producing.

I'm already beginning to question my system after it overheated and crashed last night.

Half a day of cautionary checks later it's back crossfired, moved onto my desk next to an open window....not an ideal solution but it's got the temps on the gpu down to 75ish.

I think investing in an additional fan tomorrow might be a good purchase.

Overall I think a new modular psu a larger case and a fan or 2 might be  in order

Damn heat bain of my life

Hi Rich

Take a look at installing MSI Afterburner - it can help you to regulate fan speed as well as giving you control on whether you want to under/over clock the GPU. On MilkyWay and Collatz GPU tasks, I actually underclock/undervolt the GPU, which keeps the heat down, while still allowing plenty of "oomph" to crunch GPU tasks

http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner

regards
Tim

Cheers Tim

I had to take it out, after a while both cards stopped working I got the impression that my 850w PSU was struggling to cope with 2 high end cards. I am currently scouring ebay for a replacement so hopefully i'll be trying again next week.

MSI Afterburner btw did the trick, I just turned the fans up slightly and got the temp down to 70 which was ideal.

Shame about the lack of power really.

My brother says I should treat myself, as I never do and just buy all the parts I want, but at present I can't warrant a £600 treat lol

rich2000k wrote:Cheers Tim

I had to take it out, after a while both cards stopped working I got the impression that my 850w PSU was struggling to cope with 2 high end cards. I am currently scouring ebay for a replacement so hopefully i'll be trying again next week.

Hi Rich

Yup - 850W might be a little on the low side.....the trouble is that 1000W (or slightly higher) PSU's are at a premium on fleabay. I got a Novatech 1000W a while back and a Corsair 1050W too, but demand is high and hence those auctions that end during the day/early evening, tend to attract the most bids.

MSI Afterburner btw did the trick, I just turned the fans up slightly and got the temp down to 70 which was ideal.

Shame about the lack of power really.

My brother says I should treat myself, as I never do and just buy all the parts I want, but at present I can't warrant a £600 treat lol

Glad to hear that "AB" worked for you.

I'm in the same boat - I prefer building a PC to my own spec than buying something "complete" and then finding limitations have been "built in" to it, which can prevent further upgrading - the one time I bought a complete PC, I found out later it had a non-standard PSU and motherboard - so, apart from changing CPU and memory, I couldn't do much else...so lesson learned !!

regards
Tim

Well that was a learning curve

PC crashed we assumed it was the 2nd gpu, removed it kept happening.

After a new gpu (bk to 1 again) and a new motherboard we found out it was a stick of ram that was broken....new ram fitted and up and running again...that was an expensive lesson to learn.

Ahh well after xmas now as I have quite a bit to pay out...it will come I will give more crunching and more credits.

rich2000k wrote:Well that was a learning curve

PC crashed we assumed it was the 2nd gpu, removed it kept happening.

Hi Rich

Sorry to hear about this

After a new gpu (bk to 1 again) and a new motherboard we found out it was a stick of ram that was broken....new ram fitted and up and running again...that was an expensive lesson to learn.

Ahh well after xmas now as I have quite a bit to pay out...it will come I will give more crunching and more credits.

Ah - I've had that issue a couple of times. It's either been PSU faults (quite common), the odd mobo, and in some cases dodgy RAM sticks.

What makes it more tricky is when you have different generations of CPU/mobo/RAM and you can't swap parts between PC's to find out what's causing it...! (Obv. it's easier with common parts like HDD, CDROM, and displays).

I recently got a mini-ITX PC for a non-techy friend who wanted to RIP some CD's. I installed VortexBox on it very easily. But it only had a 2GHz dual core Celeron (775 type, with 1Mb cache) so I swapped that out for a 3.2GHz E8500 with 6Mb on-board cache. It took about 3 or 4 goes to get the mini-ITX mobo to "accept" it.....and originally I thought the new CPU was faulty. But it's working OK now and it rips standard length CD's in about 7 mins (it was taking nearly 20 mins before)

regards
Tim

Hi

Knew there was a thread about 'combined total without Bitcoin' somewhere - looks like it went a bit 'off topic'!

Anyway, we returned to 25th a couple of days ago and we'll be 24th in a couple of more days. Only took 3½ years!

https://boincstats.com/en/stats/-5/team/list/

For those that like graphs...

https://boincstats.com/en/stats/-5/team ... 214/charts

Mike

... and currently 13th by RAC