19/12-26/12 Merry Christmas! Crunching together - Einstein

[Alez]

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/challenge/team/chat/615

Name Merry Christmas! Crunching together
Status Upcoming
Project Einstein@Home
Issued by Hammrammstein
Start time 2014-12-19 15:30 UTC
End time 2014-12-26 15:30 UTC
Late entrants allowed? Yes
Number of teams participating » 8
Number of users participating 0

[Alez]

We are currently #73 in the world. Another push on Einstein wont do it any harm :)

[scole of TSBT]

I'm in.

[Megacruncher]

Scope for double bunkering with WCG! :)

[scole of TSBT]

That's right. Time to start hanging on to those completed WUs. :bounce:

[Silver]

I'm hanging, just not sure I managed to count properly for WCG units though

[Alez]

Too much stuff on just now. Will be my ' usual ' standing start I guess. How many millions is Scole up to ?

[scole of TSBT]

Won't be as good of a start as last time but should have a few hundred thousand.

Come on Janos. Quit letting that GPU get by with a free ride! I had issues with my duel Tahiti system but I down clocked the GPU cores to 925, ran the fans wide open to keep the temps as low as possibe, only run the Arecibo GPU app and haven't had an issue since.

[Alez]

I've just stuck a 7970 in the system that already has 3 GTX660 ti's. Should make for interesting temps Need to update the fleet registry .... things are slowly changing. Also seems the comp has started and we are #1 and scole is #1 , though I'm #4 from a complete standing start and have some catching up to do. Interesting times ahead I predict

[Silver]

Great start chaps, keep up the good work!
And good effort Scole, your on a role just now

[scole of TSBT]

Good start, but those pesky Germans and French...

Alez is trading punches at the top :boxing: while Peter Teago and Megacruncher are watching each other's backs in the top 25. 483 participants so far. Not a bad showing.

[Alez]

Tell me about it, ..... sausage munching to the left of me, cheese eating surrender monkeys to the right, here I am stuck in the middle ...... sounds like a song
If it's not dead will try and get another linux mobo / gpu package up and running tomorrow. We need more firepower

[Megacruncher]

sausage munching to the left of me

Sounds like quite a party you are at!

Anyhoo I've got a fair bit of work bunkered which I'll upload as soon as the WCG thing kicks off. I really think that we are in for a podium finish for this one. 8)

[scole of TSBT]

TSBT has a pretty good turnout for the challenge. Would better if we had a few more...

[Alez]

sausage munching to the left of me

Sounds like quite a party you are at!

Don't know what you are trying to insinuate

We are currently 3rd but we will need more peeps to contribute even a little if we are to try and hold off Poland.

[scole of TSBT]

I know we've discussed it in past Einstein challenges until we were sick of it, but I'll risk being shunned and ask how many WUs are you all running per GPU? You're getting much longer completion times per WU than I would have expected, assuming Einstein is listing your systems accurately.

[Silver]

I'm running 3 units at a time.
I'll need to have a look at the last topic and see what we all said last time!

[scole of TSBT]

I only run 2 at a time, so that would make a difference. Is your gpu a 7950 or 7970? My slowest 7970, in a 3.4ghz cpu system, running 2 WU at a time finishes them in around 2250 seconds. Your lowest times appear to avg around 4000 sec, which is about 1.77 time longer. I have 3 different systems with a 7970 and all differ a little. Several factors could affect it, but might be worth trying 2 for a cycle to see how they do. I improved times by updating BIOS, chipset drivers and swapped 1066 speed memory for 1600.

In the mean time, I'm going to try 3 per gpu. Do you run .5 or .33 cpu per WU, when running 3? When running 2, I use .5 cpu per WU.

[Alez]

Aaaaaaaaargh , for fcuks sake, one click of the mouse and I've broken my entire network across the house Aaaaaaaaargh. I've decided I hate microsoft, computers, boinc scheduler and everything plugged into the network / power sockets except my fridge and my toaster. Somehow I have managed to try and get everything to share an internet connection with one comp which now claims to have a static IP. Since I don't have a DNS server that will never work. Virtual hotspots and wifi until I get this SNAFU sorted.

I'm running 2 units per card as it's the best compromise between my 6970/6990/7750/7770/7950/7970/gtx 660ti/gtx 750ti/ intel gpu setups. Either that or it's app_configs for every computer and even that would be a compromise per computer.
I to am showing longer completion times than I remember. Most Einstein apps are very memory clock / pcie lane transfer rate dependent. Memory overclock has more effect here than GPU overclock. I guess the current arecibo units are even more intensive than the normal brp units.

[Silver]

Scole, it's a 7970 I've got, set to use .33 cpu per wu. Mainly due to my limited number of cpu cores and the WGC comp.

I did some calculations on the last comp and I was slightly better running 3 units per card.
Having just added results from the comp so far my credit generation is down ~15% on last time
I've now changed to run 2 units on my card to see what happens, I'll let you know.

[Silver]

Sounds like you are having some slight technical issues Alez
The only advice I can give you is that you need to add your kettle to the list of equipment you don't hate
Hope you manage to get the fleet back in order soon!

[scole of TSBT]

Alez, how is your internet connected? Don't have a broadband router?

Got another GPU running. It's only GTX 660ti though. Should do a couple 1000 point WUs every 1-1.5 hours. Had been swapping it out with a R9 270 based on the challenge project. Found a permanent home for both now. Only cut my hand twice while remodeling the system. I bet you could make a mouse trap out of an old PC case. Just put a piece of cheese in and close it up. The mouse will get cut to ribbons trying to get in.

Jeez...in a system with a 3.5Ghx processor with 1600Mhz memory in an 8x slot finished 2 WU in 1:05. In a little slower system but in a 4x PCIe slot, increased time to 1:55 per WU and added 15 min to the 770 gpu time Time to find a good mobo on ebay.

[Alez]

Got it sorted. Yes it's a broadband router but due to distance and physical limitations of the house ( solid slate floors, 3 foot thick walls , tech shed is outside etc, I use a variety of wifi, hard cabling and connection through the power sockets depending on which room. I was trying to get 2 computers next to each other to share a single wifi connection if they lost the wired connection through the power outlets. Didn't quite work out how I hoped .... Good shout on the kettle though I have an open fire which will do the job if required and tons of hexamine stoves kicking around.

We're down to 4th now. As predicted the sheer numbers of BOINC@Poland have over run us. Simply need more people and a few regulars to rediscover their competitive nature. I'm up to 4th but doubt I can take 3rd. Scole has first nailed and Mega has moved up to 9th. Paul is in 29th and PeterTeago in 39th. 5 of us in the top 50 is a very good showing.

[Megacruncher]

Yup. It looks as if the podium will elude us.
But if we can get fourth and bag a few of the top 10 individual places that will be respectable for a wee team like us!

[Silver]

Its not the winning that's important its the taking part though isn't it. Or some politically correct term
Still a pretty impressive effort by a handful of crunchers, go TSBT!

[scole of TSBT]

Scole, it's a 7970 I've got, set to use .33 cpu per wu. Mainly due to my limited number of cpu cores and the WGC comp.

I did some calculations on the last comp and I was slightly better running 3 units per card.
Having just added results from the comp so far my credit generation is down ~15% on last time
I've now changed to run 2 units on my card to see what happens, I'll let you know.

Since there's only 1 GPU using a 16x slot, I think you are getting better times with 3 WUs. I think 3 at a time are slower on mine because there are 2 GPUs and they each only get a 8x slot.

[Alez]

Managed to grab 3rd. Now just got to hold it for the next 4 days ....

[Silver]

Scole, it's a 7970 I've got, set to use .33 cpu per wu. Mainly due to my limited number of cpu cores and the WGC comp.

I did some calculations on the last comp and I was slightly better running 3 units per card.
Having just added results from the comp so far my credit generation is down ~15% on last time
I've now changed to run 2 units on my card to see what happens, I'll let you know.

Since there's only 1 GPU using a 16x slot, I think you are getting better times with 3 WUs. I think 3 at a time are slower on mine because there are 2 GPUs and they each only get a 8x slot.

That could well be it Scole.
On todays average crunch times I'm down ~10% credit per hour crunching 2 wu at a time.
I've just gone back to running 3 units at a time, lets see if I can move a place up a place or two :)

[Alez]

Yes it is the case as I've said before Einstein is very memory intensive and requires fast transfer rates to the memory. Overclocking memory ( both computer and GPU ) will have far more effect than overclocking GPU's.
We should take #72 in the world overall in the next few hours and I am going to stay on Einstein after the challenge rather than GPUGrid and continue to push. Historically Einstein was always hovering on the brink of dropping out of the top 100 and it's a real blast to see us climbing. A couple more weeks of this and we will start gaining positions in the country as well.
I've also noted on Orac that enabling the intel GPU effects the discrete GPU's attached though I haven't bothered to work out whether the gain from the iGPU outweighs the loss to the 7970's though I suspect it does, probably again due to transfer rates. I guess running multiple cards per computer is a disadvantage on this project.

[scole of TSBT]

Prior to getting interested in this stuff again, I never knew what to really look at when considering components. Since then, I've spent a ton of time looking at motherboard specs and I need to put that into a spreadsheet to share. Bought my motherboard today though. $64 + shipping for a Z77 mobo that supports PCIe 3.0 and 8x + 8x with 2 GPUs. Fleets are built one piece at a time :) Have to move up the X79 and X99 chipset (LGA 2011 and LGA 2011-v3) to get multiple 16x PCIe slots though.

[Alez]

2 days left on the challenge and we are still 4th. We seem to be level pegging with Poland and maybe slightly catching them. Any one else want to jump in for the last 2 days and see if we can pull off the podium finish ?
Individually, scole is holding 1st and I have grabbed 2nd. Mega is in 9th, Paul has 33rd and Peter has 57th. Keep up the good work all and let's see if anyone else will join us in the top 100 ....

[Silver]

I'm still crunching away, not really helped by managing to pick up some poem units yesterday that I didn't notice for a while

[Alez]

TSBT finished 4th from 15 teams.
A great result for the team and a great result scoring the top 2 podium places and 3 of us in the top 10.

Individual efforts

scole of TSBT 1st
alez [ TSBT's Pirate ] 2nd
Megacruncher TSBT 9th
Paul of TSBT 31st
Peter Teago 61st
Kostoglotov 167th
Mark Mair 235th
B McT 338th
Dominic Young 350th
davidSandilands 360th
kieren keith biggs 545th
Allan McBain 581st
Davie Firth 622nd
Janos of TSBT 627th
DonTex 673rd
Wolfsschanze 728th
Grum 770th
tiggsy 794th
Simon 807th
Craig 810th
Robert Hendry 852th
Mad McMax 898th
Giles 920th
outcast 1076th
Michael Richards 1131st

Well done all.

[Silver]

Another good show from the team, and a fair list of crunches too!
Well done to all that took part
I'm slightly disappointed I missed the top 30, curse you random poem unit that I picked up