09/06-16/06 B@P POTM - Asteroids@home

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 12:15 am

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/challenge/team/chat/686

Name B@P POTM - Asteroids@home
Status Upcoming
Project Asteroids@home
Issued by BOINC@Poland
Start time 2015-06-09 00:00 UTC
End time 2015-06-16 00:00 UTC
Late entrants allowed? Yes
Number of teams participating Â» 7
Number of users participating 0

What do you think, should we hit this one?

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 7:20 am

Stick my name down :)

Janos (retired) · Post by **Janos (retired)** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 12:00 pm

I dare say I will log a few credits during the comp :)

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:36 am

Really wanted to bunker, but no time. Been on vacation since Friday and just couldn't get around to setting it up.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:06 am

Just over an hour in and we are a decent second with 6 active crunchers. Keep it up!

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:53 am

Megacruncher wrote:Just over an hour in and we are a decent second with 6 active crunchers. Keep it up!

Look at you in 2nd!

Post by **leecarver** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:28 pm

Trying to understand the "resource share" setting so I can contribute to the projects appropriately. Are the resource shares proportionate? That is, if everything is set at 100, the machine equally distributes work between all projects? Why would it go up to a value of 10000?

Post by **Dirk Broer** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:19 pm

As AMD Users is not active here I'll join you till the 16th!

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:22 pm

Dirk Broer wrote:As AMD Users is not active here I'll join you till the 16th!

Excellent, nice to have your help for this one Dirk

leecarver wrote:Trying to understand the "resource share" setting so I can contribute to the projects appropriately. Are the resource shares proportionate? That is, if everything is set at 100, the machine equally distributes work between all projects? Why would it go up to a value of 10000?

I'm not sure it's worth wasting your time trying to understand the boinc scheduler lee, many have tried and all have failed....

In theory if you set all the projects you want to crunch at 100 eventually you will crunch an "even" amount on them but if you expect it to run a unit in turn or for an even amount of time you will be out of luck as it doesn't seem to work like that.
What are you trying to achieve? there are some work arounds that can be used depending on what you aiming for.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:39 pm

leecarver wrote:Why would it go up to a value of 10000?

The only way to change it is at the project website under the Asteroids@Home Preferences, where you select CPU and Nvidia apps. Not sure I've seen it make a lot of difference in the short term. Not had use for it in the long term. If running a GPU app, it will always take priority over CPU app WUs. The asteroids Nvidia GPU only requires .01 CPUs, which is so little you can still run CPU WUs on all other cores. If you have 4 cores and a Nvidia GPU, you can run 4 CPU WUs and 1 GPU WU all at the same time.

And Dirk, good to have you with us for this.

Post by **Dirk Broer** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:45 pm

scole250 wrote:
leecarver wrote:Why would it go up to a value of 10000?
The only way to change it is at the project website under the Asteroids@Home Preferences, where you select CPU and Nvidia apps.

That's not exactly true. When you use a BOINC Account Manager -such as e.g. BAM!- you can change the resource settings in the account manager as well.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:04 am

If you like and trust BAM which I for one have never done!
Anyhoo nice to have you with us Dirk!
Please , stay as long as you want!i

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:40 am

Yarr Dirk, we'll make a pirate of you yet

I use Bam, never had an issue with it and very handy when globe trotting.
What I did was work on a 1 to 100 scale rather than 10000. Projects I strongly want to run are set at 100 and then proportionally down with projects that are not important at 1 or 0. If you don't want to run a project set it to no new tasks.
If you wish to concentrate on a project the only really successful way is to set any other projects to no new tasks. You may also have to abort any work still on your system as downloaded units will still run even with no new tasks set.

Basically the scheduler 'works' on balancing the RAC between projects which in theory would work if every project signed up for the crappy system called credit new. As credits are not equal across projects and GPU's make more points than CPU's it's deeply flawed, never has worked and most people have simply given up trying to get it to work. As soon as you start running multiple projects it's best for your sanity to force your system or systems to do what you want with hands on management.

Post by **leecarver** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:10 pm

And climbing up the charts, at #48... it's me with "Cruncha-Cruncha-do".

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:41 pm

past the half way point now and we have dropped to 5th but should easily hold that.

individually we are

scole of TSBT 6th
alez [ TSBT's Pirate ] 12th
Janos of TSBT 16th
Megacruncher TSBT 24th
leecarver 48th
Paul of TSBT 54th
Skywalker TSBT 81st
Dirk Broer 87th
MarkRBright 92nd
David Jackson 133rd
ejfj 214th
Arnie 285th
David 374th
phildemeur 398th
Sharron Gray 416th
Chris 463rd

keep up the great work everyone.
this update brought to you from a bar on a weekend break with the kid..... so wait for all my stuff to give up and break

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 11:43 pm

leecarver, those are great numbers. Watch those CPU temps running those AVX WUs.

Alez, is it wise for you and your head of tech support to be away at the same time? Hope you and your son are are having a good time. Both of you worked hard the past couple of months.

And it's great to see all the asteroid crunchers too. :pirate:

Post by **Bryan** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 7:38 am

I'll give you a short boost but will move back home before BStats does their daily update. That way it probably won't show me changing teams. Then after the update I'll move back here again. ngb won't be a problem to catch

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 2:17 pm

I like your covert and cunning plan there Bryan :hiding:

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 4:25 pm

Welcome back Bryan.

Post by **Bryan** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:48 pm

It's good to be back Steve. I'm afraid that I won't be able to stay long (a few more hours). I have CAS and Sztaki WU suspended and I'm getting close to the deadlines. I don't want to piss off the servers by letting them time out.

We caught ngb so I can help you get a little bit of a lead.

Post by **Dirk Broer** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:41 am

Bryan wrote:We caught ngb

They don't think so: elricm, Member of team ngb:setiteam@TSBT: We are after you :)

Post by **leecarver** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 3:30 pm

scole250 wrote:leecarver, those are great numbers. Watch those CPU temps running those AVX WUs.

I haven't even thought to run my Hardware Monitor (my computer has been in storage for a while due to a move). Any thoughts on what temperatures I should be running on an Intel i5?

I'm running a stock heatsink on the CPU (bad I know - but it hasn't been necessary with the level of usage and all the fans in my case). Any recommendations on an upgrade?

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 4:36 pm

Tcase for your CPU is 72C, but I would keep temps below 65C. The stock heat sink may be enough. A lot of factors such as room temps, air flow in case, running GPU apps at the same time. BTW, keep those GPU temps below 70C. Nvidia cards run little cooler than the AMD cards though.

Post by **leecarver** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 5:06 pm

scole250 wrote:Tcase for your CPU is 72C, but I would keep temps below 65C. The stock heat sink may be enough. A lot of factors such as room temps, air flow in case, running GPU apps at the same time. BTW, keep those GPU temps below 70C. Nvidia cards run little cooler than the AMD cards though.

Here's a snapshot of my system now. The graphics card I think is running just fine, but the CPU Cores are running high - though I'm not sure what the difference is between the temperature on the chipset and the cores.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 5:45 pm

Those temps are pretty high. I'd back down the CPU usage until you can improve the cooling. What type system is this? Is it a custom build or particular make-model? If custom, what type/model case?

Post by **leecarver** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 7:44 pm

scole250 wrote:Those temps are pretty high. I'd back down the CPU usage until you can improve the cooling. What type system is this? Is it a custom build or particular make-model? If custom, what type/model case?

Custom build. The case is a Rosewill Thor full tower (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product).

Here's the system running on "idle" without BOINC operating.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:22 pm

Looks like a decent case. Assuming you have all the fans running, pushing air in from front/side and out the top/rear, looks like a cpu cooler upgrade might be best. The most cost effective option is an air cooler which run $20-$50 for a decent one, but some can cost more. Some of the folks here could recommend a few. I've used Corsair Hydro coolers on some of my rigs. They cost more than air coolers but are a little quieter. They're all in one closed systems and ready to bolt on. No extra pumps, fans, parts needed. They'll run $60-$90 for one with a 120mm radiator and can mount on the rear fan outlet. If you have room for a 240mm radiator, they run $100-$110.

Post by **leecarver** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:55 pm

Thanks for the recommendation. I think, given budget constraints, I'll probably go with the Cooler Master 212 (

And thanks again for reminding me to check the temperatures. By the time I got this system built, it was going into storage.

Post by **Dirk Broer** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:21 pm

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO might be one of the best coolers -based upon price/performance- around (I own one myself), I'd go for at least the Cooler Master Hyper 412S, just a tiny bit more expensive but better cooling. When your motherboard supports two fans per cpu: try a push-pull installation. I use two such ones to great satisfaction myself.

When money is no objection: think about either a Noctua NH-D15 or a Corsair H100i All In One watercooler.

Post by **leecarver** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:31 pm

Dirk Broer wrote:The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO might be one of the best coolers -based upon price/performance- around (I own one myself), I'd go for at least the Cooler Master Hyper 412S, just a tiny bit more expensive but better cooling.

Did the 412 get replaced by the 612 or another model? It doesn't even appear you can buy the 412 on the Cooler Master store website, and the ones on Amazon are $100.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:43 pm

leecarver wrote:I'm not sure what the difference is between the temperature on the chipset and the cores.

The core temps are the actual CPU cores. The chipset temps are the northbridge, VRMs, various temp sensors on motherboard. Here's the info on one of mine, but darned if I can find info about exactly what they are.

Hardware monitor Nuvoton NCT6779
Temperature 0 30Â°C (86Â°F) [0x1E] (SYSTIN)
Temperature 1 42Â°C (106Â°F) [0x53] (CPUTIN)
Temperature 3 53Â°C (127Â°F) [0x35] (TMPIN3)

Hardware monitor ACPI
Temperature 0 28Â°C (82Â°F) [0xBC2] (TZ00)
Temperature 1 30Â°C (85Â°F) [0xBD6] (TZ01)

Post by **Dirk Broer** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:08 pm

leecarver wrote:
Dirk Broer wrote:The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO might be one of the best coolers -based upon price/performance- around (I own one myself), I'd go for at least the Cooler Master Hyper 412S, just a tiny bit more expensive but better cooling.
Did the 412 get replaced by the 612 or another model? It doesn't even appear you can buy the 412 on the Cooler Master store website, and the ones on Amazon are $100.

The Hyper 412S is still very much alive and kicking here, at 34.99 Euro compared to the Hyper 212 EVO at 32.99. Not a single 612 in sight though... good alternative is the Scythe Mugen 4 or the Gelid Tranquillo Rev.2

Post by **leecarver** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:23 am

Thanks for all the feedback! I think I'm going to hold off on the crunching until I get this addressed.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 1:57 pm

leecarver wrote:Thanks for all the feedback! I think I'm going to hold off on the crunching until I get this addressed.

Your CPU is running at about 80 deg C which is not that bad really. I had an i7 that ran for months at 100 deg C before I realised

The stock cooler is not the greatest as not designed for 24/7 flat out crunching. I have a few Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and similar on most of my systems and they do work better but most of my systems still run in the 70 - 80 deg C level.
Turn the core usage down to 75 % ( tools, computer preferences, on multiprocessor systems use at most ) which will reduce your temperatures a bit but will also make the 3 units run faster as it will give you some overhead. ( I try to run all systems at close to 75 -80 % usage )

Post by **leecarver** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 2:07 pm

Thanks, Alez! I'll make that tweak when I get home.

I still think I want to get the improved heatsink, but that does give me some reassurance that my system hasn't been melting itself all this time. I'd like to be able to leave my CPU on when I'm at work and not worry about it degrading.

Is it just the crunching that causes the cores to heat up so much? I see all these people reporting 30 C temperatures on their systems (using something like the Hyper 212) while in full use, but not necessarily for crunching.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 2:35 pm

TSBT finished 5th from 16 teams and managed to finish well ahead of LAF, Korea, SETI.germany and UBT.

Individual positions were

scole of TSBT 7th
Bryan 12th
alez [ TSBT's Pirate ] 14th
Janos of TSBT 24th
Megacruncher TSBT 29th
leecarver 50th
Paul of TSBT 53rd
Skywalker TSBT 74th
Dirk Broer 81st
MarkRBright 105th
David Jackson 165th
Arnie 167th
ejfj 232nd
Radio 297th
phildemeur 327th
Wynne 405th
David 440th
Sharron Gray 520th
Chris 536th
Grum 552nd
Jeremy Roebuck 560th

Well done to all you took part and a special mention to our guest crunchers for helping out. A great job everyone.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 2:54 pm

leecarver wrote:Thanks, Alez! I'll make that tweak when I get home.

I still think I want to get the improved heatsink, but that does give me some reassurance that my system hasn't been melting itself all this time. I'd like to be able to leave my CPU on when I'm at work and not worry about it degrading.

Is it just the crunching that causes the cores to heat up so much? I see all these people reporting 30 C temperatures on their systems (using something like the Hyper 212) while in full use, but not necessarily for crunching.

Yes it's the crunching that is producing the heat because you are running your cores at 100% all the time, ie max power. Also your board may be applying an overclock or turbo mode, hence even more heat. Running at 75% will split the work of 3 cores across 4 cores and so cool things a bit.

The stock cooler is not designed for flat out all the time, pure economics as most people do not push the systems like we do. To crunch 24/7 you need a better cooler for sure, but you don't need to spend a fortune on one. Any decent make with 3 heat pipes and a fan to push the air out the case towards the rear extraction fan will do ( that's what I use on multiple systems ). Obviously 4 heat pipes are better and 2 fans in a push / pull configuration even better but not a requirement. Ambient temperature round the computer has a huge effect and you need to base your requirements around that.

Different projects also have a huge effect on heat produced, Asteroids being one of the hottest due to the high optimisation of the app where efficiency = far more work from the core = lots more heat. Less efficient apps will run the system a lot cooler.

I can't comment on 30 C except to say that the biggest system I have on an i7 with HT off, 3 of 4 cores used, a large aftermarket cooler ( coolmaster but can't remember which one ) and tons of exterior fans sitting outside in the garage and I still get temps in the 50 - 60's C. To achieve 30 C at full load ( true full load being always at 100 % usage on SSE3 AVX etc ) I can only imagine being possible in an extremely cold room or far more likely with water cooling.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:02 pm

I also see you have a GTX 770 GPU. If you are using that as well, then play with the percentage settings as It's often necessary to leave a core free to feed that properly. Try 75 % usage and also try 50 % usage and see what works best using hardware monitor to see the load, temps etc and also see how much faster units complete both on the cpu and the gpu. Try it over a number of hours before making a decision. It's all about a balance on your own system , 100% usage is very rarely the best / most efficient usage of your system. You need to have overhead for the system itself, bus transfer to GPU, temperature control etc. Also unless the system is 100% boinc then it will have other programs that require cpu time etc.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:24 pm

Well done everyone!

Janos and the rest of you who don't have a signature badge graphic, you need to set it up and show off those badges!

Post by **leecarver** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 3:46 am

It's been a while, but the CPU is back online. Added the Hyper 212 and adjusted the CPU processing power to 75% as suggested. Haven't seen anything over 60C. Most of the time its hovering in the high 40s/low 50s.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:15 pm

If those are temps running 4 asteroids AVX tasks, crank that usage back up to 100%. Running at 60C constantly is ok. Having a some spikes over 60C isn't going to hurt either.

Skynet POGS is team challenge this week. No GPU app, just CPU. See chatter here...http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 148&t=2638