Hi everyone.
I've just recently started using BOINC. I used to run the old Seti@Home client and stopped crunching when BOINC first came out as I didn't like it much.
However I decided to give it another go so installed it and started up Seti again. I've looked at some of the other projects but I'm not sure if I will do any of them.
I'm a little confused about how mulitple project crunching works, do you crunch workunits for 1 project then another project then switching back to the 1st?
I'm running an Intel E8400 at the moment so it does 2 work units at the same time, usually taking about 2-2 1/4 hours per unit. BOINC manager seems to keep 8 units in total at a time although I'm not sure how to change that or if I need to.
Any useful advice or guidance would be most appreciated.
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Forum rules
Welcome to The Scottish Boinc Team boards. See forum rules in pinned post. If you can't be bothered then try not to be too naughty as I have a delete button to press and a ban hammer to swing.
Welcome to The Scottish Boinc Team boards. See forum rules in pinned post. If you can't be bothered then try not to be too naughty as I have a delete button to press and a ban hammer to swing.
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Nightlord
#2
Hello and welcome to the team! 
Boinc operates an automated cache, in rather a similar manner to the way the old SetiQueue add-on used to.
By updating your preferences on your Seti account page you can increase the size of the cache and keep more WU's on hand. This is useful if they have a server outage or if you loose your internet connection. If your machine is not on 24/7, it may pay not to increase the cache too much for a few days until Boinc has figurd out how much time is available for crunching.
Running multiple projects under Boinc is one of the big differences to the old Seti way of doing things. Seti is now just one of many projects supported by Boinc. Adding a new project is very simple. In the Boinc Manager simple view select Add Project (in the Advanced View, look under Tools>Attach Project). Follow the wizard and add whichever projects you wish. Be sure to use the same email address for each project to keep your stats in line. Boinc will manage the share of cpu time for you (defaulting to equal share per project), but you can adjust that in your preferences. Simple as that really, Boinc sorts out all the project and WU interaction, switching between the projects and WU's for you. If you machine is not on 24/7, Boinc will handle that too, adjusting priorities to suit.
As you can see from my sig, I've run up to 15 projects at some point in time, others have more, but even if you stay on Seti, enjoy the fun!
Boinc operates an automated cache, in rather a similar manner to the way the old SetiQueue add-on used to.
By updating your preferences on your Seti account page you can increase the size of the cache and keep more WU's on hand. This is useful if they have a server outage or if you loose your internet connection. If your machine is not on 24/7, it may pay not to increase the cache too much for a few days until Boinc has figurd out how much time is available for crunching.
Running multiple projects under Boinc is one of the big differences to the old Seti way of doing things. Seti is now just one of many projects supported by Boinc. Adding a new project is very simple. In the Boinc Manager simple view select Add Project (in the Advanced View, look under Tools>Attach Project). Follow the wizard and add whichever projects you wish. Be sure to use the same email address for each project to keep your stats in line. Boinc will manage the share of cpu time for you (defaulting to equal share per project), but you can adjust that in your preferences. Simple as that really, Boinc sorts out all the project and WU interaction, switching between the projects and WU's for you. If you machine is not on 24/7, Boinc will handle that too, adjusting priorities to suit.
As you can see from my sig, I've run up to 15 projects at some point in time, others have more, but even if you stay on Seti, enjoy the fun!
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darkmast2
#3
Thanks for the quick reply the information is very useful.
I have another question now :)
I registered on boincstats.com but the stats seem to take a very long time to update, same with the credit status on the Seti site. Is it normal that it takes so long ? I did have some trouble even getting it to recognise my username but I managed to fix that yesterday.
I have another question now :)
I registered on boincstats.com but the stats seem to take a very long time to update, same with the credit status on the Seti site. Is it normal that it takes so long ? I did have some trouble even getting it to recognise my username but I managed to fix that yesterday.
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Nightlord
#4
Ahhhh, credits.......
Where to start?
Some projects offer fixed credits, others have variable algorithms which attempt to determine how much scientific work has been added.
Some projects require more than one user to crunch the same WU (and achieve a similar scientific result) before granting credit. This process ensures scientific accuracy for some projects and generates what is know as Pending Credit (credit which will be granted when your fellow cruncher(s) have completed the same WU). Just now you have 23 WU wating for your "wingman"
Other projects just grant what Boinc claims and are open to abuse, but those are few and far between now. (Boinc runs CPU benchmarks to determine how much work to download. It also uses this to "claim" credit for each WU - these "grant what you claim" projects simply grant the number requested by Boinc - a dangerous thing to do).
As for the stats sites, there's more variables involved there too. Each project exports a stats update. This can happen several times a day or perhaps just once. The stats sites may then immediately update, or they may update on a scheduled basis.
You will make steady progress, but for overall combined stats you may move forwards and backwards during the day depending on when other projects report and until your stats stabilise.
Nice machine by the way 8)
Where to start?
Some projects offer fixed credits, others have variable algorithms which attempt to determine how much scientific work has been added.
Some projects require more than one user to crunch the same WU (and achieve a similar scientific result) before granting credit. This process ensures scientific accuracy for some projects and generates what is know as Pending Credit (credit which will be granted when your fellow cruncher(s) have completed the same WU). Just now you have 23 WU wating for your "wingman"
Other projects just grant what Boinc claims and are open to abuse, but those are few and far between now. (Boinc runs CPU benchmarks to determine how much work to download. It also uses this to "claim" credit for each WU - these "grant what you claim" projects simply grant the number requested by Boinc - a dangerous thing to do).
As for the stats sites, there's more variables involved there too. Each project exports a stats update. This can happen several times a day or perhaps just once. The stats sites may then immediately update, or they may update on a scheduled basis.
You will make steady progress, but for overall combined stats you may move forwards and backwards during the day depending on when other projects report and until your stats stabilise.
Nice machine by the way 8)
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darkmast2
#5
Thanks for the reply again, I've got more of an understanding on how it works now :)
I just recently built this machine (last weekend) and it's mostly new parts but some from my old machine i.e. Creative Xi-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard, 320gb sata hdd, Hiper Type-R Modular PSU.
I'm very much a gamer and the new system build lets me play games in all their shining glory. So I thought what better use to put it to (apart from gaming) than getting back into crunching data. I did consider getting a quad core processor as the price difference over an E8400 isn't all that much but as I had mainly gaming in mind at the time I didn't feel a quad core would necessarily be the best choice. I could always upgrade to one later as the motherboard can support it.
If you are interested the full build is as follows :-
Intel E8400 Dual Core Processor (3GHz Stock)
Asus P5K-E Wifi Edition Motherboard
Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX (768mb)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Soundcard
2x1GB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (1066MHz)
750GB Samsung Sata2 HD753L HDD
320GB Sata Internal HDD
19" WS Hanns-G TFT
Antec P182 Case
Hiper Type-R Modular 580W PSU
I especially like the case as it has a very smooth feeling to it and along with the new components makes my system far quieter than my previous one even though it has more fans running.
I just recently built this machine (last weekend) and it's mostly new parts but some from my old machine i.e. Creative Xi-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard, 320gb sata hdd, Hiper Type-R Modular PSU.
I'm very much a gamer and the new system build lets me play games in all their shining glory. So I thought what better use to put it to (apart from gaming) than getting back into crunching data. I did consider getting a quad core processor as the price difference over an E8400 isn't all that much but as I had mainly gaming in mind at the time I didn't feel a quad core would necessarily be the best choice. I could always upgrade to one later as the motherboard can support it.
If you are interested the full build is as follows :-
Intel E8400 Dual Core Processor (3GHz Stock)
Asus P5K-E Wifi Edition Motherboard
Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX (768mb)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Soundcard
2x1GB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (1066MHz)
750GB Samsung Sata2 HD753L HDD
320GB Sata Internal HDD
19" WS Hanns-G TFT
Antec P182 Case
Hiper Type-R Modular 580W PSU
I especially like the case as it has a very smooth feeling to it and along with the new components makes my system far quieter than my previous one even though it has more fans running.
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Reeltime
- Boinc Second Lieutenant
- Posts: 543
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:03 am
- Location: Edinburgh
- Contact:
#6
Hello, and welcome aboard.
One quck thing worth mentioning if you are attaching to other projects is that if you want to be part of TSBT (The Scottish Boinc Team) you have to join the team at each individual project.
Nice specs on the machine, how are you finding the X-FI soundcard. I need to upgrade my soundcard drastically to do some recording work.
I'm not sure what you mean about the credit status at SETI, but I think you might be talking about pending credit. SETI sets ridiculously long deadlines for its work, so sometimes it takes a long time to get the credit you have claimed. A lot of projects send out the same work to several users at one, if my memory is right with seti it's 4, if Im wrong someone will correct me lol. If you finish your workunit before the others, you won't get the credit until the others are finished. You can check how much pending credit you have from your account page on SETI.
Hope I have been of use to you :)
One quck thing worth mentioning if you are attaching to other projects is that if you want to be part of TSBT (The Scottish Boinc Team) you have to join the team at each individual project.
Nice specs on the machine, how are you finding the X-FI soundcard. I need to upgrade my soundcard drastically to do some recording work.
I'm not sure what you mean about the credit status at SETI, but I think you might be talking about pending credit. SETI sets ridiculously long deadlines for its work, so sometimes it takes a long time to get the credit you have claimed. A lot of projects send out the same work to several users at one, if my memory is right with seti it's 4, if Im wrong someone will correct me lol. If you finish your workunit before the others, you won't get the credit until the others are finished. You can check how much pending credit you have from your account page on SETI.
Hope I have been of use to you :)
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darkmast2
#7
The soundcard is great it really makes games come alive and coupled with 5.1 speakers it's also handy for watching films and listening to music.
Each Seti unit I've done so far has to be done by 2 people before getting the credit. I've had some units with a deadline of around 22 April but I've also had some with a deadline of around 4 April.
Each Seti unit I've done so far has to be done by 2 people before getting the credit. I've had some units with a deadline of around 22 April but I've also had some with a deadline of around 4 April.
#8
It's been quite a while since I ran Seti, but as far as I recall they give a month or so as the original deadline for work and then, if they have to send out more copies, the copies get ten days.The soundcard is great it really makes games come alive and coupled with 5.1 speakers it's also handy for watching films and listening to music.
Each Seti unit I've done so far has to be done by 2 people before getting the credit. I've had some units with a deadline of around 22 April but I've also had some with a deadline of around 4 April.
