Joining WCG and/or Folding

[Sasqui]

Thanks to @Norton and crew with another super-tabulous giveaway, I was the lucky recipient of the following in memory of Kreij :

Gift 4(US/CA)- MSI Z97/Pentium G3258 mb/cpu combo donated by @RealNeil includes bequiet! PURE ROCK cooler donated by @jboydgolfer

When I entered, I said this would be for my 14 yr old (just turned 15) and his condition was to help build, and use the rig for WCG or Folding when he wasn't using it. I supply the rest of the PC and electricity

So I'm outfitting it with 8 GB of 2133 DDR3, a PSU, a re purposed 320GB WD Black drive, DVD drive, 650W PSU, and I think I'm going to give (lend?) him my 2nd 290x.

We'll be overclocking the G3258 (Two cores, no HT & unlocked multi). It'll go in a brand new Rosewill case I have sitting in storage.

QUESTION: How can I get the most out of this for WCG or Folding. Can you do both on the same rig, or just stick to one? Can the 290x be used for compute power too? I've looked at a few guides already

Side note: My son will likely join TPU as part of this endeavor He already thinks pretty highly of this place thanks in part to the giveaways and this rig! He's very much looking forward to putting it to good use for WCG or Folding.

TIA!

 

[jboydgolfer]

Can the 290x be used for compute power too?

admittedly my knowledge on this subject is VERY limited, so please take it with a grain of salt, but iirc, GPU work isn't viable or available from what i saw in a serprate thread. but please dont take just my response, other more knowledgable members surely will chime in inevitably.

Im glad you and your Son won, Please enjoy it, and thanks to @Norton for ALL of his HARD work, he is certainly already busy as it is.

 

[Sasqui]

admittedly my knowledge on this subject is VERY limited, so please take it with a grain of salt, but iirc, GPU work isn't viable or available from what i saw in a serprate thread. but please dont take just my response, other more knowledgable members surely will chime in inevitably.

Im glad you and your Son won, Please enjoy it, and thanks to @Norton for ALL of his HARD work, he is certainly already busy as it is.

Thanks, as you can probably tell, I'm looking for a little hand-holding. Getting the WCG software/client install seems pretty easy. Folding looks a little more complicated.

He's getting the 290x by default, since I really don't play much on my second rig. If it can be leveraged for WCG or folding, that would icing on the cake.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Thanks, as you can probably tell, I'm looking for a little hand-holding. Getting the WCG software/client install seems pretty easy. Folding looks a little more complicated.

He's getting the 290x by default, since I really don't play much on my second rig. If it can be leveraged for WCG or folding, that would icing on the cake.

im certain the team will be glad to have you , and your Sons help. Also a great activity to enjoy, while getting to spend time with your Son. Have fun.

 

[mstenholm]

If he is going to crunch/fold on/off I suggest WCG for the CPU. The folding thing is not complicated at all just download the program and fill out name, teamnumber and passkey do 10 units and the get nice bonus. The problem is that folding on/off on one job will ruin the bonus so unless he let it run all the night or as long as a unit takes (290X - my guess 4-10 hours depending of job) don't bother. Fell free to ask.

Most task can be done at the same times as the GPU is folding. Gaming is not most tasks . I have my GPU runing 24/7 on my work PC and there is were few jobs that interfere with Youtube and "other" video activities.

 

[Sasqui]

If he is going to crunch/fold on/off I suggest WCG for the CPU. The folding thing is not complicated at all just download the program and fill out name, teamnumber and passkey do 10 units and the get nice bonus. The problem is that folding on/off on one job will ruin the bonus so unless he let it run all the night or as long as a unit takes (290X - my guess 4-10 hours depending of job) don't bother. Fell free to ask.

Most task can be done at the same times as the GPU is folding. Gaming is not most tasks . I have my GPU runing 24/7 on my work PC and there is were few jobs that interfere with Youtube and "other" video activities.

That makes the picture clearer. Things I don't know such as how the WCG jobs are run, can you pause them, can you line up multple jobs, etc. ?

There are times when the PC will be idle for days or sometimes a week at a time, but when he wants to play or watch YT, the PC definitely needs to stop working on WCG so he can enjoy it ...particularly since the CPU is limited to two threads.

 

[jboydgolfer]

yes it can be paused/canceled @ any time you see fit iirc. i also believe scheduling/lining up work loads as You see fit is an option as well.

 

[Sasqui]

yes it can be paused/canceled @ any time you see fit iirc. i also believe scheduling/lining up work loads as You see fit is an option as well.

Sweet... I guess we just have to jump in feet first with WCG, see where it goes... and move on to Folding in the hopes the 290x will crunch.

Plan is to start putting the rig together this evening, tabletop build - in a carboard box for portability

 

[stinger608]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet; Folding with the 290x would require one of the cores to be freed up from Crunching. So the G3258 would be crunching with a single core and the other core used for Folding.

The 290x should, if I remember correctly, give some pretty impressive numbers Folding.

 

[Sasqui]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet; Folding with the 290x would require one of the cores to be freed up from Crunching. So the G3258 would be crunching with a single core and the other core used for Folding.

The 290x should, if I remember correctly, give some pretty impressive numbers Folding.

Was wondering about the CPU with only 2 threads. The 290x was the most popular card for mining, I suspected it'd be good for folding. To bad WCG isn't written to take advantage of it!

 

[stinger608]

Was wondering about the CPU with only 2 threads. The 290x was the most popular card for mining, I suspected it'd be good for folding. To bad WCG isn't written to take advantage of it!

I agree. A couple of years ago there were some work units that took advantage of GPU computing power. Man we were all banging out some serious numbers during that time.

Being an overclocked G3258 I would still fire it up with one core Crunching. Heck, it will still put out work units.

 

[manofthem]

Awesome @Sasqui that your considering joining in!

BOINC is the crunching program, and it is very simple to pause and resume work units. I'd definitely suggest trying that out and getting used to it.

Folding is awesome too and the 290x would do well if it runs straight. At times before, I would pause folding units and then resume but it really kills production and points, as @mstenholm said. Folding is something I would do if you know there is time to let it run without interruption

WCG units do not punish/bonus based on time, but there is a deadline for the units; it's usually generous and typically you wouldn't have an issue meeting it unless you pause and never resume.


Last thing: when you sign up for WCG, ensure that the team link is used. This should be it

 

[Norton]

Awesome that you're interested in crunching and/or folding for our TPU Teams @Sasqui !!!

Team members have already given so some pretty solid input but I'll toss in a couple of things

First here's some basic info on joining up and getting started (borrowed from one of our challenge threads):

For crunching....
Follow this link to register and join our Team:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do?teamID=S8TLJ6TFV1
Once you're registered you can follow the prompts and install software- it's all pretty straight forward
If you have any questions you can post them in this thread, our Team thread, or PM an existing Team member.
Our Team thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-wcg-boinc-team.85784/
For folding....
See this thread to get started:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/easy-setup-for-folding-home.200520/
If you have any questions you can post them in this thread, the folding Team thread, or PM an existing Team member.
Folding Team thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-f-h-team.13038/

To respond to some of your questions and/or provide some general comments:

- follow the crunching link and the software download/setup should provide you with a minimal impact profile so the PC will be mostly unaffected by user activity.

When folding....
- your gpu will likely heat up the room it's in, which is great for those chilly nights!
- I recommend only folding when you have the time to allow the PC to finish the entire job- you are rewarded for finishing a job quickly.

That's all I have time for now... another crazy work day

Welcome Aboard!!!

 

[Sasqui]

Awesome @Sasqui that your considering joining in!

BOINC is the crunching program, and it is very simple to pause and resume work units. I'd definitely suggest trying that out and getting used to it.

Folding is awesome too and the 290x 2ioo do well if it runs straight. At times before, I would pause folding units and then resume but it really kills production and points, as @mstenholm said. Folding is something I would do if you know there I time to let it run without interruption

WCG units do not punish/bonus based on time, but there is a deadline for the units; it's usually generous and typically you wouldn't have an issue meeting it unless you pause and never resume.

Not just considering... honored and dragging my 15 yr old in as well, he's excited!

I read about the BIONIC install on one of the WCG forum sticky's and it looked quite simple. Yep, sounding more and more like we just need to install and start crunching. The PC will be up and running by the end of this week if things work out. My son has mid-terms this week so he's been spending time studying. I want to tell him how it all goes together and let him do it himself. Depending on how that goes, I may put my Xeon rig X5470 @ 4Ghz to use for WCG... I'm assuming the 4 cores in the Xeon would do better than the G3258

 

[Sasqui]

Awesome that you're interested in crunching and/or folding for our TPU Teams @Sasqui !!!

Team members have already given so some pretty solid input but I'll toss in a couple of things

First here's some basic info on joining up and getting started (borrowed from one of our challenge threads):

For crunching....
Follow this link to register and join our Team:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do?teamID=S8TLJ6TFV1
Once you're registered you can follow the prompts and install software- it's all pretty straight forward
If you have any questions you can post them in this thread, our Team thread, or PM an existing Team member.
Our Team thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-wcg-boinc-team.85784/
For folding....
See this thread to get started:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/easy-setup-for-folding-home.200520/
If you have any questions you can post them in this thread, the folding Team thread, or PM an existing Team member.
Folding Team thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-f-h-team.13038/

To respond to some of your questions and/or provide some general comments:

- follow the crunching link and the software download/setup should provide you with a minimal impact profile so the PC will be mostly unaffected by user activity.

When folding....
- your gpu will likely heat up the room it's in, which is great for those chilly nights!
- I recommend only folding when you have the time to allow the PC to finish the entire job- you are rewarded for finishing a job quickly.

That's all I have time for now... another crazy work day

Welcome Aboard!!!

Awesome, thanks for startup guide @Norton ! We'll start with WCG and move onto folding after we've got that nailed.

 

[stinger608]

I'm assuming the 4 cores in the Xeon would do better than the G3258

Oh yea, absolutely man! The Xeon's crunch very awesome. And I am assuming that the Xeon has Hyperthreading so in reality it will crunch 8 units at a time.

 

[Sasqui]

Oh yea, absolutely man! The Xeon's crunch very awesome. And I am assuming that the Xeon has Hyperthreading so in reality it will crunch 8 units at a time.

http://ark.intel.com/products/35430/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5470-12M-Cache-3_33-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

No HT :/ - is there a bench in BIONIC (or another benchmark) that would tell which does better? 4 cores/threads @ 4Ghz on the X5470 vs. 2 cores/threads (@4.5Ghz?) on the G3258.

 

[stinger608]

Hmm, @Sasqui , I'm not sure if there is a bench showing something like that. I think there is a cpu comparison chart but not sure what the URL is. But I'm quite sure that a Xeon quad would well out perform a dual core Pentium.

 

[xvi]

is there a bench in BIONIC (or another benchmark) that would tell which does better? 4 cores/threads @ 4Ghz on the X5470 vs. 2 cores/threads (@4.5Ghz?) on the G3258.

But I'm quite sure that a Xeon quad would well out perform a dual core Pentium.

I agree. The X5470 should have no trouble beating the G3258.

 

[stinger608]

Yep, probably over double the output........I would think anyhow.

 

[[Ion]]

http://ark.intel.com/products/35430/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5470-12M-Cache-3_33-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

No HT :/ - is there a bench in BIONIC (or another benchmark) that would tell which does better? 4 cores/threads @ 4Ghz on the X5470 vs. 2 cores/threads (@4.5Ghz?) on the G3258.

I'm honestly not sure. Penryn -> Nehalem -> Westmere -> Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge -> Haswell is a LOT of generations separating them. I don't think the gap would be as big as you think, and the Xeon would use a LOT more power to do so.

 

[xvi]

Yep, probably over double the output........I would think anyhow.

Eeeaaah.. The 5400 series is a little dated (basically a Core 2 Quad/Extreme), so while it will certainly be faster, I don't think it'll blow it out of the water.

Edit: Not the cleanest data, but a good place to start none the less. Check out userbenchmark to see these two duke it out real-world.

 

[Sasqui]

Eeeaaah.. The 5400 series is a little dated (basically a Core 2 Quad/Extreme), so while it will certainly be faster, I don't think it'll blow it out of the water.

Edit: Not the cleanest data, but a good place to start none the less. Check out userbenchmark to see these two duke it out real-world.

Very dated! I did the 771 -> 775 mod on an ASUS MB, worked great. I'm guessing the two extra cores tops it over the G3258.

Is it possible to run the same two jobs with BIONIC and compare speed? I could always test using Cinebench too.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

Where's the link to the configuration program so he can report results immediately the edit is a godsend if u want consistent points as it uploads results as soon as they are done. Wish I had bookmarked the thread cause I can't find it for the life of me

Edit : it stickied, grab it it's a must have

 

[Sasqui]

Where's the link to the configuration program so he can report results immediately the edit is a godsend if u want consistent points as it uploads results as soon as they are done. Wish I had bookmarked the thread cause I can't find it for the life of me

Edit : it stickied, grab it it's a must have

Awesome, found it: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/simple-wcg-ppd-estimator.111026/

I'm on a delay due to my son having mid-terms this week. He was up till 10:30 and then up at 4:00AM writing an overdue report and studying. Procrastination!