TPU's WCG/BOINC Team

[[Ion]]

My turn in the barrel for hardware issues

My Julia rig (A880GZ/FX-6100) blue screened on me and didn't come back. I've got it running now and suspect it's either the HDD or the SATA channel/SATA cable.

I tried:
- BIOS reset twice (removed battery for 10 minutes)- partial POST/no boot (defaulted back to BIOS)
- pulled one stick of ram (same as above)
- Didn't see HDD in BIOS so I switched the channel and the cable (started right up)

Will try to run for a few hours to see if OK but I may be looking for a small HDD soon (current one is an 160GB 7,200rpm Western Digital but I can get away with one 1/2 that size).

It figures, everything else in the rig still has a warranty

I'm sorry to hear about that. I think I have a 160GB disk I could send your way...

 

[Norton]

I'm sorry to hear about that. I think I have a 160GB disk I could send your way...

Thanks bud but I'm not sure it's the HDD yet- may just be the cable or the motherboard. I don't know if it's worth an RMA to Biostar if it's a dead channel on the board since it's only a $60 board :shadedshu

It's been running for the past hour w/o issue....

 

[[Ion]]

Thanks bud but I'm not sure it's the HDD yet- may just be the cable or the motherboard. I don't know if it's worth an RMA to Biostar if it's a dead channel on the board since it's only a $60 board :shadedshu

It's been running for the past hour w/o issue....

I assume you have cables? I also assume that you don't need all 4 SATA ports--so couldn't you just move it over to another one?

LMK if you want the disk and I'll get it shipped your way

 

[stinger608]

Thanks bud but I'm not sure it's the HDD yet- may just be the cable or the motherboard. I don't know if it's worth an RMA to Biostar if it's a dead channel on the board since it's only a $60 board :shadedshu

It's been running for the past hour w/o issue....

Hopefully it was just the cable man.

 

[Norton]

I have plenty of cables and it's still running fine- will let it run through the night and if all works ok then I'll switch out the cables/try the other SATA channel tomorrow.

 

[Jstn7477]

Last P4 Northwood 2.8/533 is up. This brings me up to 20 systems with BOINC installed currently (though some team members still completely decimate my output by 2-4x).

 

[[Ion]]

Last P4 Northwood 2.8/533 is up. This brings me up to 20 systems with BOINC installed currently (though some team members still completely decimate my output by 2-4x).

Well done

I have 15 systems right now

I was actually offered a dual 3GHz Pentium 4 Xeon system (Dell Precision 670) yesterday for $10--that would have been interesting, but it's enormous, and far too heavy to carry on the bus. That and it would probably perform no better than the Celeron HPs I have, which are admittedly twice the price, but so much smaller and probably use 1/3 the electricity.

 

[t_ski]

I have plenty of cables and it's still running fine- will let it run through the night and if all works ok then I'll switch out the cables/try the other SATA channel tomorrow.

Was the drive very hot? I've seen a few drives that could not be recognized and they seemed to have died from a heat-realted death. Also read about the famous IBM "Deathstar" drives dying fom excessive heat (especially a chip on the controller board).

 

[Norton]

Was the drive very hot? I've seen a few drives that could not be recognized and they seemed to have died from a heat-realted death. Also read about the famous IBM "Deathstar" drives dying fom excessive heat (especially a chip on the controller board).

Found it locked up and BSOD'd this am (didn't stop to look at the code)- checked the drive now and it's nice and cool. It's been running w/o issue since I swapped the SATA cable and channel.

May need to get another t_ski special HDD

 

[t_ski]

Found it locked up and BSOD'd this am (didn't stop to look at the code)- checked the drive now and it's nice and cool. It's been running w/o issue since I swapped the SATA cable and channel.

May need to get another t_ski special HDD

If you need them, I have them, but I think Ion may have offered you something better than what I can provide.

 

[Chicken Patty]

Check it out

TPU WCG TEAM BREACHES TOP 20 OVERALL!!!

 

[Athlon2K15]

Anyone wanna help me setup 2 470s for the GPU WUs?

 

[t_ski]

What CPU are you going to use this with, and do you intend on using the rig while it's crunching, or just when it's idle?

EDIT: Oh, and we should take this here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174138

 

[Athlon2K15]

My rig is in specs CPU is clocked at 4.6 and is 100% stable.I do all of my daily tasks in the morning and after that it just sits idle all day as I move over to my laptop for browsing the web and whatnot.

 

[t_ski]

LOL I knew you had the 2500K, but I figured you had a bunch of extra parts laying around that you were trying to do this on. Check out the last post in the thread I just linked - I made it just for you

 

[KieX]

Anyone wanna help me setup 2 470s for the GPU WUs?

Which stage are you at?

If you need to start from scratch, follow this guide: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93395

Then follow t_ski's link for setting up GPU for maximum return. If you have Windows 8, it might not work though.

 

[Athlon2K15]

No you took all my extra parts remember! I have a 8800GTX laying around thats about it,unless you think a AMD E2-1800 APU is worth crunching

 

[[Ion]]

Well, as he is running nVidia cards there isn't really a benefit to multiple WUs--I think he'd be just as well off running one WU/card and then the CPU.

With that setup, I expect you'll get about 25k PPD (I get 28k PPD with my 2700k/GTX470s).

Check out the link in my signature--I suggest that you tell BOINC to let it use the CPU always and the GPU only when the computer is not in use.

 

[t_ski]

No you took all my extra parts remember!

LOLZ!!

Well, as he is running nVidia cards there isn't really a benefit to multiple WUs--I think he'd be just as well off running one WU/card and then the CPU.

With that setup, I expect you'll get about 25k PPD (I get 28k PPD with my 2700k/GTX470s).

Check out the link in my signature--I suggest that you tell BOINC to let it use the CPU always and the GPU only when the computer is not in use.

I completely disagree. I have had one of my rigs running with a GTX 280 and it would blow through GPU WU's in about 8 minutes, versus hours for the CPU WU's. You can set it to do a couple WU's each and you should get more points faster. Granted, there can be some additional tweaking once you get it up to make it run better for you.

 

[[Ion]]

LOLZ!!



I completely disagree. I have had one of my rigs running with a GTX 280 and it would blow through GPU WU's in about 8 minutes, versus hours for the CPU WU's. You can set it to do a couple WU's each and you should get more points faster. Granted, there can be some additional tweaking once you get it up to make it run better for you.

OK. I admittedly didn't do a ton of testing--but I didn't find much of a benefit on my nV cards. Of course, he would definitely want to run a WU on each card--but what I remember is that the nV WUs keep a GPU core & a CPU core each loaded to 100%.


EDIT: And that AMD APU isn't great, but certainly is worth crunching on--with the GPU, it'll be far faster than my Atom box

 

[t_ski]

OK. I admittedly didn't do a ton of testing--but I didn't find much of a benefit on my nV cards. Of course, he would definitely want to run a WU on each card--but what I remember is that the nV WUs keep a GPU core & a CPU core each loaded to 100%.

I think his best setup is going to be two WU's per card, each with one of the cores on his 2500K, then set it to use the GPU after a couple minutes of inactivity. If that's too much, he can always go with one GPU WU per card and two CPU HCC WU's.

 

[[Ion]]

I think his best setup is going to be two WU's per card, each with one of the cores on his 2500K, then set it to use the GPU after a couple minutes of inactivity. If that's too much, he can always go with one GPU WU per card and two CPU HCC WU's.

You're right--it's always worth experimenting with

The advantage of 1 WU/card though is that it keeps the cards running cooler--these GF100 cards put out a phenomenal amount of heat, given the chance.

 

[ace80]

After reading the news and seeing the amazing achievement everbody here has contributed towards, ive now felt compelled to chip in myself.
I seem to be spending less and less time actually using my pc so while its sitting there idling it may as well do something useful.

Quick question, can i also use an old HD3870 ive got collecting dust or is it too old of a gpu?

 

[t_ski]

Probably too old. IIRC, you need a HD5000 series or newer GPU to crunch on it.

 

[[Ion]]

After reading the news and seeing the amazing achievement everbody here has contributed towards, ive now felt compelled to chip in myself.
I seem to be spending less and less time actually using my pc so while its sitting there idling it may as well do something useful.

Quick question, can i also use an old HD3870 ive got collecting dust or is it too old of a gpu?

Thank you for joining us--it's greatly appreciated

You cannot use the HD3870, it is unfortunately too old. However, your HD6950 can easily handle multiple WUs at once--and will be a very solid performer. Check out the link in my signature and KieX's thread here