My power bill is fairly high so I do make sure I have all the monitors off most of the time (just check how they are doing twice per day)
I use Ultra VNC to check my computers; only one of them has keyboard, mouse and monitor attached.
UVNC comes first when rebooting the computer, before the logon-screen is shown.
This can save you also the standby-power.
Thanks for the heads up! If the sdd gives me any proplem I will just un-mount one of my many SATA drives. One of them has Vista 64, but I am told that won't be any advantage. Memory useage [from nvidia monitor] is less then 500 meg.
I ordered the sdd out of curiosity. Its maybe 60gigs and cost about $60 or something, so it would be no great loss if it screws up.
As for cheaper gtx 650? I just ordered an EVGA GTX 650 1meg from Amazon for about $105 shipping included. It is claimed to run at 1082 mghz which is actually 10 more then the ASUS clocked in my mule machine. If the ASUS [times four] machine is trouble free [chuckle chuckle) I may try for a budget build with the EVGA cards.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
I switched my preferences and now run two tasks per cuda card. There is a small improvement, but the CPU usage went WAY up. Not that it matters, I suppose. One of the CUDA cards [gts 450] is subject to an occasional error running both single and double tasks. Don't know yet if the situation was aggravated by the double up.
My test GTX 650 rarely runs an error and with four more of them coming in a single machine I will be curious.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
I do not worry much about electrical draw during the Winter. The computers simple replace propane heat with resistance heat. Since the machines are concentrated in my living space [the central heat gets everywhere even though I try to stop it] there is little penalty for it. I have not run central heat much at all this year.
The living space also has a small ventless fire log set [10,000 btu]. If outside temps get to the low 40 degree area I turn it on. Further, I live in the N. Georgia mountains where Summer is not all that bad. But I do run A/C and may move the power greedy machines out to the deck for a few months. Or just turn them off since they are not Work Unit efficient.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
I use Ultra VNC to check my computers; only one of them has keyboard, mouse and monitor attached.
UVNC comes first when rebooting the computer, before the logon-screen is shown.
This can save you also the standby-power.
With a bit of password-setup, the BOINC manager can remotely access any of your computers (n.b. only tried this on linux). Also (as a thought) couldn't you share the BOINC directory of your Windows hosts? Then you could just scan the "job_log_einstein.phys.uwm.edu.txt" file on each host to check it's running ok (each job that is processed makes a one-line entry in this file).
My power bill is fairly high so I do make sure I have all the monitors off most of the time (just check how they are doing twice per day)
I use Ultra VNC to check my computers; only one of them has keyboard, mouse and monitor attached.
UVNC comes first when rebooting the computer, before the logon-screen is shown.
This can save you also the standby-power.
I also use UVNC and it works just fine in Windows 7 and XP environments. I have used Win8 but not with UVNC so can't say how that goes. UVNC is free for non commercial use and is easy to setup. It is also somewhat secure in that once you setup a password and you want to connect to multiple pc's, you MUST physically type in the password each time, no cutting and pasting. The strength of the password and whether you allow non network access or not helps too. I have mine set to ONLY allow access from my own internal network and use both letters and numbers for the passwords.
There ARE programs that you can use that will grab all the info from your different pc's and collect it for you to view in one place, that means no logging into each pc every day as I do using UVNC.
I have used Win8 but not with UVNC so can't say how that goes.
There ARE programs that you can use that will grab all the info from your different pc's and collect it for you to view in one place, that means no logging into each pc every day as I do using UVNC.
I have one PC running win8, works in the same way like win7, no difference.
I have installed BoincTasks now, just to see how that works. I have no idea how to add my nexus (android, nativeboinc), but it is a sympathic program.
My expected production and power draw is based on actual observation of an Asus GTX 650 in my Gold Star powered machine. [I really really recommend my Reliance Amp/Watt meter from Amazon. Real heavy duty, simply, pro quality piece for not much money. I forget how much.}
PRODUCTION FROM GTX 650: 500 credit BRP is produced in 50-55 seconds. Call it 60 seconds for short and thats 24 tasks per day for 12,000 credits. Total production is 4x12000 = 48,000 plus 1,500 from the dual processor = 49,500 per day.
POWER DRAW: I put the Asus gtx 650 in my Gold Star powered machine, it added 35 watts to the total when running the BRP tasks.
ADD POWER OVERHEAD: The new MB has a 35 Watt processor, and Solid state HD. Lets round it all off to 50 Watts overhead so 50 Watts Base Power Draw plus 35 watts x 4 GTX 650 = 190 Watts. Round up 200 watts total. A total daily credit of 49,500 produced by 200 watts means 10,000 credits would be produce by 40.4 Watts.
My actual mileage may vary, but thats how I came up with the estimate. The GTX 650's were expensive. About $170 each, but similar units can be had for much much lower. So my CUDA cards cost a total of $680. I expect the minimalistic supporting platform will come in at maybe the same amount for a big total of more then $1,300.
I will provide actual details in a week or two. In this build my goal was to maximize production per Watt and the hell with cost. My machines run 24/7/365 and power draw is actually a significant consideration. This machine could unplug up to 800 watts of already fairly high efficiency HP 'life cycle optimized' office machines. DC 7600 sff core duo 2.83 ghz at 70 watts per plug base-draw plus one Express 16 slot with GT 610, 620, and 630 Card. Thats about a $1.50 per day where I live.
If all this works then next time brining down equipment costs will be the concurrent goal.
While it may be fun experimenting, in the end you could get about the same output from 2 x 650 ti or one 660 ti or an HD 7950. Any of the above should have a lower power draw than the 4 x 650 system. This sort of thing has been tried by many on various projects and the simpler solution always wins. Not trying to be a downer, but take it from someone who's run many configurations on just about every GPU project: 19 GPUs running at the moment, and the simpler solutions from fewer cards always produce more credits per watt (tested via kill-a-watt and assuming similar technology level for the GPUs).
RE: My power bill is
)
I use Ultra VNC to check my computers; only one of them has keyboard, mouse and monitor attached.
UVNC comes first when rebooting the computer, before the logon-screen is shown.
This can save you also the standby-power.
Mike, Thanks for the heads
)
Mike,
Thanks for the heads up! If the sdd gives me any proplem I will just un-mount one of my many SATA drives. One of them has Vista 64, but I am told that won't be any advantage. Memory useage [from nvidia monitor] is less then 500 meg.
I ordered the sdd out of curiosity. Its maybe 60gigs and cost about $60 or something, so it would be no great loss if it screws up.
As for cheaper gtx 650? I just ordered an EVGA GTX 650 1meg from Amazon for about $105 shipping included. It is claimed to run at 1082 mghz which is actually 10 more then the ASUS clocked in my mule machine. If the ASUS [times four] machine is trouble free [chuckle chuckle) I may try for a budget build with the EVGA cards.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
Hi Alec, I switched my
)
Hi Alec,
I switched my preferences and now run two tasks per cuda card. There is a small improvement, but the CPU usage went WAY up. Not that it matters, I suppose. One of the CUDA cards [gts 450] is subject to an occasional error running both single and double tasks. Don't know yet if the situation was aggravated by the double up.
My test GTX 650 rarely runs an error and with four more of them coming in a single machine I will be curious.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
Hi Majic, I do not worry
)
Hi Majic,
I do not worry much about electrical draw during the Winter. The computers simple replace propane heat with resistance heat. Since the machines are concentrated in my living space [the central heat gets everywhere even though I try to stop it] there is little penalty for it. I have not run central heat much at all this year.
The living space also has a small ventless fire log set [10,000 btu]. If outside temps get to the low 40 degree area I turn it on. Further, I live in the N. Georgia mountains where Summer is not all that bad. But I do run A/C and may move the power greedy machines out to the deck for a few months. Or just turn them off since they are not Work Unit efficient.
Arecibo 19 Oct 2012
Just Because The Space Alien Is Green
Does Not Mean You Should Go
RE: I use Ultra VNC to
)
With a bit of password-setup, the BOINC manager can remotely access any of your computers (n.b. only tried this on linux). Also (as a thought) couldn't you share the BOINC directory of your Windows hosts? Then you could just scan the "job_log_einstein.phys.uwm.edu.txt" file on each host to check it's running ok (each job that is processed makes a one-line entry in this file).
RE: The computers simple
)
I do the same here; electrical heating just means less oil heating, with the difference being usefully used.
Here's a link to some more
)
Here's a link to some more info on how to control Boinc remotely.
RE: RE: My power bill is
)
I also use UVNC and it works just fine in Windows 7 and XP environments. I have used Win8 but not with UVNC so can't say how that goes. UVNC is free for non commercial use and is easy to setup. It is also somewhat secure in that once you setup a password and you want to connect to multiple pc's, you MUST physically type in the password each time, no cutting and pasting. The strength of the password and whether you allow non network access or not helps too. I have mine set to ONLY allow access from my own internal network and use both letters and numbers for the passwords.
There ARE programs that you can use that will grab all the info from your different pc's and collect it for you to view in one place, that means no logging into each pc every day as I do using UVNC.
RE: I have used Win8 but
)
I have one PC running win8, works in the same way like win7, no difference.
I have installed BoincTasks now, just to see how that works. I have no idea how to add my nexus (android, nativeboinc), but it is a sympathic program.
RE: Hi, My expected
)
While it may be fun experimenting, in the end you could get about the same output from 2 x 650 ti or one 660 ti or an HD 7950. Any of the above should have a lower power draw than the 4 x 650 system. This sort of thing has been tried by many on various projects and the simpler solution always wins. Not trying to be a downer, but take it from someone who's run many configurations on just about every GPU project: 19 GPUs running at the moment, and the simpler solutions from fewer cards always produce more credits per watt (tested via kill-a-watt and assuming similar technology level for the GPUs).
Regards/Beyond