Resources

jgn3rd
jgn3rd
Joined: 19 Feb 05
Posts: 12
Credit: 941596
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Topic 188106

My Pc is on 24/7. Very seldom is it turned off. For a number of years I have run programs like E@H. At the present time this is the only progam I'm running.

My computer is http://einsteinathome.org/host/19493

Now for about 12 hours a day I do not use my computer. All resoures are free except an anti-virus that runs in the background.

I have the it set up to contact the server once every 2 days which allows me to have one WU running and 16 in cache. At this time it take 5.5 hours to 6.5 hours to run a single WU.

When I check my resources when the computer is not being used in those 12 hours I find the following:

System Resources: 89% free
User Resources: 89% free
GDI Resources: 97% free

My question is, is there any way that I can donate more of these resources to E@H for these 12 hours since, to me, my computer still has quite a bit of power left that is being wasted. I'm not worried about the credits, I just that I feel that my computer can do more then it is now and send back some good results.

If there is any way to improve the preformance of my PC for E@H I would really be gratefull.

Bernd Machenschalk
Bernd Machenschalk
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Resources

I think the "system resources" average over a number of items, i.e. RAM, HD space etc., the CPU load is only one part of it. Einstein@Home doesn't need much HD space and definetly not much memory most of the time - just about 5MB or so. Take a look at the CPU load and you will probably find it at 100% - if not, something's wrong with your system or settings. The CPU (actaully the FPU) is the limiting factor for E@H.

BM

BM

jgn3rd
jgn3rd
Joined: 19 Feb 05
Posts: 12
Credit: 941596
RAC: 0

Thanks BM. Checked what you

Message 6042 in response to message 6041

Thanks BM. Checked what you said and found it to be true.

If I get this right, my CPU and the FPU is what puts a limit on my processing time per WU and unless the CPU has a better FPU, I should be happy with what I'm doing as far as time per WU is concerned.

John

John McLeod VII
John McLeod VII
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> Thanks BM. Checked what

Message 6043 in response to message 6042

> Thanks BM. Checked what you said and found it to be true.
>
> If I get this right, my CPU and the FPU is what puts a limit on my processing
> time per WU and unless the CPU has a better FPU, I should be happy with what
> I'm doing as far as time per WU is concerned.
>
> John
>
Yes. The FPU and the L1 and L2 caches that feed it are the major bottle necks for all of the BOINC projects. A faster FPU, and larger L1 and L2 caches are the main things that improve processing speed. Of course other things such as buss width, RAM speed and Disk IO speed will have secondary effects on speed.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Joined: 9 Feb 05
Posts: 5842
Credit: 109405624612
RAC: 35418576

> My question is, is there


> My question is, is there any way that I can donate more of these resources to
> E@H for these 12 hours since, to me, my computer still has quite a bit of
> power left that is being wasted. I'm not worried about the credits, I just
> that I feel that my computer can do more then it is now and send back some
> good results.
>
> If there is any way to improve the preformance of my PC for E@H I would really
> be gratefull.

As others have explained, your CPU and its cache are fully utilised even though other resources are reported as being free. I looked at your computer and notice it's an Athlon XP3200+ so potentially it is a good performer. You may be suffering from a slow motherboard or perhaps slow RAM.

I mention this because, out of interest I've compared the throughput of my CPU with yours. I have a Duron 1800 and it performs better than your Athlon 3200+. Before you get too unhappy about that, there are good reasons. Firstly, the Applebred Duron is a Thoroughbred Athlon anyway, the only difference being that 75% of the L2 cache is normally disabled in the Duron. There are techniques to re-enable the missing L2 cache and, out of curiosity, I decided to try it out and to my surprise, it actually worked. My Duron now has 256K L2 cache - same as your Athlon. Be aware however that these techniques involve micro surgery on parts of the substrate on which the actual CPU silicon is mounted and are certainly only to be attempted using correct equipment and foreknowledge about exactly how to do it and the risks involved.

Secondly, my Duron doesn't run at the stock FSB of 133.3mHz. I run it in a good performance overclocking motherboard, an Abit NF7-S. I can run it perfectly stable at 160.5mHz and with the locked 13.5 multiplier, this gives me 2166mHz for the CPU speed instead of 1800. This gives a noticeable boost in performance. I get another performance boost by running the FSB:Dram ratio at 3:4 which means that for a FSB of 160.5, I actually have a Dram speed of 214mHz. The memory is DDR400 but I have tested it to 220mHz without problems. You just have to do a bit of testing to find memory that will run reliably at faster than stock speed (200mHz).

The only other hardware changes I made were to increase slightly the Vcore voltage from 1.65v to 1.725v and this had a beneficial effect on stability with the expense of a hotter running CPU. I could have upgraded the stock cooler but I found that all I needed to do to lower the CPU temperature was to replace the 60mm stock CPU fan with a 80mm one which fits easily with a home made mounting bracket. The combination of bigger diameter and faster RPM (together with an extra case fan to extract the hot internal air) gave significant cooling benefit.

Overclocking is really only an option for those who are interested in tinkering around and experimenting to find out how things really work. It involves a significant amount of time in reading and researching the findings of others. Unless you are prepared to do this, you should avoid trying to do a "quick fix" as you will probably damage something. There are lots of tricks to be learned. However, the performance rewards are significant.

To answer your original question, my L2 cache modded Duron is reported by software like CpuZ as being an Athlon XP2700+. It turns out Einstein WUs in around 21,000 seconds or slightly less than 6 hours. Your XP3200+ seems to be averaging around 6.5 hours. You should be able to kill my times. The difference must lie in motherboard and RAM performance.

One other small point. I saw the 16 cached WUs that you mentioned that you have, but in going back through your list of results you also seem to have a further 9 which will expire around 2-3 March. You would seem to be at risk of having WUs expire without the time to process them. If I were you I would reduce the time interval that controls the cache size to 1.0 day rather than the higher value you are currently using. Even if you really only have a cache of 16, I would reduce it to much less than that if you have a reasonable internet connection. The benefits are (a) less risk of expiry and (b) faster granting of credit to yourself and the others who are waiting for your result to complete the process. It doesn't make much sense to sit on a WU for several days before even commencing to process it.

Sorry I've rambled on a bit. Hope there is some use or interest in my musings.

Keep Crunching!!
Gary.

Cheers,
Gary.

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