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Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Guide for best crunching? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 46
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spmazzola
Cruncher Joined: Jan 10, 2009 Post Count: 11 Status: Offline |
I was wondering if there is a "how to" guide for general PC optimizations for crunching?
System: Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4 CPU: P4 3.40 GHz: Not really looking to O/C unless it was brain dead easy and safe as this is my everyday use PC. RAM: 1GB @ 400MHz and the bios recognizes the other 2GB @ 533 MHz. Would I get better results if I removed the 400? OS: XP Pro SP3, Is there a "utility" that stops OS services and processes that would make for better crunching when I am away, and start those services when I use the PC? Please do not send me to Xtreme ... that would be like throwing a kitten into a wolves den ... I am more of a casual cruncher but want to do my best. TIA, Steve |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7851 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I would not worry about it. The marginal gains for simple tweaking is going to be minimal. BOINC is designed to use as much processor as you allow it, running in the background so as not to annoy you. Since these applications are processor bound, the amount of work done is highly dependent on your processor. If you check task manager, you will see it will use all of your processor if you have little or nothing else going on.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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BE04642
Advanced Cruncher Belgium Joined: Dec 14, 2004 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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From my experience, best performance for a P4 is:
----------------------------------------- download Process Explorer from the sysinternals site - set any process to idle except the System process (let it be) - set Boinc.exe, Boinctray.exe and Boincmgr.exe to Above Normal - set the, assuming you are using HT, WGC processes to High (or 1 to Realtime and 1 to High) - set the Leave the apps in memory while suspended, so that you can set a bunch of WGC processes to High (beware, do NOT set 2 at the same time to Realtime or your system will hang for awhile and they will be set to idle) - you could change the Write to disk at most every xxx seconds Very risky and case must be opened (flashligt comes in handy): - look up the clock generator, should be something like ICSXXXXXXXXX - look up the clockgen on the Setfsb home page - if you're lucky and the clockgen chip is in the list, increase the FSB 1MHz at a time, but no more than 8% since those Dells are very picky because the PCIE frequency cannot be locked to 100MHz. Going above 8% is likely to give you a crash. Not so risky since those Dells use VERY relaxed memory timings: - download Memset and change RAS# to CAS read and Write delays. Try original value -1, then -2 etc. tCL cannot be changed! - also change the tRP and tRas values - tRas should be CAS# latency + RAS + CAS R/W (ex 5+4+4+ =13 for tRAS) - change the Refresh Cycle Time (tRP) to 42 (works aok on DDR400 and possibly DDR533) - change the Refresh Period (Tref) as high as possible, one step at a time ofcourse. Check your new settings with Prime 95 from mersenne.org (the multi-core version) and let it run for a few hours. If any error occurs, relax your timing a bit or lower your frequency and start over  Once your set push the Del Save on the Memset program and confirm the loading at the next boot of Win$$$. If you use hibernate/standby(?), remember to start the Memset and SetFsb programs to reapply your optimized settings. Takes a bit of experimenting, but if you have the guts - and time - it should give you at least a 8-12% boost overall when combining all of the above. Doing this for years so I know what I'm talking about. Good luck!  I would not worry about it. The marginal gains for simple tweaking is going to be minimal. BOINC is designed to use as much processor as you allow it, running in the background so as not to annoy you. Since these applications are processor bound, the amount of work done is highly dependent on your processor. If you check task manager, you will see it will use all of your processor if you have little or nothing else going on. Cheers  [Edit 2 times, last edit by BE04642 at Jan 24, 2009 11:18:04 PM] |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7851 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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OK, You win. But that is more than a simple tweak. Like you say, this should be done 1 step at a time and CAREFULLY. If it is overdone you will burn something out. Not sure I would want to risk my machine for about a 10% gain. A stock P4 will run pretty flawlessly for a long time. Good luck.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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retsof
Former Community Advisor USA Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Post Count: 6824 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I have a newer AMD 2.0GHz system that happily overclocks to 2.4GHz with no other tweaking needed, so it is fine. It runs even cooler at that speed than the others at stock speed. It started out as a Dell Intel at 1.7GHz, but got transmogrified with a different motherboard. I just reused things like memory and hard drive, effectively doubling the output. (AMD and Intel clock speed is not directly comparable.)
----------------------------------------Two newer AMD 2.4GHz systems run at stock speed. One is a Compaq, and the bios cannot be accessed at all. The other one just prefers stock speed. A 3.2GHz AMD black edition will overclock to 3.6GHz nicely with an unlocked multiple, some adjustment to CAS latency and a little voltage increase. It has very fast memory and a large Zalman fan. HOWEVER, that is only in the winter. Ambient room temperature in the summer gets a bit high, and I noticed that I had to regrease the CPU chip to feel comfortable, as I saw some blank spots that weren't there before, and it had some random freezes. I just leave it at stock speed.
SUPPORT ADVISOR
----------------------------------------Work+GPU i7 8700 12threads School i7 4770 8threads Default+GPU Ryzen 7 3700X 16threads Ryzen 7 3800X 16 threads Ryzen 9 3900X 24threads Home i7 3540M 4threads50% [Edit 3 times, last edit by retsof at Jan 25, 2009 4:10:48 AM] |
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BE04642
Advanced Cruncher Belgium Joined: Dec 14, 2004 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Why asking then? And like said, if done carefully it will chug along for many years to come
---------------------------------------- Just give it a shot, when done cautiously the only thing that will happen is a system freeze. Just turn off and on, it as simple as that Happy (or not so) tweaking Cheers I was wondering if there is a "how to" guide for general PC optimizations for crunching? System: Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4 CPU: P4 3.40 GHz: Not really looking to O/C unless it was brain dead easy and safe as this is my everyday use PC. RAM: 1GB @ 400MHz and the bios recognizes the other 2GB @ 533 MHz. Would I get better results if I removed the 400? OS: XP Pro SP3, Is there a "utility" that stops OS services and processes that would make for better crunching when I am away, and start those services when I use the PC? Please do not send me to Xtreme ... that would be like throwing a kitten into a wolves den ... I am more of a casual cruncher but want to do my best. TIA, Steve |
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courine
Master Cruncher Capt., Team In2My.Net Cmd. HQ: San Francisco Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Post Count: 1794 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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From my experience, best performance for a P4 is: - download Process Explorer from the sysinternals site - set any process to idle except the System process (let it be) - set Boinc.exe, Boinctray.exe and Boincmgr.exe to Above Normal - set the, assuming you are using HT, WGC processes to High (or 1 to Realtime and 1 to High) - set the Leave the apps in memory while suspended, so that you can set a bunch of WGC processes to High (beware, do NOT set 2 at the same time to Realtime or your system will hang for awhile and they will be set to idle) - you could change the Write to disk at most every xxx seconds Very risky and case must be opened (flashligt comes in handy): - look up the clock generator, should be something like ICSXXXXXXXXX - look up the clockgen on the Setfsb home page - if you're lucky and the clockgen chip is in the list, increase the FSB 1MHz at a time, but no more than 8% since those Dells are very picky because the PCIE frequency cannot be locked to 100MHz. Going above 8% is likely to give you a crash. Not so risky since those Dells use VERY relaxed memory timings: - download Memset and change RAS# to CAS read and Write delays. Try original value -1, then -2 etc. tCL cannot be changed! - also change the tRP and tRas values - tRas should be CAS# latency + RAS + CAS R/W (ex 5+4+4+ =13 for tRAS) - change the Refresh Cycle Time (tRP) to 42 (works aok on DDR400 and possibly DDR533) - change the Refresh Period (Tref) as high as possible, one step at a time ofcourse. Check your new settings with Prime 95 from mersenne.org (the multi-core version) and let it run for a few hours. If any error occurs, relax your timing a bit or lower your frequency and start over Once your set push the Del Save on the Memset program and confirm the loading at the next boot of Win$$$. If you use hibernate/standby(?), remember to start the Memset and SetFsb programs to reapply your optimized settings. Takes a bit of experimenting, but if you have the guts - and time - it should give you at least a 8-12% boost overall when combining all of the above. Doing this for years so I know what I'm talking about. Good luck! I would not worry about it. The marginal gains for simple tweaking is going to be minimal. BOINC is designed to use as much processor as you allow it, running in the background so as not to annoy you. Since these applications are processor bound, the amount of work done is highly dependent on your processor. If you check task manager, you will see it will use all of your processor if you have little or nothing else going on. Cheers Yummy! Your list is better than my list. Thanks! There is a bit more you can do by finding which computers work the best with which projects. I do this by cycling the projects to each machine and look at the change over a week’s time. Once all the work has validated, I look at the totals. If I see a major increase, I run a second and third pass while weeding out environmental influences. Then I deem that soldier fit for duty until a change in the assigned project. Oh, and don’t let them get you down tiger!  There are many of us. It is just sad we need fly below radar to survive.    |
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BE04642
Advanced Cruncher Belgium Joined: Dec 14, 2004 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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You're welcome 'courine', and you are absolutely right about picking out specific machine oriented projects.
----------------------------------------My arsenal: - 3 Laptops with T7300 @ 2GHz, optimized mem timings running all projects - 2 Q6600 @ 3410 and 3308MHz, optimized mem timings chewing Rice and CEP (CEP recently dropped because of annoyances  )- 1 E5200 at 3432MHz chewing Rice and Dengue - several other machines at work (1 E8400 at 3Ghz and a bunch of lappies at 1,8 to 2GHz but only 1 processor doing research) - all running Win XP32 except the E5200 that is running XP64. Seems to be ideal for running Dengue's in combination with Rice (3,5 Dengue in 1 10 hour Rice job). Oh yeah, there is also a rogue 1,8GHz Kubuntu lappie for "testing" purposes Main work is done at home and all machines are closely whatched and all have optimized memory and process priority settings. Ahum, will need some solar panels to lessen my energy bill (angry wife). Oh well, next project will probably be a new I920 with 6Gigs of ram and whatever clock it will run on  (read FAAAST and screaming as ****)**Edited for inappropriate language** tkh  roaaar [Edit 2 times, last edit by TKH at Jan 31, 2009 5:11:29 PM] |
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spmazzola
Cruncher Joined: Jan 10, 2009 Post Count: 11 Status: Offline |
Update:
I was already familiar with manually shutting down services and processes but I will take a look at the sys internals to see if it can help me determine the minimum required to keep the system up so I can write a little script to capture the *existing* state, set to best crunching and also have a *restore* function so I don't have to reboot. I gave MemSet 4.0 a test drive ... my memory was set to 4:4:4:12 so I changed to 4:3:3:10 and as soon as I pressed "apply" my system rebooted and there was no confirm on the boot ... MeSet then reported that I was still at 4:4:4:12 ... I guess I will leave it there. I did not play with the tRP ... it is set at 28 and MemSet only goes up to 31 ... should I have? So I figured out my ICS954102AF is not listed ... but ... I am willing to try other settings for chips in the same range 95410?? any big risk in that? Steve |
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BE04642
Advanced Cruncher Belgium Joined: Dec 14, 2004 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I never said this is going to be an easy trip like walking into the candy store and get your instant sugar shot satisfaction.
----------------------------------------Think more of it like a 5* restaurant (the casing), with the best partner (motherboard) and potential drive (power supply), get your biggest and meanest greens (memory sticks), the coolest look (gfx card) or built-in if you're ugly , a lot to talk about (big mean ventitalors) and the best bottle of wine (cooler) you can afford. On your first date; bummer! You were pushing to hard, and forgot the dessert (extra cooling for the memory and chipset)  The second date, went a bit smoother. S(He) gave you a drive home but you were left standing at the door  Oops, the timing was not compatible with your stick  But on the third date, you added some extra music (voltage to the CPU and RAM) and you woke up the next morning having some great  Since then, you bought some really shiny diamonds (sandpapered and polished your cpu) and pushed a litlle further (flatten your cooler and add some of that expensive grease) and things got a lot smoother. So, the point is: treat it (your comp) like the girl/guy you're really after and don't keep your wallet closed for some extra's. Just like in real life, experimenting really pays off at the end. (still loving my wife more tough  )So, know what is on your plate, abuse it but don't fry it by being anger to get instant satisfaction and RTFM please! Lot's of guides on the net. Talking about stability, installed newer version on my Q6600 3410MHz machine. Never gave up on me, just like it did before. 21/12/2008 23:38:49||Starting BOINC client version 6.2.28 for windows_intelx86 21/12/2008 23:38:49||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops 21/12/2008 23:38:49||Libraries: libcurl/7.19.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8i zlib/1.2.3 21/12/2008 23:38:49||Running as a daemon 21/12/2008 23:38:49||Data directory: C:\Program Files\BoincData 21/12/2008 23:38:49||Running under account boinc_master 21/12/2008 23:38:50||Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11] 21/12/2008 23:38:50||Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 mmx 21/12/2008 23:38:50||OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Professional x86 Editon, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00) OOPS, seems like update time... P.S.: I'm in to computers since my 16th birthday, that's 26 years  Update: I was already familiar with manually shutting down services and processes but I will take a look at the sys internals to see if it can help me determine the minimum required to keep the system up so I can write a little script to capture the *existing* state, set to best crunching and also have a *restore* function so I don't have to reboot. I gave MemSet 4.0 a test drive ... my memory was set to 4:4:4:12 so I changed to 4:3:3:10 and as soon as I pressed "apply" my system rebooted and there was no confirm on the boot ... MeSet then reported that I was still at 4:4:4:12 ... I guess I will leave it there. I did not play with the tRP ... it is set at 28 and MemSet only goes up to 31 ... should I have? So I figured out my ICS954102AF is not listed ... but ... I am willing to try other settings for chips in the same range 95410?? any big risk in that? Steve |
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