Hello keep clubbin,

You cannot run both the WCG agent and the UD grid.org agent on the same computer. They are too similar and interfere wirth each other. Other combinations are possible, but may not be wise. In general, you should not run more distributed computer programs than you have L2 caches to hold them in. This is just a rule of thumb.

If you are running BOINC, you can set it up to run more than 1 project in sequence. There are still some bugs that people run into if they do not have a large system memory. And you can set BOINC to run multiple work units at the same time. Don't do this unless you have multiple processors or cores.

Your question would be easier to answer if you gave us more information about your system and what you want to do.

mycrofth

Hello keep clubbin,
That is a very good computer you have. You have hyperthreading, so it can run 2 threads, but it has only one L2 cache and one FPU (Floating Point Unit). The most efficient thing to do is to let it run 1 distributed computer process. The Task Manager will show that only 1 thread is running (hence 50%) but it is actually running at nearly maximum speed. You can use your computer as you like running other programs, but unless they also use the FPU, your distributed computer program will continue to run at nearly top speed.

If you tried to run 2 scientific programs through the FPU, they would both slow down. So my suggestion is that you run only 1 agent. It will run fast even while you are doing whatever you want on your computer. Some games, voice recognition and video editing programs will slow the agent drastically, but most programs will only cut a modest percentage from the agent's speed.

Hello LeGrys0015,
You bet. The Xeon chips have much larger L2 caches. You could run 2 work units at the same time and enable hyperthreading to allow the ordinary OS background tasks and all your normal programs to run with minimal effect on the work units (under most circumstances).

If we had good performance measurement tools, it would be interesting to try 3 work units. But we do not, so it is best to be cautious. Without good performance measures, it is too easy to shoot yourself in the foot without realizing it.

mycrofth

Hello quinton69,
The Opteron 252 is a single core, 1 Mb L2 cache, 2.6 Ghz processor, the same clock speed as the Athlon64 FX-55. The first of the 90-nm Troy architecture, it runs cooler than the older AMD chips. The Opteron 275 is a dual core 2.2 Ghz processor. This is way beyond my budget ( ) but I would start by being very aware of heat since each core can generate almost as much as a 252. (No, I don't know this. No experience with Opterons. But it is what I cautiously assume until measurements show otherwise.)

If heat is under control, then you could run up to 4 BOINC threads. BOINC has preferences that let you specify this. Of course, if you are normally running 2 threads for your own applications, then you might want to stop at 2 BOINC threads.

You can only run 1 UD Windows thread per computer, but it is almost bullet-proof. It all depends on how you want to use your system. My suggestion is to start modestly and check carefully before adding on more work.

mycrofth

Any way to use both of my cores 100%?? i could be doubleing my points!!! thx


Heres my system specs:

AMD Athlon X2 4400+ Oc'ed to 2.4 per core
Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLi Mobo w/ uGuru
1GB (2x512) Cosair Twinx DDR400
XFX 7800 GTX OC x16 Video card
160GB SATA II Seagate Barricuda HD
Dragon Ultra full ATX Ultra glossy black case
ThermalTake 480w PSU verrible speed control
Aerocool HT101jr Cpu cooler with 52cfm fan
Red Led lighting and 5 52cfm case fans on speed control
19" Mitsubishi Diamondpro 930sb CRT