Under general preferences on my account page is a selection "switch between applications" with 60 minutes recommended. Since I run only SETI would I be better off to select zero?

---

Dave Nelson

If Seti is the only Project you are running it wouldn't make any difference what you set it to I would think...

---

> Under general preferences on my account page is a selection "switch between
> applications" with 60 minutes recommended. Since I run only SETI would I be
> better off to select zero?
>
>
>
No! It will not have any effect on performance. In fact during the upgrade release to 4.12 many could not update due to this being set to zero. Hence the reason for v4.13 release. I also only run Seti and have time tested it both ways with no difference. It is simply ignored when only one project is selected.

---

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> If Seti is the only Project you are running it wouldn't make any difference
> what you set it to I would think...
>
PoorBoy

Thanks for the comment. I think you are probably right.

---

Dave Nelson

> > Under general preferences on my account page is a selection "switch
> between
> > applications" with 60 minutes recommended. Since I run only SETI would I
> be
> > better off to select zero?
> >
> >
> >
> No! It will not have any effect on performance. In fact during the upgrade
> release to 4.12 many could not update due to this being set to zero. Hence
> the reason for v4.13 release. I also only run Seti and have time tested it
> both ways with no difference. It is simply ignored when only one project is
> selected.
>
>texasfit

Thank you. I'll use your experience.

I don't overclock, in fact I am told that you cannot overclock an Intel board and all 4 of mine are Intel. Is this correct?

---

Dave Nelson

I don't overclock, in fact I am told that you cannot overclock an Intel board and all 4 of mine are Intel. Is this correct?
=========

Depending on what Intel Board you have you may be able to get about a 4% increase out of them. I have one that will do that but I don't even bother with it because of such a small increase...

Your only looking at a 120mhz increase on a 3.0 Chip, that to me isn't even worth the effort & then you take the chance of computation errors for the work unit if the work unit or your system dosn't like the increase...

---

> I don't overclock, in fact I am told that you cannot overclock an Intel board
> and all 4 of mine are Intel. Is this correct?
> =========
>
> Depending on what Intel Board you have you may be able to get about a 4%
> increase out of them. I have one that will do that but I don't even bother
> with it because of such a small increase...
>
> Your only looking at a 120mhz increase on a 3.0 Chip, that to me isn't even
> worth the effort & then you take the chance of computation errors for the
> work unit if the work unit or your system dosn't like the increase...
>
>
Thanks again

That's in line with what other knowlegable people have told me.

---

Dave Nelson

> > I don't overclock, in fact I am told that you cannot overclock an Intel
> board
> > and all 4 of mine are Intel. Is this correct?
> > =========
> >
> > Depending on what Intel Board you have you may be able to get about a 4%
> > increase out of them. I have one that will do that but I don't even
> bother
> > with it because of such a small increase...
> >
> > Your only looking at a 120mhz increase on a 3.0 Chip, that to me isn't
> even
> > worth the effort & then you take the chance of computation errors for
> the
> > work unit if the work unit or your system dosn't like the increase...
> >
> >
> Thanks again
>
> That's in line with what other knowlegable people have told me.
>
>
>

First, let me say that if you don't know what you are doing then overclocking is not recommended. However, for someone that has the expertise and knows how to balance the speed with stability can gain considerably more than 4 percent. I will not get into the specifications and components of my systems but I will say that they are completely stable and do not produce errors. I have two Intel P4 HT systems that are of this category of which are overclocked producing a 30% plus gain. (A P4 2.6 running @ 3.4Ghz with 512Mb ram and a P4 2.8 with 1Gb ram running at 3.7Ghz) This is quit cost effective when you consider the price of a 2.6 or 2.8 vs something like a 3.0 or higher chip.

Link to my 2.8C at 262fsb_3673Mhz
The above link was before I converted to Seti Boinc in August. I don't want to get into a discussion on overclocking and as I already mentioned I don't recommend it for most. You can of course, take a look at my computers thru my name link for yourself to see that there are no errors (except when Berkeley was causing problems) on the two P4 custom built computers.

---

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> > > I don't overclock, in fact I am told that you cannot overclock an
> Intel
> > board
> > > and all 4 of mine are Intel. Is this correct?
> > > =========
> > >
> > > Depending on what Intel Board you have you may be able to get about
> a 4%
> > > increase out of them. I have one that will do that but I don't even
> > bother
> > > with it because of such a small increase...
> > >
> > > Your only looking at a 120mhz increase on a 3.0 Chip, that to me
> isn't
> > even
> > > worth the effort & then you take the chance of computation
> errors for
> > the
> > > work unit if the work unit or your system dosn't like the
> increase...
> > >
> > >
> > Thanks again
> >
> > That's in line with what other knowlegable people have told me.
> >
> >
> >
>
> First, let me say that if you don't know what you are doing then overclocking
> is not recommended. However, for someone that has the expertise and knows how
> to balance the speed with stability can gain considerably more than 4 percent.
> I will not get into the specifications and components of my systems but I
> will say that they are completely stable and do not produce errors. I have
> two Intel P4 HT systems that are of this category of which are overclocked
> producing a 30% plus gain. (A P4 2.6 running @ 3.4Ghz with 512Mb ram and a P4
> 2.8 with 1Gb ram running at 3.7Ghz) This is quit cost effective when you
> consider the price of a 2.6 or 2.8 vs something like a 3.0 or higher chip.
>
> <a> href="http://home.austin.rr.com/jhites/photo's/2.8C_262fsb_3673Mhz.jpg">Link
> to my 2.8C at 262fsb_3673Mhz[/url]
> The above link was before I converted to Seti Boinc in August. I don't want
> to get into a discussion on overclocking and as I already mentioned I don't
> recommend it for most. You can of course, take a look at my computers thru my
> name link for yourself to see that there are no errors (except when Berkeley
> was causing problems) on the two P4 custom built computers.
>
>Thanks Tex

Since I really don't know what I'm doing I will not fool around with overclocking. I was just asking out of curiosity.

The Admiral

First, let me say that if you don't know what you are doing then overclocking is not recommended. However, for someone that has the expertise and knows how to balance the speed with stability can gain considerably more than 4 percent. I will not get into the specifications and components of my systems but I will say that they are completely stable and do not produce errors. I have two Intel P4 HT systems that are of this category of which are overclocked producing a 30% plus gain. (A P4 2.6 running @ 3.4Ghz with 512Mb ram and a P4 2.8 with 1Gb ram running at 3.7Ghz) This is quit cost effective when you consider the price of a 2.6 or 2.8 vs something like a 3.0 or higher chip.

Link to my 2.8C at 262fsb_3673Mhz
The above link was before I converted to Seti Boinc in August. I don't want to get into a discussion on overclocking and as I already mentioned I don't recommend it for most. You can of course, take a look at my computers thru my name link for yourself to see that there are no errors (except when Berkeley was causing problems) on the two P4 custom built computers.
=========

You do not mention that you are using a Intel Motherboard, nor do any of your link pictures show you using a Intel Motherboard, I personally have never heard of any one getting a 30% overclock with a Intel Motherboard...

The Admiral was talking about Over Clocking with a Intel Mother Board...!!!

---

I have an Intel D865PERL board that has an overclocking facility in the BIOS, and as PoorBoy says above, the maximum overclock is 4%. I used this overclock because my P4 3.2 was actually running at 3.19GHz and it bugged me.

I think boards with the D865 chipset were the first overclockable Intel motherboards.


SetiUK - The Offical UK Seti Site - Team Lookers
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[/url]

> You do not mention that you are using a Intel Motherboard, nor do any of your
> link pictures show you using a Intel Motherboard, I personally have never
> heard of any one getting a 30% overclock with a Intel Motherboard...
>
> The Admiral was talking about Over Clocking with a Intel Mother Board...!!!
>
>

PoorBoy,

You are absolutely correct. I misunderstood the question and was thinking of Intel chipsets. Just for the record, I am using a Asus P4C800-Dlx with the 2.8C processor and Abit IC7 with the 2.6C processor, both have the Intel i875P chipset. Intel branded motherboards BIOS only allow minimum if any options for overclocking or tweaking a system. In fact, most retail systems from Dell, Compac, Gateway, IBM, etc would not have these options, either. Custom builds are where we get these features and flexabilities.

The Intel D875PBZ (Intel 875P) Motherboard to my knowledge has the best overclock option and it is a maximum of +4% on that board.

---

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I am using a Asus P4C800
==========
hehe, I figured you didn't read right The Admirals question ... NP

I have one of the ASUS P4C800 Motherboards too, plus 3 ABIT IC7-G Max II Boards in some of my systems. No problem Overclocking with any of them ... ;)

---

Back to the switching between applications.... what is it for?? As I thought each project had a 'resource share' setting which automaticly switched between apps

---

Cheers

Gav



Nothing is 'fool-proof', someone will always invent a better fool!

> Back to the switching between applications.... what is it for?? As I thought
> each project had a 'resource share' setting which automaticly switched between
> apps

The "resource share" determines how much time is given to each project, the "switch between applications" tells it how often to swap off between the projects. Two project example:

Proj. A 50%, proj. B 50%, switch time 60 minutes.
BOINC will change projects every hour.

Proj. A 50%, proj. B 50%, switch time 30 minutes.
BOINC will change projects every half hour.

Proj. A 75%, proj. B 25%, switch time 60 minutes.
BOINC will run A for three hours, switch to B for an hour, then back to A.

Proj. A 75%, proj. B 25%, switch time 30 minutes.
BOINC will run A for 1.5 hours, switch to B for half an hour, then back to A.

(Corrections appreciated if my understanding of the process is off!)

---

> I have an Intel D865PERL board that has an overclocking facility in the BIOS,
> and as PoorBoy says above, the maximum overclock is 4%. I used this overclock
> because my P4 3.2 was actually running at 3.19GHz and it bugged me.

Most motherboards have a slight overclock setting so that the system can be "burned in" and thoroughly tested at the higher speed, and given to the customer with a known margin.

Margin is important. It insures that the machine checks the various signals after they've become stable. Get too close to the edge, and your machine might be mostly reliable.

This is from an earlier thread (and might show up on Paul's site as well):



The black line represents a signal (could be a data line, or I/O, or something in the middle of the adder, etc.) as it rises from 0 to 1. If I was a better artist, there would be a slight overshoot at the top, and a little ripple.

The three vertical lines represent the clock.

The green line is how Intel or AMD wants you to use the part.

The yellow line is a bit overclocked. What should be a 1 is really something like 0.7, but that's close enough. There is no margin, and since the rise time (the slope) of the signal may change, this may occasionally be closer to 0.4, and be read as 0 in error.

The red line is way-overclocked, and this machine might not run.

Smart overclockers are trying to find the corner, and keep the clock just to the right of the corner (and to the left of the green line). They are characterizing the parts more thoroughly than the original manufacturer and using them at the best speed for that part -- but maintaining some margin.

Dumb overclockers are in the yellow....

---

> The "resource share" determines how much time is given to each project, the
> "switch between applications" tells it how often to swap off between the
> projects. Two project example:
>
> Proj. A 50%, proj. B 50%, switch time 60 minutes.
> BOINC will change projects every hour.
>
> Proj. A 50%, proj. B 50%, switch time 30 minutes.
> BOINC will change projects every half hour.
>
> Proj. A 75%, proj. B 25%, switch time 60 minutes.
> BOINC will run A for three hours, switch to B for an hour, then back to A.
>
> Proj. A 75%, proj. B 25%, switch time 30 minutes.
> BOINC will run A for 1.5 hours, switch to B for half an hour, then back to A.
>
> (Corrections appreciated if my understanding of the process is off!)
>

MJ,

That seems exactly right from watching my own setup. The project with the lowest resource share uses whatever the default time allottment is in "switch between applications"... and the project with the larger resource share simply runs 'overtime' to compensate. I have mine set to switch between applications every 60 minutes with a 33/66 split. The first project runs for 60 minutes, and the second project runs for approx. 95 minutes.

Dig

---

Thanks MJ & Digger, that shed some light on things. Now all I gotta do is find a way of getting better stats (much like seti-stats) and I'll be 100% happy with BOINC :)

---

Cheers

Gav



Nothing is 'fool-proof', someone will always invent a better fool!

Archon,

I noticed that you stat box doesn't show correctly, and in case you're trying to fix it but don't know how, try this:

[img src="http://www.boincstats.com/stats/banner.php?cpid=78952eab6d66aa8f6b9b55239560b385"]

Replace the "[" and "]" by pointed parenthesis...

...and put it in your signature in Forum settings.

---

> Thanks MJ & Digger, that shed some light on things. Now all I gotta do is
> find a way of getting better stats (much like seti-stats) and I'll be 100%
> happy with BOINC :)
>

Archon, have you checked out the BoincSynergy stats pages? Those folks keep detailed stats on all Boinc users, teams, individuals, etc. It's an impressive site that i keep bookmarked to check how i'm doing:

http://www.boincsynergy.com/stats/index.php

Dig

---