Hello, everybody. Sorry about the lack of posting. I was out of the lab the past week, but boy what a crazy week it was! I'll get to all that in a minute. Before then, a short rant:

I was greeted this morning with my desktop machine (a Shuttle system with linux on it) making more noise than before. It's the damn video card. The fan on it basically sucks. Sounds like a hard drive grinding to death. It's a GeForce 7600 256MB card (which is way more power than I need but I didn't order the thing). Anyway, I wasted a lot of time trying to MacGyver the fan to keep it quiet to no avail. I don't have time for this. Somebody know how to get a replacement fan for a GeForce 7600 card? Neither Google nor the nVidia site were helpful.

So last week Bob and Jeff made sidious the master BOINC database server. Two unfortunate things happened as a result. First, replication to jocelyn (now the slave database) failed because it was running an earlier version of MySQL. This was solved by a slow and painful upgrade of the OS and the MySQL software. Second, the slow feeder query problems didn't get any better - we hoped they would since sidious is a newer, faster system. In fact, it all got worse.

Long story short, after much head scratching Bob found a way to restate the problematic query forcing MySQL to use less indices. He said he'll post something somewhere on the boards about this in due time. We implemented this change a few hours ago and have been doing well so far. Up until then we were getting slow feeder queries even few minutes. Jeff wrote a script over the weekend to kill the long queries as they appeared on the queue (which vastly helped). Anyway, we're in the middle of a "wait and see" game. If we are still lost in the woods, we'll craft a lengthy explanation of the problem and post it everywhere we can find to get some advice.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Hello, everybody. Sorry about the lack of posting. I was out of the lab the past week, but boy what a crazy week it was! I'll get to all that in a minute. Before then, a short rant:

I was greeted this morning with my desktop machine (a Shuttle system with linux on it) making more noise than before. It's the damn video card. The fan on it basically sucks. Sounds like a hard drive grinding to death. It's a GeForce 7600 256MB card (which is way more power than I need but I didn't order the thing). Anyway, I wasted a lot of time trying to MacGyver the fan to keep it quiet to no avail. I don't have time for this. Somebody know how to get a replacement fan for a GeForce 7600 card? Neither Google nor the nVidia site were helpful.

So last week Bob and Jeff made sidious the master BOINC database server. Two unfortunate things happened as a result. First, replication to jocelyn (now the slave database) failed because it was running an earlier version of MySQL. This was solved by a slow and painful upgrade of the OS and the MySQL software. Second, the slow feeder query problems didn't get any better - we hoped they would since sidious is a newer, faster system. In fact, it all got worse.

Long story short, after much head scratching Bob found a way to restate the problematic query forcing MySQL to use less indices. He said he'll post something somewhere on the boards about this in due time. We implemented this change a few hours ago and have been doing well so far. Up until then we were getting slow feeder queries even few minutes. Jeff wrote a script over the weekend to kill the long queries as they appeared on the queue (which vastly helped). Anyway, we're in the middle of a "wait and see" game. If we are still lost in the woods, we'll craft a lengthy explanation of the problem and post it everywhere we can find to get some advice.

- Matt

Try frys electronics or if you don't have one near you, www.frys.com and search for fans.

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As to your question about replacement graphics fans, try ebuyer.com, or dabs.com or any such online components suppliers.
A lot of them have replacement or improved fans for cards. Also look up a company called Zalman. http://www.zalmanusa.com/
They supply cooling solutions.

- Paul

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The fan on it basically sucks.

I am weak. I just can't resist....Matt, fans are supposed to blow.

Turn it around!

I'm sorry.

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I have a Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2 P/N A1357 new in the box if you want it. You'll just have to juryrig it to fit your card. Speed (and noise) is adjustable.

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me@rescam.org

Yeah misFIT, & a little Duct Tape...

try this Matt.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887007

says it's compatible, but it'd be helpful to know the card mfr.



rdr

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There are quite a few vga coolers available at
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=576&name=VGA-Cooling
Once a cooler has been selected click Specification button to see if it fits your card.

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Check out this site for ideas on optimizing mySQL queries.

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MRB Motorsports #37
1937 Chevy Sedan (Legends)
www.northstarspeedway.com

Matt,

You really need to find out who made your video card, as Nvidia is a chip foundry, and not an actual card manufacturer. Most Nvidia graphics cards (mine, for example) are made by another company than Nvidia (BFG Tech, in my case...) and they might have a replacement fan. (My card doesn't take a fan, I just "fart the case-side fan in it's general direction!"..., [with appologies to Monty Python] but mine is not really a "hot" video card.)

@ dena:
the nearest Fry's is Concord... (or, as I tend to think of it, "Concrud"!)
@ wendy:
umm, fans both blow AND suck... it depends on which side you're looking at! ;-,)
@ Misfit:
I'm pretty sure Matt needs something smaller than a 80mm case fan. Most video card fans are in the 60mm range.

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.

Hello, from Albany, CA!...

I live in Anaheim and have only had about 4 quick visits to the bay area mostly to work on problems or on the way to somewhere else. I have two Frys within 10 miles and more at a little greater distance. To the other replies, I didn't know it was punday.

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Thanks for all the tips! I'm actually going ahead and ordering one of those ZeroTherm fans (thanks bicyclist!).

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Thanks for all the tips! I'm actually going ahead and ordering one of those ZeroTherm fans (thanks bicyclist!).

- Matt

. . . once the NVIDIA drivers kick in, the fan slows down to almost inaudible levels, but once the GPU heats up and things kick into gear, I am reminded of the great days of yore where 40/60 mm high-RPM fans ruled the lands. There's no cheating physics -- if you want a small fan to push as much air as a large fan, it has to spin faster -- but I would have preferred a flat fan in the ~80 mm range that could spin delicately while pushing a decent CFM. Something like what the Radeon X800 XTs had would be ideal

;)

The fan on it basically sucks. Sounds like a hard drive grinding to death. It's a GeForce 7600 256MB card (which is way more power than I need but I didn't order the thing). Anyway, I wasted a lot of time trying to MacGyver the fan to keep it quiet to no avail. I don't have time for this. Somebody know how to get a replacement fan for a GeForce 7600 card?

If it still doesn't work out and you have problems with Zerotherm, you could try a card that uses passive cooling instead of a fan. The Gigabyte 7300GT 256MB is one fanless choice.

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