AvengingAngel


I am in. 


I still haven't installed the new boinc client.  Any issues I should be aware of?

If you're on Windows and plan to crunch on your GPU, don't check the option to use Protected Application Execution
 
BOINC 7 known issues

I'm having trouble seeing the feed correctly, but it looks like the first project will be Rosetta@ Home

It got 18 votes while the other projects for bio/med got 2s and 3s.... The way it works, unlike primegrid challenges, points awards during the period are counted, not tasks completed.

starts at 0000 UTC 20120505 and will run for 5 days.  Remember another project can start before the five days for Rosetta end.

http://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/statistiken/pentathlon.php
 
It looks like COllatz will start on the 7th.  GPU, I'm assuming....  No official word yet.

Yes, Collatz will be the GPU contest.  This was posted under the Announcements tab on the left-hand side.

Question: Any ranking hit with crunching some of the projects early? I do not have accounts on all of the projects in the contest and I would like to get those setup and added to our team before the start.

I have been down for a few months but will jump on for this. 
I can run both 3930k rigs + the 7970's if that will help.
 
May 5th?  I will do some reading now.
 
Edit:  I suppose I could best be of help with Collatz with the AMD GPUs. 

AvengingAngel


Question: Any ranking hit with crunching some of the projects early? I do not have accounts on all of the projects in the contest and I would like to get those setup and added to our team before the start.

 
I haven't read anything stating either way.  It seems like you could theoretically load a buffer full of completed tasks waiting to be turned in.  But then you run the risk of possibly not getting credit the longer you take to return a task as the system starts to resend the work if it goes so long after being issued without being returned or getting a response from the host and the task.

So I see that the first (2) Projects have been announced, Rosetta@Home (for Biology & Medicine category) and now Collatz Conjecture (in the GPU category).
http://www.seti-germany.d...gory/boinc-pentathlon/
 
If I'm understanding this thing correctly, we want to be working on Rosetta by May5th and then can jump to Collatz on May 7th (or run both at the same time on May 7th).  Do we have any strategy for this thing that anyone has in mind or do we just do our own things?  I'm wondering if we should go after a particular discipline or try to do all if them in the Pentathlon?  I don't figure we can win this thing, but as has been said, it is cool to see what we can do as a Team too.  I'm OK with going in whatever direction our team wants to head on this contest.

I'm thinking at least for now, hit Rosetta and then add in the gpu-only Collatz tasks.  Strategy will play alot more into it closer to the end as cpu projects begin to overlap.

I went ahead and setup one of my Crunching Rigs (i7 2600K @4GHz with a GTX580) to run Rosetta and Collatz.  I wanted to get a feel for how large these Pentathlon Project's WUs are and how long it would take to process them before the contest get's here.  Initial forecast for the (2) WUs I have running Rosetta is 3hrs 10mins each.  I also have (4) Collatz CPU WUs running and their initial forecast is 5hrs 20mins each.  Note: this was by mistake as I intended to run only GPU WUs (see my other message below about that).  The Collatz GPU WU has an initial wildly forecasted completion time of 8hrs, but in reality (having completed 2 of them now) the completion time is only ~30mins.  Collatz is hitting my GTX580 for ~81-88% GPU usage.
 
A reminder for those that have not yet setup BOINC to add these (2) Projects to your list.  Remember to complete your profile over at the Rosetta and Collatz sites and make sure that you have selected "Crunching@EVGA" as the Team (defaults to no team).  After you log-in, in your Profile page look for the "Community" section on that page as shown below and make sure our Team is selected as shown.
 

 
Rosetta@Home Login site:
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/login_form.php
 
Collatz Conjecture Login site:
http://boinc.thesonntags.....php?next_url=home.php
 
Also with Collatz, since it is a GPU Project, make sure that you have enabled the GPU to be used by BOINC in your Preferences.  If you don't do this, you will not notice your GPU being used for the WU (ala looking at the "GPU Usage" line in the EVGA Precision monitor software).  You can can easily activate the GPU (in BOINC) via the "Activity" tab in the BOINC Manager and selecting either "USE GPU always" or "Use GPU based on preferences".  One of the two highlighted areas below is what you want to select.
 

 
 
 
 
 

Does anyone know how much (if any) CPU is needed to feed Collatz GPU tasks?  Wondering if we'll need to reserve a thread/core to feed them or not.
 
Another consideration is the quorum for each project, and how long it typically takes for validations to be credited.  Typically, the larger the quorum the longer it takes to validate, which means the earlier we need to start (and switch off of) a project.
 
@Johnny_Utah - Collatz is definitely AMD friendly so those 7970's should be awesome!  I was starting to wonder if we had any AMD GPU firepower around here.  Also, don't underestimate those 3930k's for the CPU projects, they'll definitely help as well

 

Well, I've encountered what appears to be some sort of issue running the Collatz project.  My GTX580 was running at about 88% and when I just checked it (via EVGA Precision), the GPU Usage has gone basically to zero.  I tried perusing the Collatz forums, but didn't really see anyone describing this problem.  The BOINC Manager GPU setting is set to "run always", I don't see any errors being reported, the (4) WUs are still running, progress %'s are still incrementing, but I can't believe they will get very far with the 580 showing no usage in Precision.  I'm running BOINC 6.12.34 on that Rig with the Nvidia driver 285.62.  Anyone have an idea as to what I could/should do?  This is my first real experience with BOINC GPU work as well.
 
Edit:  Ok, think I figured out the problem.  Collatz can send you both CPU and GPU WUs (I didn't realize that).  The Collatz WU's that I thought were running on my GPU were in fact CPU WUs.  Those WU's that I believe are CPU units were titled "mini_collatz 2.00 (sse)".  I found a discussion thread which led me to go back into my Collatz profile and set the "Use CPU Enforced by version 6.10+" to "no".  I already had set the "Use NVIDIA GPU Enforced by version 6.10+" to "yes" when I first setup my profile.
http://boinc.thesonntags....thread.php?id=596#9674
 
After making the change above, low and behold, the next Collatz WU that I received was titled "collatz 2.03 (cuda 23)".  Also in the "Status" column of Boinc Manager, the status for that GPU WU is titled "Running (0.01 CPUs + 1 NVIDIA GPU)" instead of just "Running" as it shows for the Collatz CPU WUs that are running.  Checking EVGA Precision, my Usage is running at 81%, so all looks to be OK now.

Just to clarify, when a new project begins during the Pentathalon, do we keep running the already active projects as well?
 
Let's make sure we have our profiles setup correctly beforehand.  I noticed in rosetta you can set a project time target, it seems to be working well for me.  Anyway, I am all ready to go!

Adding to Opolis' request for clarification, the Collatz Conjecture portion of the Pentathlon is being heralded as a "GPU Discipline".  Does that mean we should set our rigs to only accept GPU WUs for Collatz?  I couldn't find any clarity on that over at the SETI.Germany website and since Collatz can send both CPU and GPU WUs, it left me wondering about it. 

I can run 24 CPU tasks for Pentathlon/or a bigbeta for FAH CC on a lan party since Friday 9am to Sunday 17 PM GMT+1.Give me a target and i will compromise with the team now atm is the only thing i can do :(.So i'm awaiting command order to focus on the desire of all.

RHMash

AvengingAngel


Question: Any ranking hit with crunching some of the projects early? I do not have accounts on all of the projects in the contest and I would like to get those setup and added to our team before the start.

I haven't read anything stating either way.  It seems like you could theoretically load a buffer full of completed tasks waiting to be turned in.  But then you run the risk of possibly not getting credit the longer you take to return a task as the system starts to resend the work if it goes so long after being issued without being returned or getting a response from the host and the task.

Not really looking to "Stack" the deck, just want to get my accounts created, etc..
I am still waiting for the PRP tasks to drop before I switch on my main Rig.  I have already stopped new work on the other two rigs to compete their tasks before upgrading Boinc and adding Rosetta. 

texinga


Adding to Opolis' request for clarification, the Collatz Conjecture portion of the Pentathlon is being heralded as a "GPU Discipline".  Does that mean we should set our rigs to only accept GPU WUs for Collatz?  I couldn't find any clarity on that over at the SETI.Germany website and since Collatz can send both CPU and GPU WUs, it left me wondering about it. 

 
Great question!  I would like to know too.

Set Collatz to only send GPU tasks.  IF any of you have done the PrimeGrid challenges, navigatin gthe Collatz site is similar.  I don;t have time to ppost a guide, but you should b e looking for a "Use CPU" and "Use GPU" check box towards the top of the Collatz Preferences page.  Make sure CPU is unchecked for now and GPU is checked.  Points from CPU Collatz tasks won't count, I'm sure....

RHMash


Set Collatz to only send GPU tasks.  IF any of you have done the PrimeGrid challenges, navigatin gthe Collatz site is similar.  I don;t have time to ppost a guide, but you should b e looking for a "Use CPU" and "Use GPU" check box towards the top of the Collatz Preferences page.  Make sure CPU is unchecked for now and GPU is checked.  Points from CPU Collatz tasks won't count, I'm sure....

 
Ty for the info buddy.  I will get this goin tonight.  I already registered so I will simply make sure I am only running GPUs on Collatz.

Okay, I have collatz set up to crunch GPUs on the 7970 rig.   Also signed up for Rosetta.
 
When do we find out the other 3 projects?

Johnny_Utah

When do we find out the other 3 projects? 

According to the rules on the SETI Germany site, it looks like subsequent projects will be announced seven days before they start.
 
I'm looking forward to this contest! 

They are posted a week before it starts. They should start being posted in the next day or so....

Strategy, for the most part I'm thinking play it by ear, this is a learning stage. I'm not expecting us to win mostly because of our numbers but we can try.... A challenge is a challenge, and participating-gets our name out there and the science gets done....

While I don't see it making much a difference in the outcome, some teams have decided to build a buffer of tasks waiting to bereturned in hopes to have more tasks validated during the project window. I haven't noticed anything against it, but I wouldn't go that far into it. I plan to run projects and let the tasks complete and turn in.... I might start a day or two early but I won't be keeping tasks from being turned in....

planetclown

Does anyone know how much (if any) CPU is needed to feed Collatz GPU tasks?  Wondering if we'll need to reserve a thread/core to feed them or not.

As far as I can recall, Collatz GPU task makes 0.01 CPU busy that means there is NO or minimal gain to reserve a thread for it.

RHMash


They are posted a week before it starts. They should start being posted in the next day or so....

Strategy, for the most part I'm thinking play it by ear, this is a learning stage. I'm not expecting us to win mostly because of our numbers but we can try.... A challenge is a challenge, and participating-gets our name out there and the science gets done....

While I don't see it making much a difference in the outcome, some teams have decided to build a buffer of tasks waiting to bereturned in hopes to have more tasks validated during the project window. I haven't noticed anything against it, but I wouldn't go that far into it. I plan to run projects and let the tasks complete and turn in.... I might start a day or two early but I won't be keeping tasks from being turned in....

To keep it fair, what they really should do is complete the voting for the projects a few days before the start, and then do the projects in a random order not announced until within a day of the start times.  That way it wouldn't be possible to buffer up too many results in advance.  At least BOINC projects do not have the time dependencies that F@H projects do, so it's probably not damaging their work, but it doesn't really seem fair.

I'll be here with three crunching machines to support Team EVGA for this event, I should get them configured either today or tomorrow. 
 
@textinga
Thanks for the "setup guide" post. IMHO, I think it should be a sticky to help newcommers like myself learn and easily locate step-by-step what to do, without digging through posts, etc. Could even bring in more Crunchers for the event.

iDreadnaught

@textinga
Thanks for the "setup guide" post. IMHO, I think it should be a sticky to help newcommers like myself learn and easily locate step-by-step what to do, without digging through posts, etc. Could even bring in more Crunchers for the event.

You're welcome and glad you can bring those 3 Rigs to the table!    It needs more to be a more complete setup guide, but I just wanted to share a few things.
 
To the discussion about pre-posturing WUs ahead of the contest, I completed a few Rosettas and Collatz WUs yesterday.  Checking Boinc stats today, I have already been credited for the work, so it appears it only took a day or less.  Since this thing starts (Eastern time) this Friday evening at 8pm, I'm just going to start-up the Rosetta this Friday during the day and let 'er rip.  Then I'll do the same for the Collatz GPU on Sunday during the day since that leg of the contest starts at 8pm Sunday (Eastern).

I´m letting my rosetta tasks continue to flow their natural way.
Then on Friday before going to bed, I´ll set malariacontrol to not request new tasks, and enable collatz.
Haven´t decided on whether I´ll bring any additional rigs to the pentathlon, or whether I´ll just stick with the one rig (2600k and a GTX 570).

http://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/statistiken/pentathlon.php
 
WCG starts on the 10th....

texinga

To the discussion about pre-posturing WUs ahead of the contest, I completed a few Rosettas and ...

Hi!, texinga; Did you notice that the two Rosetta tasks were not granted any credit as they had encountered "Client error"?
 
Note: I'll try crunching 12 instances of such task to check now. By the way, I'm doing this test in a VM setup with VirtualBox 4.1.12 + Ubuntu 11.10 (kernel 3.3.2) and I'm a bit anxious of its outcome ...oh, dear!