Thinking about quiting SETI

I know that I am going to take alot of flak for that subject so let me explain my reasoning before everyone chimes in with their reasons not to:

1) This whole upgrading and tweaking so I can cut another 20 seconds off my WU times is starting to get expensive!

2) I am finding myself rushing home from work so I can upload what WU's I have crunched that day only to find that my system locked up 5 minutes after I left and has been wasting the past 10 hours doing nothing! BTW: this describes the previous two days

3) The sound of the fans that were added during reason #1 keep my up at night and I dont like the idea of Watercooling.

So there are my reasons, dismiss them as you may.

i guess i'm confused. are you asking for people to convince you otherwise?

Not really, kinda, ok yea I am. Mostly just trying to convince myself that the reasons I have been bouncing around in my head all day are valid ones.

justmiles23 said:

Not really, kinda, ok yea I am. Mostly just trying to convince myself that the reasons I have been bouncing around in my head all day are valid ones.

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well, to participate, you don't need to spend a fortune or even overclock. just have fun. if it's not fun, don't do it.

un-overclock your machine(s), take out the extra fans, and don't go crazy over it. if it's a hassle, forget it.

if you want to compete with the heaviest hitters, you'll have to spend the bucks, the time, and the headaches that go with keeping up multiple machines. some people find the challenge of doing that fun. to others, it's a pain.

if you just want to participate without stress, contribute what you can without going nuts. everyone's contributions are valuable, no matter the work unit count they are putting in.

if you want to stay on, we would love to have you. considering you posted this to begin with, i would guess you would like to keep crunching...

Yeah just don't take it too seriously. Have fun with it. Keep SETI on while you use the comp, that's what I do. I do have another comp in other room that is on 24/7 crunching, but on this comp I run SETI only when I'm not playing any games.

Chill out a little... It's not necessary to upgrade the comp all the time.

Sounds like your main complaint stems from trying to overclock your computers too much just to get a few seconds faster. I have found in the long run it's much better to either settle for a modest overclock, or none at all - and not worry about crashing computers or cpu's that run so hot you need a case full of screaming fans. This is not the fault of the Seti program, but more like an obsession it sounds like to me. I fully expected to see a thread complaining about Berkeley's problems, or a bug in the client.

LOL yeah not nessisary but if u get bit by the seti bug u will WANT to upgrade or tweak to get faster times.... thats actualy why i like seti lol it gives me a hobby and if i dont have anything else to spend my money on then its upgrade time and the whole tweaking and overclocking process starts all over again... the way i see it just do what u can afford and still have fun hell if i werent running seti or something constructive with my comp what really would be the point in haveing top of the line stuff i would still probly have an old k6-2 cpu and 64megs of sdram i'm not a gamer so without seti there would be no use in such a fast comp for me.... ok now i'm just rambleing so just do what u can and have fun

peace out
bob

TC said:

Sounds like your main complaint stems from trying to overclock your computers too much just to get a few seconds faster. I have found in the long run it's much better to either settle for a modest overclock, or none at all - and not worry about crashing computers or cpu's that run so hot you need a case full of screaming fans.

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agreed. for me personally, very few of the computers i run seti on are overclocked. the stability is more important to me than the speediest work unit times.

We would hate to see you go but like they all said it isn't worth losing sleep over,or just do it on the stock computer when you can,like he said all crunchers are contributing no matter how much you do,either way you will still be welcome here I am sure

I guess that was a little dramatic of me .. SORRY!

I really dont want to stop doing SETI, I just have these dreams in my head that are filled with Mineral-Oil cooled motherboards and a 36 CPU stomp machine and I get upset that I dont have the resources (time & money) to work on.

I just need to focus my efforts a little better, be more realistic, and just have fun with it. Thanks All for that little bit of SETI prozak, I feel much better. CRUNCH ON!!

well justmiles23 first of all I think it is not a job or a drug.
One year ago more or less GF wanted to kill me literally
for this seti thing. So I took a break of two months, I was
very kind with GF and finally I made her a present of one of my "old" laptops: a K6-2 that was of little use for the Seti crunch
of course but is very good for the internet and word processing. Today it happens sometimes she even crunches a couple of
WUs for my account and anyway she doesn't mind seti anymore.
So my advice is: if you are getting bored stop it for a while.
August is time of holiday after all.

We'd hate to lose a team member. So don't quit because of those reasons ok? Hey, you can always bump the clock speed down a little and take out some of those noisy fans.

TC said:

Sounds like your main complaint stems from trying to overclock your computers too much just to get a few seconds faster. I have found in the long run it's much better to either settle for a modest overclock, or none at all - and not worry about crashing computers or cpu's that run so hot you need a case full of screaming fans. This is not the fault of the Seti program, but more like an obsession it sounds like to me. I fully expected to see a thread complaining about Berkeley's problems, or a bug in the client.

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I could not agree more. Your system is unstable and thats why its locking up. SETI pushes your computer hard and your caomputer cannot handle it. Back down the o/c and see how it is.

Take it from me, you have to decide when enough is enough. You could drive yourself crazy and into the poorhouse trying to reach your desires. I am able to do what I can because of my work situation. There's no way I can produce as many WU's as I do on my own dime. If the work opportunity goes away, I'll do the best I can with what I have.

Just do the best you can and be happy with that.

yep the guys and gals nailed it here
if it aint fun, it aint worth it
back off your overclock, remove the noisy fans and crunch at stock, cause after all any cruncher is a good cruncher
glad you decided to stay onboard

Originally posted by TC
Sounds like your main complaint stems from trying to overclock your computers too much just to get a few seconds faster. I have found in the long run it's much better to either settle for a modest overclock, or none at all - and not worry about crashing computers or cpu's that run so hot you need a case full of screaming fans. This is not the fault of the Seti program, but more like an obsession it sounds like to me. I fully expected to see a thread complaining about Berkeley's problems, or a bug in the client.

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totally agree and that's what i did!!

at some point, i do think downscaling my farm, selling off machines. 'cos mantaning the farm of my size plus all the fans (i live w/ most of the machines!) and heat they r producing in summer (right now) is getting me tired and such....

i do feel how u feel!! 'cos i did have the same problem too! noise, heat, machine down, etc. what i did is cool down a bit and rethink it. i replace all AMD heatsink from GlaciatorII (which is very quiet already, but w/ 6+ of them, it all add up!) to AX-7 w/ a quiet fan. and since summer start, heat is one of the problem too. and u know, there's certain days/nights that it's cool enough by not turning the a/c on, but in a room w/ 7+ machine running full load, it WILL gets hot even w/ a/c on. so, i also downclock a few machine that locks up on me once awhile when it gets hot.

yeah, i can't compete w/ teh fastest time (for now ), but gain another 10~20mins / WU time isn't good enough to off set the chance of locking up 10hrs while i'm at work! i would say, right now, my farm is pretty stable and doesn't requirer as much of my time as before. i have almost 2 weeks didn't touch any of them, and that IS a long period of time!! just let them sitting there and crunch. and their daily output actually is up 'cos no locked up or losing time too!

honestly, for me, i could easily go build a few more machines anytime, and bump my output another notch. but i've been trying to control myself (i DO try, for now..... ).

and lastly, we all doing this is simply b/c it's FUN!! once u start feeling stress of it, take a step back and cool it off a bit. and u'll find the FUN part again.

crunch on!!!


p.s. man, just saw the thread in cyber deal, newegg has 8kha+ refurb. for $41 only!!!!

p.p.s. repeat this w/ me --> i didn't read this, i didn't read this, i didn't read this...........

LandShark said:

p.s. man, just saw the thread in cyber deal, newegg has 8kha+ refurb. for $41 only!!!!

p.p.s. repeat this w/ me --> i didn't read this, i didn't read this, i didn't read this...........

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It's already gone landshark. I went there and instock says NO. But there is a Shuttle AK31A for $35. Is that any good? I got my Abit KR7A from their refurb for only $39, no shipping cost, but I had to pay tax. Darn it, every vendor is in CA!!!!

katelin said:

It's already gone landshark. I went there and instock says NO. But there is a Shuttle AK31A for $35. Is that any good? I got my Abit KR7A from their refurb for only $39, no shipping cost, but I had to pay tax. Darn it, every vendor is in CA!!!!

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You have to pay tax, I get to pay shipping. It works out.
I wouldn't mind one of those Biostar K7VKQ's from newegg. $55USD with free shipping. They have onboard video, lan, and sound. I wouldn't mind a few of these.

Yes, I've heard that the Ak31a is a good mobo. I was considering getting one until I read about my Dragon+.