View Full Version : What's better for SETI
I'm new to SETI just starting to use it. I hope this question hasn't been already addressed, but here goes. Does memory bandwidth play a big role in performance? For example, which of the below system would SETI run faster on:
P4 1.5 with RDRAM (big memory bandwidth, but not great CPU)
OR
AthlonXP 1900+ with SDRAM (superior CPU speed/performance, but inferior memory bandwidth)
THANKS! I just joined OC SETI team
You'll get better times with the XP.
As a rule, memory bandwidth is better for SETI but you're comparing apples and oranges when it comes to a P4 and XP.
The XP just crunches better than the P4 and the memory bandwidth doesn't come into play so much.
If you can get an XP and DDR combo you'll be looking at just over 3 hour WU times.
Cool, thanks Jon. I take it my system (in my sig) should fly with SETI. I haven't really notice it as I haven't really started it on my home system. I've done some WUs at work (on PII 400, yuk)
Should get low 3 hour completion times with that no problem. My 8KHA+ has a regular TBird in it and is clocked at 1.6GHz with 160MHz on the FSB and it averages 3:45, so with an XP I would imagine at least 20-30 minutes shaved off of that.
Looking at 7+ a day out of that rig which is great and will get you in the top 50 crunchers...probably catapult you into the top 50 completion time after a while as well, dependng on how many high completion time WUs you've transmitted with that 400 and whatever you used previously.
I've got a couple of XP 1600s on the way myself, putting together a dual AMD rig with Asus' new MPX board. Those XPs sure do spit out the WUs!
Sure are happy to have you on the team! Welcome aboard!
Welcome to the team! :)
Cy
My next system I'm planning for is expected (at this point) to be based on a Morgan 1ghz, or possibly 1.1ghz, with the FSB overclocked to 133. At first it'll be running on SDR but eventually I'll move up to DDR. Can anyone tell me their crunch time if they have a similar setup?
Thanks guys, glad to be part of the team. One more question. I have a PII 400 at work crunching 24x7. I have a AthlonXP (see sig) at home crunching 24x7 starting now. If you were me (and aren't you glad you're not?) would you still crunch SETI on the work PC? I mean it gets like 11-13 hours per WU. If I continue to crunch at work, I'll get more WUs done, but my average time per WU stat will be shot. If I just use my home system alone, I could look at 3-4 hours per WU, which is a sweet stat. Thanks.
Originally posted by Alex99
Thanks guys, glad to be part of the team. One more question. I have a PII 400 at work crunching 24x7. I have a AthlonXP (see sig) at home crunching 24x7 starting now. If you were me (and aren't you glad you're not?) would you still crunch SETI on the work PC? I mean it gets like 11-13 hours per WU. If I continue to crunch at work, I'll get more WUs done, but my average time per WU stat will be shot. If I just use my home system alone, I could look at 3-4 hours per WU, which is a sweet stat. Thanks. This is completely up to you depending on what you value more. Some people want to shoot for ultra low average times, others care more about the number of units they complete. It's just personal preference, but for the good of the team the more units you can turn in the better.
Now my sales pitch hehe - The best of both worlds for you would be to crunch for your name with your fast computer, and crunch for my slow computer team race with your pc at work. This way all of your units would count for the good of the team, but your slow work computer would not affect the average times for your name. All you need to do is setup your work pc to turn units in for ocsetiteam@charter.net. That's my slow team aka "TC's Turtle Team." We currently have two other slow computer teams in the race to 500 units - those being, um lets see - ahm fed something and the old collective or something like that - I have no idea what the email addresses are ;)
Everybody's time is shot. Everyone except those with only one cruncher and those with more than one machine but all are 100% identical in hardware and software. My times are shot, my K6-2 kills my Duron's average, but I don't mind. I crunched about 35 extra wu's last month with my K6-2. That's 35 extra chances to find ET. That's 35 extra "fame and fortune lottery tickets". And that's 35 extra wu's that Godfodda has to crunch to continue leaving me in the dust. From my perspective the collective averages mean little if anything. Crunch on!
Originally posted by Alex99
I'm new to SETI just starting to use it. I hope this question hasn't been already addressed, but here goes. Does memory bandwidth play a big role in performance? For example, which of the below system would SETI run faster on:
P4 1.5 with RDRAM (big memory bandwidth, but not great CPU)
OR
AthlonXP 1900+ with SDRAM (superior CPU speed/performance, but inferior memory bandwidth)
THANKS! I just joined OC SETI team
y not get the best of both worlds
AthlonXP 1900+ with DDR RAM
Originally posted by Alex99
Thanks guys, glad to be part of the team. One more question. I have a PII 400 at work crunching 24x7. I have a AthlonXP (see sig) at home crunching 24x7 starting now. If you were me (and aren't you glad you're not?) would you still crunch SETI on the work PC? I mean it gets like 11-13 hours per WU. If I continue to crunch at work, I'll get more WUs done, but my average time per WU stat will be shot. If I just use my home system alone, I could look at 3-4 hours per WU, which is a sweet stat. Thanks.
Like TC said it is personal prefrence but in my opinion the only stat that counts is total WU's. Welcome to the team.
You are using the command line client (http://www.ocsetiteam.com/Instr1.htm) right? It is faster than the screen saver in most cases. Oh yeah and what is your seti nickname?
I agree on quantity as that is what is needed in the end. My completion times got shot a long time ago so I don't even bother with it now. I've got two PII 350s chugging here at work and they average just under 14 hours too. The other faster rigs offset this quite a bit but I'd much rather have the extra 3-4 a day these two give me than better times.
I just want to get my production back up to where it was. :(
PS...If you do choose for the better times then TCs suggestion for the slow computer race is the way to go. You'll still be getting extra WUs to the team and doing your completion times justice all at the same time.
We need YOUR WUs!
Cool. I'll probably go with TC's suggestion, as the time per unit stat seem to matter to me somehow. Maybe it's just a phase I'm going through, but for now I'll shoot for that. User name in SETI is Alex99. I've registered with SETI since october but never really get anything done. I've got some WUs completed just from pushing SETI out to 100 of our corporate PC's over the weekend. My boss didn't know , nor anyone else, I think. But I would probably get a slap on the wrist if anyone sees 100% CPU usage, hehe. NO, I can't do that again, I wish I could, but my job is more important. Anyways. Thanks all. I gotta get some sleep.
Once you get bitten by the W/U bug and the Greed takes over your mind you won't care about times anymore...just more W/Us! ;) My times suck but I have a few W/Us under my belt now.
Cy
Originally posted by Alex99
Cool. I'll probably go with TC's suggestion, as the time per unit stat seem to matter to me somehow. Maybe it's just a phase I'm going through, but for now I'll shoot for that. User name in SETI is Alex99. I've registered with SETI since october but never really get anything done. I've got some WUs completed just from pushing SETI out to 100 of our corporate PC's over the weekend. My boss didn't know , nor anyone else, I think. But I would probably get a slap on the wrist if anyone sees 100% CPU usage, hehe. NO, I can't do that again, I wish I could, but my job is more important. Anyways. Thanks all. I gotta get some sleep.
Well if you want to use it for the slow cpu races my team is dead in the water. OC Seti Team Federation the email is webmaster@ocsetiteam.com if you want to help my team out.
Mictlan
01-08-02, 09:52 AM
Originally posted by Alex99
Thanks guys, glad to be part of the team. One more question. I have a PII 400 at work crunching 24x7. I have a AthlonXP (see sig) at home crunching 24x7 starting now. If you were me (and aren't you glad you're not?) would you still crunch SETI on the work PC? I mean it gets like 11-13 hours per WU. If I continue to crunch at work, I'll get more WUs done, but my average time per WU stat will be shot. If I just use my home system alone, I could look at 3-4 hours per WU, which is a sweet stat. Thanks.
My advice will be that you keep both rigs under your name.....If I have only been gotten my WU from my home, I wouldn't reach the top 100 in my life :)
Besides having a high end PC crunching will keep your average low.....maybe the XP will be spitting WU every 3.5 h. That will be 6.8 WU each day.....a PII @ 450 MHz will give you 1.8 WU each day. SO in total you'll be producing 8.6 WU each day!!!!! in average will be 5.6 h per WU.....not to bad.....I would dream to reach that kind of output.....
Guys, I'm consistently getting almost exactly 4 hours per WU on my Athlon XP system (see sig). Does this sound right? I'm running as a screen saver, I have it set to blank out the screen after a minute. Will running in CML improve much? Thanks.
Eliminator
01-08-02, 11:42 AM
My XP @ 1900+ (1.6) crunches wu's in about 3.2 hours running the clc version. Therefore, you should shave off about 40 minutes per wu!
To put things into perspective, my XP 1600+ stock crunches wu's in about 5 hours running the screensaver version.
Originally posted by Alex99
Guys, I'm consistently getting almost exactly 4 hours per WU on my Athlon XP system (see sig). Does this sound right? I'm running as a screen saver, I have it set to blank out the screen after a minute. Will running in CML improve much? Thanks.
Another nice thing about the clc is you can cache WU's so if the server would go down or your isp drops you are not idle. And if you have a dial up connection you can upload/download WU's when you want.
Mictlan
01-08-02, 12:02 PM
If I remember right JigPu, once told us that you could catch WU with the screensaver also.....don't quite remember how.....he seems to be an expert with the tweaking of the screensaver, send him a PM and I think he will help you.
Before tweaking the screensaver you need to tweak your system. Have you fixed the size of your swap file and move it to the front of the HD? Have you killed FindFast? Check all the tweaks at the link section of the team site. The are lots of good stuff there.
4 WU per WU!!!!!Man do I need $500 bucks to buy 2 PIII-S chips!!!!! The heat will rise at the top 100 soon.
Originally posted by Mictlan
If I remember right JigPu, once told us that you could catch WU with the screensaver also
Indeed he did, and I'm using it now. It's called SETI Monitor and you can get it here (http://www.itcompagniet.no/setimon/).
Originally posted by Mictlan
Before tweaking the screensaver you need to tweak your system. Have you fixed the size of your swap file and move it to the front of the HD? Have you killed FindFast? Check all the tweaks at the link section of the team site. The are lots of good stuff there.
Definatly tweak the system first... 95% of all the tweaks for the Screen saver are just system tweaks that can (and are) used for the CLC. Besides, if you don't tweak the system, you just aren't putting it to it's potential are you? :)
JigPu
Godfodda
01-08-02, 05:39 PM
Welcome aboard Alex!
Regarding running slower machines on your account, I a P2 300 laptop and a Celly 400 adding WUs to my account. :) Wish I could get my 2 486 machines going for the slow teams, but no luck so far.
eobard: Did you check the benchmark section for an idea what you'd get with that CPU/RAM combo? I have an entry for the P3 1100, and I'd think yours would be at least as good.
Originally posted by Godfodda
eobard: Did you check the benchmark section for an idea what you'd get with that CPU/RAM combo? I have an entry for the P3 1100, and I'd think yours would be at least as good.
No I didn't, cause I'm an idiot! :rolleyes: :beer:
Originally posted by Basher
You are using the command line client (http://www.ocsetiteam.com/Instr1.htm) right? It is faster than the screen saver in most cases. Oh yeah and what is your seti nickname?
OK, I followed the instructions on how to do CLC. A couple of questions. After I set the Disired Cache Size to 5, the SETI Drive icon in my sys tray turns from blue to yellow. I assume this is normal, right? Also this is what the SETI Drive box looks like. Notice in "Est. Times: Total 02:02" and "Left 01:54"
Does this mean It'll take 2 hours and 2 minutes to finish this work unit and that I have an hour and 54 minutes to go on it? I just downloaded this WU!! If this is true, I will go upstairs and open a bottle of Heinekin.
The telescope should change to blue again after its done filling the cache. The times looks normal, After about 10%, I would guess that it will go to somewhere around 3hrs. I'm averaging somewhere around 3.25 to 3.75 with my XP1600 @ 1638, the last W/U downloaded said 1.49hrs at the start.
Good Luck!
Mictlan
01-09-02, 09:11 AM
The estimated time for finish will vary greatly up to the 50% in SETIDriver.....if you are using SETISpy you can calibrate the readings so SETISpy returns you a better estimated finished time:
From SETISpy FAQ (http://pages.tca.net/roelof/setispy/faq.htm)
FAQ 3.3: I am getting inaccurate cycles / FLOP values or MegaFLOP / second values when I start the SETI@home client, but then it improved . Is something wrong?
No, nothing is wrong. SETI@home reports the completed percentage rather inaccurately at the start of the work unit, and therefore I cannot accurately calculate the cycles / FLOP and other values. Starting with SETI Spy 3.0.3, you can calibrate the client completion percentage by clicking the Calibrate button on the Setup Client page. Depending on your processor, enter the values on the appropriate table, depending on your processor. For power users only: to save time you can you also copy the 3 ARCalibration= lines below the appropriate table into the [setup] section of the setispy.ini file. Thanks to Bob Upson for transforming the data.
In this page is the information needed to calibrate SETISpy for different processor cores. Unfortunatly, the information for Palomino core, the Morgan core, the Tualatin core and the Northwood core are missing, but the instructions to gather thedata needed are also there.
Full speed ahead.....
has anyone done the calibration for the palamino core?? please post them if u have. thanx in advance
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