A different Challenge.

[chawken]

Thought that it might be interesting for a friendly race to 5000 between members of ocsetiteam and NovaStar. The top 4 crunchers for NovaStar only produce 100 - 110 WU's per day and we would like to challenge a team from ocsetiteam with a simular production rate.

The NovaStar team members would be:

Sir-Epix
waltnat
luke
and myself.

How about it guys - are any of you game?

[Cy]

I would be up for something like this with all kinds of teams...not that there is much communication between most teams. :)

Cy

[newtoseti]

How are you guys doing so many WU's. Forgive my ignorance, but from what I have read the average time on a fast PC is about 6 hours per unit, giving me about 4 per day. Where are you guys putting all of your machines? I am having trouble finding room for 3-4 machines. If I am able to pull it off I would then be getting a max of about 16 units. Someone help me understand this. I would also appreciate it if some of you could post the number of machines you are running, some configurations, and the average times per WU. I understand if you don't want to, I see that there is alot of competition amoung yourselves. You may not want to give a newbie a head start.

[Jon]

Welcome to the forums, and hopefully, out team as well!

About your question...well, several of us are heavily addicted to SETI and don't seem to know when to stop building computers to crunch for this team. This many PCs is called a "farm" as it is used to produce many WUs.

Some of use have 3-4 PCs while a few more of us have 6-10+ PCs. I myself have 7 with another on the way crunching for the team.

Depending on the type of PC will result in how many WUs it produces. A very powerful and highly overclocked PC can get a WU done in 3 hours or a little less. This would correspond to about 8 WUs a day. Now if a person had several of these machines, it mean a whole lot more workunits. Other of us, including myself, have a mixture of slow and fast PCs and some dual CPU machines. The slowest I have personally is a dual PIII 500MHz and the fastest being a dual AMD 1.58GHz. I have 4 dual rigs allowing me to run two instances of SETI on each of those machines giving me nearly double the output while having fewer PCs. Here is a quick rundown of the average times some of my systems get:

Dual XP 1.58 = 3H45M
Dual PIII 1GHz = 7H25M
TBird 1.4GHz@1.6GHz = 4H
PIII 933 = 7H

As far as where to put them, well, I have a separate room they all go in and are controller by the same keyboard, mouse and monitor through a KVM switch. Others build shelves or racks for them and control them through various network utilities without needing monitors and such.

We are all highly competitive but not at the expense of getting another good cruncher added to our team. ANY of us will be happy to help you in any way as we value our dedicated team members...the more WUs, the better!

Welcome again!

[Sir-Epix]

Originally posted by newtoseti
How are you guys doing so many WU's. Forgive my ignorance, but from what I have read the average time on a fast PC is about 6 hours per unit, giving me about 4 per day. Where are you guys putting all of your machines? I am having trouble finding room for 3-4 machines. If I am able to pull it off I would then be getting a max of about 16 units. Someone help me understand this. I would also appreciate it if some of you could post the number of machines you are running, some configurations, and the average times per WU. I understand if you don't want to, I see that there is alot of competition amoung yourselves. You may not want to give a newbie a head start.

My sig might explain some of your questions. I am ecele...The third fastest on the team...darn you nate!

[Godfodda]

You can toss me into that one. I think I'm starting to play with too many of the big kids here on the playground, though. :D

[chawken]

bump.

Cy and Godfodda have jumped on the bandwagon, which will account for about 75 WU's - anyone else?

[rogerdugans]

I'm in- current stats show 24 per day (working on it though;) )

As to newtoseti's question: most of mine are in my basement, making noise and crunching work units.
Current setup:
*XP1800 (1533@1670) (my workstation, slows it down a bit) 3.5 hrs. average (Win2K Pro)
*TBird 1000@1400 about 6 hrs. or a little under (Win98se)
*TBird 900@1096 6.5 to 7 hours (RedHat linux)
*Dual PIII 1000 (not oc'd right now due to damaged mobo) I think its doing about 9.5 to 10 hours a wu (WinNT Workstation)
* Celeron 1ghz laptop 12 to 14 hours (WinXP)
*Dual PII 400 about 13 hours (RedHat Linux)
*K6-2 450@500 about 25 to 30 hours (RedHat Linux)

Another rig is in the works: Duallie, of course, still deciding between a H2O cooled Athlon MP or Prestonia Xeons:cool:
Also a new VP6 for the Dual PIII is needed- I need my extra 150mhz x2!

And while we have all our little rivalries going, anyone will try and help- and encourage- anybody to improve their stats!

[chawken]

O.K. with Cy, godfodda and rogerdugans that is about 99 per day. Need one more on the ocsetiteam with about 10 wu's per day and we're off.

[jokrswild]

Of course I'm darn faster than Epix. heh. But yes, this race sounds like a wonderful Idea. ::insert evil grin here::

[LandShark]

u can count me in if i'm not doing too much tho....currently 'bout 25-27WU/day

it's fun and good to have some sort of interteam race going! ;)

[rogerdugans]

With LandShark we're up to about 125 or thereabouts: can you guys pull one more from NovaStar in to even it up? Or will one of us have to drop out and get another with slightly lower numbers in?

[LandShark]

Originally posted by rogerdugans
With LandShark we're up to about 125 or thereabouts: can you guys pull one more from NovaStar in to even it up? Or will one of us have to drop out and get another with slightly lower numbers in?

i sure don't mind to step down for someone else since i'm the last one in....:)

and u could be sure i'll be BACK next round........;)

[jokrswild]

I dunno.. Chawken, Epix: Do you think us four (with luke of course) could handle 125/day? You'd better look at those stats of ours pretty well, Chawken.. ;-)

[chawken]

Originally posted by waltnat
I dunno.. Chawken, Epix: Do you think us four (with luke of course) could handle 125/day? You'd better look at those stats of ours pretty well, Chawken.. ;-)

Why not. The race would be to 5000. I will be adding 2 puters at some point in the race - to replace 2 that I lost a couple of weeks ago. They will be duallies, so that should make up for the difference.

NovaStar
chawken
ecele (Sir-Epix)
jokrswild (waltnat)
luke

versus

ocsetiteam
Cy
rogerdugans
godfodda
landshark

Race to start on Monday 2/11/02. First team to 5000. I will get everyones starting stats on Monday 7am PST.

Is this O.K. with everyone?

[rogerdugans]

Sounds good to me!

Upload now guys- no sandbagging! j/k:D

[Cy]

Dang Roger! Quite giving up my secrets. ;)

Cy

[Sir-Epix]

Originally posted by rogerdugans
Sounds good to me!

Upload now guys- no sandbagging! j/k:D

I would need work units to sandbag, which I currently have none, so like I have 20 computers idleing...darn you berkeley.

[chawken]

Originally posted by Sir-Epix


I would need work units to sandbag, which I currently have none, so like I have 20 computers idleing...darn you berkeley.

You had better get them rigs up and running or Team OC will toast our buns.:p

[jokrswild]

Mmmmm. Toasted Buns. Whole Wheat or White?

[LandShark]

so, we could add some rigss down the road right? just wanna make sure 'cos don't wanna be cheating....;)

also, do we have to upload all the WUs before the race start? i know it's hard to controll tho....

or it doesn't matter.....

but if stop uploading for a couple days, it seems like it's not a good fair race tho....

just wanna make it clear first...:rolleyes:

[Sir-Epix]

Originally posted by LandShark
so, we could add some rigss down the road right? just wanna make sure 'cos don't wanna be cheating....;)

also, do we have to upload all the WUs before the race start? i know it's hard to controll tho....

or it doesn't matter.....

but if stop uploading for a couple days, it seems like it's not a good fair race tho....

just wanna make it clear first...:rolleyes:

Addin machines = fair

Sandbaggin = sorta have problem with it...but with the berkeley servers they way the are if you can't get through, then you can't get through. I understand.

[LandShark]

kool! 'cos i'm thinking to add at least 1 (as many as 6! :D ) of the machine at work to run seti. well even tho they r slow, the fastest being PIII 650, but every WU count toward the OC team tho! ;)

well, i guess sandbagging should be a problem if most of us r auto transmit. 'cos what it seems like is early in the morning, before 10am EST, there's no problem to up/down load WU. so, by the time Chawken taking stats, we all should have our cache cleared. if not, that's berkeley's problem, not our intention anyway.

let's get ready Team OC.com!!!;)

[chawken]

Originally posted by LandShark
kool! 'cos i'm thinking to add at least 1 (as many as 6! :D ) of the machine at work to run seti. well even tho they r slow, the fastest being PIII 650, but every WU count toward the OC team tho! ;)

well, i guess sandbagging should be a problem if most of us r auto transmit. 'cos what it seems like is early in the morning, before 10am EST, there's no problem to up/down load WU. so, by the time Chawken taking stats, we all should have our cache cleared. if not, that's berkeley's problem, not our intention anyway.

let's get ready Team OC.com!!!;)

Adding equipment isn't a prob. This race is just for fun, and any increased production only benefits the respected teams. If I get my equipment in time, as I said, I will be adding two duallies to my mix, to replace two PC's that I lost. But then again the race may be over by the time I get the equipment.

I will be grabbing the starting stats at 10am EST, and since Berkeley hasn't had many problems on the weekends, let's all get our WU's uploaded by then. Eric and I will create a page on our website to track the race, and update it Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

So crunchers - on your marks, get set - not so fast, Monday morning 10 EST we go.

[Cy]

Everything looks good to me, lets go!

What is the Nova-Star address again?

Cy

[chawken]

Originally posted by Cy
Everything looks good to me, lets go!

What is the Nova-Star address again?

Cy

I will post a direct link on Monday. We don't have a page setup for this challenge yet. I will be creating the stats with Excel, and Eric (Sir-Epix) will create the page on the website. I will start a new thread with all the info - and maybe SpeeDj could make it a sticky.

[LandShark]

sounds good to me!

let's get all of our missiles (machinessss) ready, Team OC.com!! :D

[Godfodda]

Regarding sandbagging: I leave town for New York Saturday morning. I can transmit everything I have until then, but after that ???. I might be persuaded to set to auto-transmit (though I'd prefer not to) if I'm going to cause a problem, but one machine is going to be completely disconnected from the network for testing an idea.

If no one else has a problem with it, I'd prefer to just report my pre-start WU amount when I return the following weekend. If that will present a logistical problem or if my honesty is a concern, I understand and will do whatever needs to be done to keep from screwing the game up.

I did just have a thought. If I can get VNC setup before I leave, I may be able to connect remotely and transmit Sunday night or Monday morning. I have too much preparation to do in too short a time, but I can try to squeeze that in if everyone thinks it's best.

[chawken]

Originally posted by Godfodda
Regarding sandbagging: I leave town for New York Saturday morning. I can transmit everything I have until then, but after that ???. I might be persuaded to set to auto-transmit (though I'd prefer not to) if I'm going to cause a problem, but one machine is going to be completely disconnected from the network for testing an idea.

If no one else has a problem with it, I'd prefer to just report my pre-start WU amount when I return the following weekend. If that will present a logistical problem or if my honesty is a concern, I understand and will do whatever needs to be done to keep from screwing the game up.

I did just have a thought. If I can get VNC setup before I leave, I may be able to connect remotely and transmit Sunday night or Monday morning. I have too much preparation to do in too short a time, but I can try to squeeze that in if everyone thinks it's best.

There are no honesty probs here. Just let us know any adjustments and your word is as good as gold.:D

[killem1x1]

If you guys have anyone else that wants to join let me know, because I'm always up for a good race ;)