..to run the same unit for six months and only be 1/3rd of the way through?

Yes.

1) You have a Celeron processor, which is a low power version of the Pentiums.
2) The amount of memory that you have tends to indicate that you don't have a separate graphics card. So the display chips on the main board will be using some of the memory that the processor is trying to use to do it's work. This will result in lots of swapping to and from the hard disk. Increasing this to 1 Gig will help.
3) You're running several projects, so the climate model won't get all of the computer "on time".
4) Some of the types of model DO take a long time; on a fast computer, running 24/7, with no other projects, a hadcm3 160 year model will take about 4 months.
The type of model can be selected in the climateprediction.net preferences on your account page.

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Backups: Here

Thank you for your help.

This will result in lots of swapping to and from the hard disk. Increasing this to 1 Gig will help.

Increase what to 1 gig? I'm not very computer literate. I'm looking at the computing preferences. Which one do I switch?

Looking at your computer page, here, it shows that your computer has 503.52 MB of memory (ram).
To increase this, you'll need to buy more of the same type that's already in your computer, and insert it into the board.

It's not computing preferences, it's the 3rd lot of prefs, climateprediction.net preferences.
You need to look at the various types of models under the Application Preferences section, and click one of the boxes. Leaving all of them blank will result in a random selection of models being sent.

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Backups: Here

Well, if I had money to blow on extra memory, I wouldn't be using a Celeron.

Thanks for your help

Hi Trekmaster

Here are the models you've had so far. You've had your current model since 12 March. It's a HadAM3P and you can see its detailed page here. This model type is very demanding on any computer's resources (some members' computers can't run them at all) and the sec/timestep figure of about 19.3 shows your computer is processing it pretty slowly.

If I were you I'd disable the CPDN screensaver if you're running it. It slows the model down. You can still look at the graphics when you want using the graphics button in BOINC Manager.

I think you should choose a HadSM or HadSMMH model for your next download when you've completed the current model. They're shorter than the HadCMs and not as resource-hungry as the HadAM3Ps.

You can select the model type you want for your next download in the climateprediction section of your account.

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Cpdn news

Oy Trekmaster,

Don't despair just yet. It is possible to run these models on a Celeron, but you have to have a lot of patience. This will probably make the moderators cry, but I'm running a HadCM3 (one of the buggy 6.02s by the way) on a Celeron M 1.40 GHz laptop with 504 MB of memory (not upgradeable) and it is still going. I'm down to only 4.43 s/Ts by doing the following: switching my screensaver to 1 minute and blank when not in use, not running too many other projects alongside, and shutting down extra processes that my computer doesn't need to be running. If you shutdown all of the outside junk that's running on your computer it helps a lot not just with running the model, but with the speed of the thing overall, as well.

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~It only takes one bottle cap moving at 23,000 mph to ruin your whole day~

I ran a BBC model (HadCM 160 years) on my 1.33GHz AMD with 512MB RAM. It ran more slowly than what you're achieving, Mary, but was perfectly stable. Machines like these can contribute plenty; using them to run climate models or other BOINC projects means that when you do eventually get a newer, faster computer you already know what you're doing.

Later edit: Mary, I see that in your profile notes you said the create/edit profile page is buggy. If you can remember what the problem was we may be able to ask Milo to fix it.

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Cpdn news

Later edit: Mary, I see that in your profile notes you said the create/edit profile page is buggy. If you can remember what the problem was we may be able to ask Milo to fix it.

The create/edit profile page has an issue where the entry prompt shows up twice if you scroll down (as in you see what looks to be a normal page, but when you scroll down, the entire page repeats itself once more below). I also ran into an issue where entering text into only one of the two prompts did not edit the profile. I had to enter the same text into both to get it to work. I don't know if others have this problem or not.

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~It only takes one bottle cap moving at 23,000 mph to ruin your whole day~