Posts by old_user8363

1) Message boards : Number crunching : avoided buying amd cpu because it runs the models slower - should I still? (Message 22061) Posted 15 Apr 2006 by old_user8363 Post: Hello. I typically run Windows XP. I have avoided buying computers with AMD CPUs the past couple of years in my house primarily because my past experience has been that the Climate Prediction clients (the previous one and BOINC) do not run as fast on AMD CPUs as on Intel ones (such as perhaps a Pentium 4 640). Has this situation changed, for people running Micro$oft OSs? For example I have a family member who needs a cheap newer machine. It\'ll probably be running XP. And the cheapest out there all have AMD Athlon 64 - perhaps a 3500+. But I don\'t want to buy it if BOINC or the newer BOINC running climate prediction models are going to run consequentially slower on an AMD than on an Intel. Perhaps the developers hadn\'t thought that users like me would make purchasing descisions based on a lack of past support for AMD CPUs. Maybe for what the climate prediction models do AMD CPUs are somehow inferior to Intel? But in the past I\'ve personally supported AMD just so to support competition and price lowering on CPUs. But the last cheapo Windows XP PC I got in my house was an Intel and it\'s running BOINC. My own personal computer has an AMD. And now I need another cheapo machine here. What do you say? AMD or Intel - in the context of running these models?
2) Questions and Answers : Wish list : Tray icon & notification & speed suggestions re boinc (Message 10802) Posted 13 Mar 2005 by old_user8363 Post: I would like to suggest the following changes and/or additions to the BOINC client: 1. Make the tray icon changable so that it looks like a little Earth. 2. The blinking reminder on the tray icon for BOINC is distracting. Have options to turn off the notifying blink, or to have only "red" notifications show. 3. Have an option so that the screen saver is no more hoggy on calculation resources than the old client saver is. When the BOINC screen saver is going it slows down the calculations more than with the old client. Have an option for a saver which is less hoggy. I assume there's an option to not have a screen saver. 4. Try & figure out why the BOINC client is slower in general than the old client. 5. Try and create an AMD Athlon CPU friendly version. The current BOINC client reportely runs faster on Pentiums than on AMDs. The above suggestions are generally in order of precedence - from my perspective. Sincerely, Jonathan Higbee
3) Message boards : Cafe CPDN : Still useful to run non-boinc client? (Message 9881) Posted 24 Feb 2005 by old_user8363 Post: Hello, For various reasons I recently switched from BOINC back to the older client (cpdn_3_0_1.exe). The older client seems to keep running the same model (HadSM3 THC Experiment) on the multiple computers I have it running on. On all the computers the client keeps including special phase number 4. Anyway is there some usefulness to the project to continue to run the non-BOINC client & the model it seems to keep running, or am I wasting CPU time on the computers I have it running on?
4) Questions and Answers : Windows : BOINC 150% slower than old model on AMD XP 2900 (2040MHz) (Message 6738) Posted 8 Dec 2004 by old_user8363 Post: I've been watching the graphic globe occasionally on the BOINC version of the model. About a week ago I watched closely how long it would take to do it's work, and it seemed to me that it was simply slower than how the older model software would run. After doing a 60 second test with both I found that a model under BOINC runs 150% slower than it does under the older software. I still have both installed on my computer, but only BOINC is installed as a service and normally only BOINC is running now. Because of this significant difference I am considering going back to the old software. However the last time I checked automatic model uploads weren't working with the older software, and also auto downloads of new models wasn't working either. In sixty seconds under BOINC I get 16 timesteps, whereas under the older software I get 24. Are there steps under way to correct this great descrepancy with BOINC, or steps to allow people who have AMD processor computers to be able to do auto downloads & uploads using the older software? Using the slower BOINC seems kind of a waste of time for me & for the project. Here's the benchmark under boinc: 1903 double precision MIPS 4588 integer MIPS Assuming that the older model running software is even still usable, what would be the preference of the project organizers in cases like this - to drop a BOINC running model mid stream & go back to the old immediately, or to wait until 1/3 of a run is complete (I'm on the first of the three on the AMD XP CPU computer) before going back?
5) Questions and Answers : Windows : Master fetch file failed (Message 6628) Posted 6 Dec 2004 by old_user8363 Post: > We think that the main climateprediction.net site has been attacked using a > phpBB SQL exploit. See this thread for more details. > > http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/forum_thread.php?id=1379 > > But I'm not absolutely sure that's you problem. > Elsewhere on the site it is claimed that "...The BOINC forums, upload servers, etc are still functioning as normal..." However on all of the computers I'm running BOINC on I get the following type of messages whenever I try & do a manual update: climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:09:23 - Deferring communication with project for 1 weeks, 1 days, 19 hours, 15 minutes, and 49 seconds climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Master file parse failed climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Could not contact any schedulers for http://www.climateprediction.net/. climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Could not contact any schedulers for http://www.climateprediction.net/. climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Deferring communication with project for 1 weeks, 1 days, 13 hours, 58 minutes, and 21 seconds So perhaps uploading isn't working after all for BOINC, manual or auto.
6) Message boards : Number crunching : Main climateprediction.net site down (Message 6627) Posted 6 Dec 2004 by old_user8363 Post: In a previous message in this thread it was stated "...The BOINC forums, upload servers, etc are still functioning as normal..." However on all of the computers I'm running BOINC on I get the following type of messages whenever I try & do a manual update: climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:09:23 - Deferring communication with project for 1 weeks, 1 days, 19 hours, 15 minutes, and 49 seconds climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Master file parse failed climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Could not contact any schedulers for http://www.climateprediction.net/. climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Could not contact any schedulers for http://www.climateprediction.net/. climateprediction.net - 2004-12-06 12:23:32 - Deferring communication with project for 1 weeks, 1 days, 13 hours, 58 minutes, and 21 seconds So perhaps uploading isn't working after all?