Question about Boinc, how they do this...?

Hi mates, i am a new boinc user, and i start adding SETI and work on it.
I have noticed in several foruns about it that some members use boinc to crunch not only one project but several. my questions goes for:

- How they work in several project? they run one, suspend and enables other one, or it's possible to have more then a project running at the same time? i ask this because at the time i joined Eistein it not run at all untill i had suspended SETI.
if it's possible to do more then one at the same time how to do it?

- I noticed also that if i join another projects to the list, the CPU time is divided equaly amoung all the projects even if just one is running. is this good or bad? if i have only one running why is the CPU time divided any way?

- Just curious because i think it is so cool...: SETI can give us a kind of certification of computation, there are any other projects that give us the same?
i had checked in the quantum qhemistry and eistein and i do not see this option on this 2 projects.any one knows if any other project diferent from SETI can give also computation certificates?

Thx in advance for any answers to my questions

[edit on 21-10-2006 by Umbra Sideralis]

Well if its like FOLD@Home (A Much more worthwhile cause in my opinion) If you have a P4 with Hyperthreading or now Dual Core you can run multiple instances of the program. You have to check on their site on how to do it. You should just run one instance of it. Those programs constantly run your CPU and its not good for your chip. I fold with over 30 machines and not only does it kill CPU's it also burns a lot of extra electricity!

Hummm...so you are telling me to just run one, and even in that situation my 3.4Ghz. dual core CPU can burn?...now you have scared me

any advice for a maximun cpu time per day to avoid it to be burned?

[edit on 21-10-2006 by Umbra Sideralis]

If you are only going to run one instance..no worries. its like using 50% of your CPU. Just make sure that your CPU fan is always clear and free of dirt or dust. Heat is Silcones worst enemy.


In my internet cafe I ran all 25 of my machines 24hrs a day, it got to the point where my electric bill hit almost 700.00 a month! I only fold on a few machines and I turn them off at night now..bill is down to 230.00


Pie

thx for the info Pieman.

any info about other possible projects where we can get that cool computation certificates?

Fold @ Home is great. Im on team 15 for speedguide.net and I've folded over 2,000,000 points worth now . Its For Alzheimer's Disease ,Cancer,Huntington's Disease,Osteogenesis Imperfecta,Parkinson's Disease,Ribosome & antibiotics
. A worthwile cause.



image source: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/awards/cert.php?u=Thepieman&pts=39558&t=wus&bg=3



You can download the client here:
www.stanford.edu...

Join Team 15!


Pie

no need to start boinc twice.
Boinc switches between the projects in a time shareing manner:
2 hours the first project, then 2 hourse the next etc.

I don't know how it handles dual core, but i believe also this is handled right so that you dont need to run 2 instances to get both cpu's busy. Best if you check their boinc faq.

The cpu's should not burn. They are designed to run at full load 24 hours a day with the proper cooling. And also if they get too hot they normaly do not take damage but simple start to misbehave (calculating wrong, crash the sw). After reboot they work ok again. Except of yourse you really overdoo with the overheating forexample with running the cpu without any cooling.

But one thing that can burn is your cheap power supply. I speak of experience here. My one burned. And I burned more than one although I never run them outside their specs. There are some bad producer.

thx for the pic Pieman, it is indeed a very nice one i will see that link and i think i will work on that project also. indeed a nice and usefull objective.

g210b: thx a lot for that info mate, that's very cool , 2 hours automaticly for each project in indeed a very nice option. that is the default for the program to behave or we need to chose it in the program especifications?

Sorry but I've had my computer business for over 17 years now and have been doing distributed computation for almost 4 years and I will not say that running your cpu at 100% load will not damage your CPU. You are right about the power supply though and thats because you are putting a constant drain since the CPU is running at full power. Normally when you are just using your computer it will fluctuate, but when you are crunching its very cpu intensive, and it usually stays at 100% cpu usage, the draw is always going to be peak on the PSU. I won't mess with someone elses hardware and say that it won't damage your cpu. It would be irresponsible of me to say otherwise. If something happens I don't want him/her to come back and be upset with me.


Pie

Hey no problem. If you are going to run the F@H the better one to use is the Console version. If you need any help feel free to ask or you can U2U me here.
You can also use the following links:
Speedguide.net folding Forum

or here:

forum.folding-community.org...

If you get the console version just unzip to a directory c:\f@h click on start/run type in cmd
Hit enter , then type cd\f@h and hit enter
then type fahconsole -config (the filename may be different this is just an example) hit enter, and follow the prompts, choose a username and a team #...it will ask if you would like to set it up to run at startup you can choose Yes or No, the rest you can just choose default. Then just type exit and reboot and it will run on its own (if you chose to run at startup) only using CPU idle time, meaning only when you arent using the computer.




Pie


[edit on 21-10-2006 by ThePieMaN]

Pie, im running a graphic version(5.3), i noticed it's a diferent program . no way to get a url to add to boinc project list?, this way we need to change manualy from one project to another.ty for the help mate

I ran an older version of the graphic when i first started and in my opinion its a lot slower then the console version because it has to draw all the pretty graphics. F@H does not have a BOINC version that Im aware of yet. They are working on a GPU version for ATI video cards though which will probably be even faster.

The projects will change as they are completed. Sometimes it will work on the same project depending on your CPU speed. They will upload to you the larger or smaller projects depending on your past performance.


Pie

Thank you very much for your info about it Pie. it was extremly helpfull for me to know all that things

I use Boinc for 3 projects, although I have curretly disabled one (BBC climate prediction)
Here is a list on the Seti website of other projects;
Projects List

You can then join on the website for a particular project and it will give you address keys to be entered into Boinc, under 'Attach to new project'

Screen shot of my three projects in Boinc;


Hope this helps a little

Yes it helps a lot also, thx a lot Hyacinth