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December, my second month since November, of running SETI@home 24/7, has been a fun and eventful time. November basically saw me unmothballing all of my systems following the summer months and getting the work units crunching again on all. One of my rigs, a Phenom X6, decided to be problematic from the start, and following a strip-down and rebuild while I moved the graphics card to another rig, even replacing the CMOS battery and powering up without the CPU installed to try and get it to POST at one point, until it sprang into life. This only lasted about a week or so though, and in the end I chose to source a replacement motherboard which is now up and running, albeit crunching “only” on the 6 x CPU cores rather than on a GPU. In addition to the above, I have been switching a couple of rigs over to Linux to exploit a number-crunching benefit there. I’ve tried a few different Linux “distros” over the years but with little success and limitations due to there being a few programs I use regularly which are Windows-based. Due to renewed encouragement and much-needed help on hand from my SETI@home team mates, I was able to complete the necessary steps not only to install Linux (which I had achieved before) but also switch to Nvidia graphics drivers, install the BOINC application, and tweak it for improved SETIing performance, something I had not been able to do before. I repeated my efforts and got Ubuntu installed on a second rig and now both are dual boot enabled so I can still use Windows when I need to, but my new-found confidence has seen me happily using Linux for much of my day-to-day computing such as blogging, watching Youtube, continuing my language-learning on Memrise, popping into Second Life from time-to time, and even printing (my Epson printer required no effort on my part to install, it just worked.) The switch to Linux on these rigs has seen my RAC (Recent Average Credit) continue its climb and it’s still climbing – where it’ll stop, nobody knows! Last year I believe I peaked at 80K.
At one point my daily performance was 2nd in the UK, although my currently Average credit is less than this.
My efforts to switch to Linux coincided with Windows 10 causing me headaches. When I reinstalled Windows 10 some 18 months ago I had successfully stopped it from downloading these large updates that Microsoft like releasing every so often. I don’t normally recommend doing this but I have slow internet speeds and when I’m using it, especially on Youtube or in Second Life (or both), I have the connection maxed out; to have Windows downloading its multiple-gigabyte-sized updates at the same time just makes my computer unusable for what I want to use it for, which (Hello Microsoft) is why I have a computer. Anyway, out-of-the-blue my Windows 10 presented me with a box asking me to confirm my Privacy settings; this I naively did. The next thing I know, Windows is downloading all the hefty updates that I have been avoiding. You can read my full
account of this on my blog post: |
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I splashed out on a few Geforce 1060 graphics cards to replace some old and/or less efficient ones I had parted with some months back. I opted for some Zotac-branded ones because they offered an extended warranty up to 5 years, provided I registered them. Installation was quick and easy since my computer already had compatible Nvidia drivers installed, and the registration process was easy enough too – as a recommendation to others I suggest keeping copies of the various documents/terms/confirmations should a return be necessary.
Five years is a long time in the computing world and it may so happen that I don’t keep these graphics cards for that long, but I have known fans on models to wear out prematurely, especially when running more than one graphics card in a computer. These ones run pretty cool though, and over-clocking seems to void the warranty from what I have read, which seems like a shame since I could wear the fans out sooner by foolishly sandwiching a few cards together with insufficient airflow. Incidentally one of these new cards makes a “rattly” noise at a certain temperature range/fan speed, but because it’s one of two cards in that machine I have not had chance to investigate beyond ensuring all fans are clear. It may be a fan noise or a power circuitry; it comes and goes. I did have one hiccup bringing one of my systems out of its slumber. My Phenom X6 machine wouldn’t POST, and after much jiggery-pokery (taking everything apart including dismounting the tricky heatsink, and removing the CPU and trying another) it seemed to come back to life after I replaced the CMOS battery with a fresh one. I suspect the motherboard is a temperamental one and I had made use of a spare system without a GPU to get things up to speed, so I haven’t got it back into full service or checked it over further – it awaits in the wings as a standby machine now. The month of November has therefore seen my RAC (Recent Average Credit) rise, and rise, but not to the same levels they were at their peak last year. It seemed to plateau but then climbed a little more before the SETI servers had a hiccup and computers stopped receiving work for a few days, making my house go cold and causing me to turn to my central heating and wood burning stove for warmth. Just this day work has started flowing back in though.
I’ve been constantly trying to work out where on the UK leaderboard I am likely to end up with my current performance. I’ve made it back up to 10th, but it looks like I wont make another overtake for a few months. I was up to 8th before I powered everything down last time, but have been overtaken since then and I might not make those places back. The guy in 7th no longer participates but I’m doubting if I will overtake him before I finish my 2017-18 effort when the clocks change again next year… unless I give in and buy some more hardware, but having already made those aforementioned purchased I don’t think I can justify it.
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Micro Electric Theft: November 2017: Through this strange situation where Windows Updates, under some situations or versions of Windows, were taking up to a week to process (and still do), I came up with the conspiracy theory that Microsoft were using the processing time of the computer in question, not to decide which updates were needed as some tried to explain, but to perhaps mine for crypto-currency.
You can read this full topic here: |
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I’d ended my last stint back in March (see below) in 8th place in the UK, and just a hair’s breadth short of taking 7th, with around 125 million points. Since then a few people have overtaken me so I have some places to regain. It’s almost like I haven’t stopped and started again because the person just ahead of me no longer participates so the gap between us is pretty much as it was. I’d actually started to switch a couple of computers back on a couple of weeks early because, due to it being a soggy summer, my house (being an old on) had absorbed a lot of moisture. It was also feeling chilly in my bedroom (<15 degrees C is my feel chilly point). Switching them on again is like meeting an old friend since I’ve had them for a good few years now. As always though, I’m torn between running computers when I don’t need the extra heat and making as much headway as possible. In addition to this predicament I had to decide if I would buy any new equipment or make do with what I’ve got, but this was made a little easier by the fact I had sold a few graphics cards once I’d finished with them for the winter-stint, and by an offer from Zotac of a 5 year warranty on one of the graphics cards I was looking at. I would like to regain 8th place in the UK by the end of the winter, but this might be a tall-order.
PS. I’m also in 28th position in team GPUUG. |
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For the past few months my computers have been running flat-out while I eagerly watch my progress. I have been trying to gain a place in the leader board, but as fast as I’ve been gaining on the person ahead of me (who no longer takes part) there has been a person behind me chasing my tail with a higher average. It has been neck and neck as to whether I gain the place before they do. It has also been neck and neck as to whether I would gain this place before the British Summertime begins and I have to follow through with my personal agreement to switch all my computers off again. At the time of writing it looks like I might be 14 days short… what to do!?
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