1) Message boards : Server and website : Server needs topping up (Message 35767)
Posted 3661 days ago by Dagorath
That felt so good I decided to get rid of BOINC entirely including browser bookmarks to anything to do with BOINC. I'm sure the feeling is mutual but tell someone who cares.

Expunge my records, please. Don't want anybody knowing I was here, damages my reputation as a thinker.
2) Message boards : Server and website : Server needs topping up (Message 35764)
Posted 3661 days ago by Dagorath
I'm sickened by the number of "volunteers" who think this project should serve them instead of the other way around. "My RAC is falling, the sky is falling, I broke a nail, it's all your fault, now do the impossible and get me some tasks or I'm a whine like a baby, wah, wah, wah, wah, hurry up you're not doing the impossible fast enough".

I don't think I want to be part of a group that acts that way. I feel like I'm in with a bunch of 15 year old Twitter twits and bubble-gummers. I don't want anything to do with people like that. Thanks for all the advice and jokes but you're not the kind of people I want to be associated with.

Detached.

3) Message boards : Server and website : Server needs topping up (Message 35753)
Posted 3662 days ago by Dagorath
But I wonder how many of them dropped out because of lack of communication...


I would bet 1% or less. This isn't Facebook. The admins don't post about thinking all morning they wanted a cheeseburger for lunch then deciding at the last minute to have a taco instead. This communication thing has been ballyhooed way out of proportion. Stop and think... what genuine harm does it cause any of us if a project runs out of work? If the long queue running out of tasks or a project running temporarily out of work was my biggest problem then I would have a very comfortable life.

Now if you intend to argue that we have no other explanation so it must certainly be lack of communication then go right ahead but be prepared to be severely ridiculed.

And another thing... pissing and moaning about no work has been known to motivate projects to reissue work that's been done just to shut the whiners up. I would not want to buy electricity to crunch tasks that don't need to be crunched just because some cry baby can't find anything else to whine about.

One last item... maybe, just maybe, nobody at the project knows exactly when more tasks will be available. Maybe, just maybe, nobody has time to go around to every scientist on the team and ask and come up with a firm date. The point being that should one of them dare to just estimate the time and date and be wrong then 20 seagulls suddenly arrive out of nowhere, squawking and pissing and moaning all over everything about lack of comms and how their important nose is just soooo out of joint and the world's coming to an end all because of no tasks.

Anybody else need a new one ripped while I'm at it? Or maybe ya just wanna take a valium and a laxative and relax and have a good bowl movement instead?
4) Message boards : News : WU opi: Simulations on opioid receptors (Message 35737)
Posted 3662 days ago by Dagorath
Then there would be 2 things on the list of things Windows does better than Linux ;-)
5) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35723)
Posted 3663 days ago by Dagorath
With power adapter! Perfect!! Many, many thanks skgiven. 4 GPUs in a custom case is now a piece of cake ;-)
6) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35716)
Posted 3664 days ago by Dagorath
3 Alternatives

....There are concerns that none of the ITX boards on the market can supply the current a high end card requires but nobody has specs to prove it. So I intend to experiment and prove it one way or another.


I was also curious and decided to experiment on this point. I have been running a Gigabyte GTX 680 factory overclocked video card crunching GPUGRID tasks running Ubuntu 12.04 on a ASUS Maximus VI impact, a mini ITX board. So far, 47 tasks have been completed and validated and the sole error was I believe due to a power disruption issue and not a GPUGRID or the ITX boards fault.


That's a very nice board but at my favorite online retailer it costs about the same as the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC. Several weeks ago I had a notion to buy 4 ITX boards and mount them in a custom case in a way that allows each video card unrestricted access to cool air flowing in and prevents all of them from blowing hot exhaust onto the other cards. The trouble with that idea is that you buy 4 of everything when you need at most 1 CPU, 1 chipset, 1 bank of RAM, etc. That's wasteful. Yesterday I got a better idea for squeezing 4 cards into 1 case that might be much cheaper. The idea is to build/buy 2 standoffs (aka slot extenders) that allow 2 of the cards to be moved away from the other 2 yet remained connected to the PCIe slot. I've looked at a few from retailers and they're quite expensive but considerably cheaper than the 4 ITX boards alternative.

I want inexpensive standoffs that cost no more than $15 and I'll build them myself if I have to, or at least try. I'm thinking a simple ribbon cable affair with a male plug on 1 end and a female PCIe slot might add too much capacitance if the wires in the cable are too thick. I could etch 2 PCBs with very fine traces to reduce capacitance and it would be much easier to solder too. On the other hand it's serial interface not parallel so timing isn't as critical. Anybody have any thoughts on that? Or any retail source for inexpensive standoffs?
7) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35695)
Posted 3665 days ago by Dagorath

You can't Off the BiTCH even at a registry (laws may vary by country).


Lol^2

Apologies to TJ, please don't take it personal. The whole topic of GPU crunching at ANY project is so complicated it's hard to remember all the details and gotchas. I don't know how the gurus do it, I certainly cannot.

Sorry about your roof, MrS, but just the thought of Windows revs my sarcasm pump. Suffer me one final bash... For Vista and up Microsoft ought to make the tune played at boot time or return from hibernation a jaunty rendition of Elton John's "The BiCH is Back". OK, done and sorry for the thread hijack, Tony, but every good drama needs an occasional pause for humor.
8) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35672)
Posted 3666 days ago by Dagorath
My mistake. Performance loss with cards faster than GTX 770 on Vista/7/8 is not a problem, it's a feature called "Built in Crunching Handicap" (BiCH) so that people with slower cards can compete for credits on a more even playing field and you don't have to pretend to lose to slower cards anymore while gaming. With the BiCH on your side you're losing for real, no more need to pretend your mouse glitched or your eyes aren't what they used to be.

TJ, the default for BiCH seems to be ON. Is there a setting in Control Panel that allows one to set it to OFF or does one have to edit the registry?

BiCH has been very well received. One review I read at Refublic of Ganers says, "It's well worth the cost of upgrading from XP just to get BiCH'd ON."
9) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35668)
Posted 3666 days ago by Dagorath
I passed on the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC when Zoltan recommended it to me and went for the improved version of that board which is the GA-Z87X-OC Force because I read that the former has stability problems when there are more than 2 video cards on the board. I read that the stability problem(s) was fixed by the OC Peg feature on the Force model. Looking at the pictures just now, I discover the non-Force model has OC Peg too which makes me think the people talking about the instability problem were misinformed. I kind of wish I had bought the less expensive non-Force model. Mind you I saved $100 via the manufacturer's rebate so I didn't do too bad in the end.

I'll change my recommendation and give the GA-Z87X-OC thumbs up. It has everything you need and very little you don't need. It doesn't have the snazzy OC features but it's still OCable if you really want to. OC isn't advisable for crunching anyway.

Linux or XP are the best OS options. Vista, 7 and 8.x have problems with GPU crunching.
10) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Tesla K40 & System Upgrade? (Message 35666)
Posted 3666 days ago by Dagorath
Excellent point, it would be more cost effective to keep the same processor. Drop the cards out of SLI as I have been advised and consider a top of the line board supporting 1150 processor. Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD7 TH Motherboard ?

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1491&products_id=26846



Wow! That is a nice board but what a price! How does it compare in price in Australia to the Gigabyte board I mentioned? As far as I can see the only features it has that the board I am suggesting doesn't have is the onboard audio amplifier and the "2X copper" thing. Depending on exactly what that feature is it might be a very good thing to have for high-performance GPU computing as double thickness copper traces will carry considerably more current. On the other hand it says the 2X copper feature is intended for overclocking so I'm not sure it would be of benefit to a high-perf GPU application. Furthermore, it's not entirely certain you will ever reach the high-perf level. Some would say the 3 cards you already have is high-perf, others would say not quite high-perf but close. I would wait for Retvari Zoltan to give his thoughts on that board compared to the one I'm recommending. I wouldn't want to see you spend more than you need to but I think maybe you're the kind of guy who would rather have a little more than he needs at the moment so he has some room to upgrade or add additional performance later.

I intend to have 4 GTX 780Ti cards (or maybe 3 780Ti and a Black Titan) on my less expensive Gigabyte board and I think it will handle it as far as power requirements go. Zoltan does too. A feature my board has that the one you're considering does not have is the OC Brace feature which I really like. It's a bracket you can attach to the mobo if you want to put the mobo in a custom built case or just set on a shelf beside a PSU and HDD. The bracket holds up to 4 video cards firmly upright as a case normally would. It's vital for my configuration because I built a custom case so I could have enormous air-cooling power and not have to resort to liquid cooling. If you think you might want to go the same route some time in the future then you might consider getting the board with OC brace. As I mentioned above, that board might be a little cheaper. Again, wait for thoughts from the gurus around here. I'm just a wanna be.

TJ makes a good point. If you want 4 GPUs/cards going then 2 machines with 2 GPUs each is probably easier and cheaper. Eventually I want 16 GPUs crunching here so I want to start learning how to conserve space now rather than when I start running out of space. The whole computing industry, even the race to the moon, was based on jamming as many transistors as possible into the smallest package possible. That and keeping them all running at optimal temperature ( below 70C ) all year round is my objective.

Where in Australia are you located? Are you going to allow all the heat from your GPUs to heat the room they're in? How do you plan to handle that? Asking because I know it can be bloody hot in most parts of Australia in the summer.


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