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new release: extra-large work units

Discussion in 'bit-tech Folding Team' started by JackOfAll, 19 Jul 2009.

  1. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    I've been 'fiddling' with the new P2681 work unit. Ideally needs 8 'real' CPU cores, but an O/C'd Core i7 920 will do the job and net a decent bonus.

    A Core i7 running with '-smp 8', if you're O/C'd to at least 3.4GHz, then it'll finish in just under the 3 days for a 100% bonus. ie. 50K points.

    Stock, (without any O/C), it will finish within the 6 day deadline for the 25K points, but it's not worth it. For one thing, the WU will be re-allocated to someone else after the 4th day, and secondly, you'll get just as many points running 2x '-smp 4' on a standard WU.

    YMMV. But if you have an i7 O/C'd to at least 3.4Ghz, and can run the Linux fah6 client, 50K every 3 days is yours for the taking. (Don't forget that you need to have submitted 10 WU's with a passkey before you'll qualify for the bonus.)

    [​IMG]

    PS. There is a Mac client as well.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2009
  2. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Blimey, 50,000 points in three days... but I still can't afford all the new hardware required for a i7. Maybe I can tweak my cards some more :D
     
  3. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    What frame times are you getting? I'm looking at about 38 mins a frame on my test rig.
    Doesn't seem to be maxing all 8 cores either.
    I'm using -smp -bigadv do I need any more switches?
    This Linux stuff is a bit new to me.
     
  4. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    '-smp -bigadv' is all you need. My client is started with ''fah6 -smp -verbosity 9 -bigadv'. Cores won't use 100% CPU, but top should show 80-90% CPU utilization per core. 38 mins a frame - 2.64 days - should be good for the 100% bonus.

    Code:
     Project : 2681
     Core    : SMP Gromacs CVS
     Frames  : 100
     Credit  : 25403
    
    
     -- c7p6t CPU1 i7 920 3.8GHz --
    
     Min. Time / Frame : 34mn 18s  - 10664.82 ppd
     Avg. Time / Frame : 35mn 52s  - 10198.97 ppd
     Cur. Time / Frame : 35mn 45s  - 10232.26 ppd
     R3F. Time / Frame : 35mn 41s  - 10251.37 ppd
     Eff. Time / Frame : 35mn 50s  - 10208.46 ppd
    
     
  5. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    I found using -smp 8 -bigadv turned on all 70-80% load on all 8 cores.

    Should be good (providing my other clients get the rest of the 10 cores in first (first time needing passkeys)
     
  6. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    What kernel version are you using? Also, are you running runlevel 3 or 5. ie. is X started. X and the display manager will chew up a little CPU utilization, which even on one CPU core will slow down all of the FahCore's.

    I hadn't submitted a WU with a passkey before downloading the first bigadv. My other 4 SMP clients posted enough A2's with passkeys by the time the first bigadv was finished - I got the 50K points for it.
     
  7. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    No idea what kernel. It's a fresh install of ubuntu 64bit.
    Running whatever came with a default install.

    Finished it some point last night but no points for it yet (not even the 25k)
     
  8. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    'uname -r'. Reason I ask is that is was generally accepted that kernel 2.6.24 scaled the best (% CPU core utilization per WU core) for smp > 4. Kernels > 2.6.24 but < 2.6.29, did not schedule so well. >= 2.6.29 seems to be back to 2.6.24 levels. That could be the reason you're not running > 80% utilization per CPU core. So would be interesting to know what kernel you're using.

    The bigadv server is having issues. Has it been submitted back yet?
     
  9. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    Think it's gone back but can't check until later as it's at home.

    I'll find out what kernal it is as well (where do I type that? terminal?)
     
  10. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    bigadv has got me thinking thinking about Xeons again. A little research at the weekend. Scan now have the Tyan S7025 board in stock. Pretty much the same price as a P6T7. Dual E5520's (2.26GHz), 12GB of RAM, the S7025 board, which BTW has 4x double spaced PCI-E 16x. (Assuming turbo works correctly on the Tyan board with the E5520's they should run @ 2.4GHz, fully loaded.)

    Tyan S7025AGM2NR £329.61
    Xeon E5520 £278.89 x 2 = £557.78
    Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) £88.31 x 2 = £176.62

    £1064. It's a lot of $$$'s. But 8 physical, 16 logical cores. '-bigadv -smp 16'. Tempting...... Maybe raise some money towards a new Xeon build by selling a) Asus R2E mb and i7 920 and b) Asus P6T Deluxe mb and i7 920 combos. On a good day that might raise £600-£700 towards the Xeon build.
     
    Last edited: 27 Jul 2009
  11. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Yes, type it in a terminal and it should tell you the currently running kernel version.
     
  12. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    Now that is tempting. Don't forget to add a psu with 2x 8pin cpu power
     
  13. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Yes, I've got another Enermax Revolution 1250W which will do the job. If I do the consolidation thing, ie. lose a board or two, it'll be 'spare'.
     
  14. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    I just wish it's work with clusters.

    I've got server hpc sitting here. I could stick a pile of q6600's on it.
     
  15. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    Well it looks like you may have finally dragged me over to the dark side Jack. If I'd known which graphics drivers work and what commands like --enable-all-gpus and nano meant before I started on Saturday I would've saved myself a world of pain. Still got a lot to figure out but I think the uncomfortably steep learning curve has been worth it.

    [​IMG]

    Dual booting i7 920 at 3.6GHz running Ubuntu 9.04 (updated to kernel 2.6.30.3) with 2 gpus running under wine :)
     
  16. Vince_Kinslow

    Vince_Kinslow Folding Millionaire

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    Over 8K per GTX285 must be doing something wrong My 295 most I have seen is 15k both cores combined!
     
    Last edited: 29 Jul 2009
  17. coolamasta

    coolamasta Folding@Home CC Captain 2010/11/12

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    :waah: :waah: I want to run Ubuntu on my 3.8ghz i7 but its running as my home server doing many things at the moment, I got 2 VM NotFreds running on it but im only seeing about 7k ppd from it when I could be seeing 10k on Linux...

    Might need a total re-jig of my setups and make something else my server..... unless:

    Clive - will Ubuntu handle file shares that I can connect to from windows but also with permissions, IE not everyone on my network can access the shares if I dont want them to?
    Also is there a VMware platform I can run on Ubuntu to run a virtual Windows version?

    Sorry if questions seem silly but im a proper nooooob with Linux lol
     
  18. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    SAMBA does shares.

    vmware is available in linux version
     
  19. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Nano - positively modern. My editor of choice is 'joe'. Anyone remember Wordstar back in the 80's? (Showing my age, talking about editors from 25 years ago!)

    I'm glad you got up and running. A couple of hassles along the way just makes the experience more real! And it's always good to have an idea of how things work under the surface.
     
  20. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Like saspro said, yes, with Samba. Let me know what you want to do. Samba can be configured to be part of of domain if you have a PDC, we can make it a PDC or simply a standalone server. Whatever you want to do. Shares - yes, of course - lock them down by user, by a group - again, whatever you want to do.

    Yes, but I hold my hands up now and say that virtual machines - not an area I know a great deal about or have much experience with.
     
    Last edited: 27 Jul 2009

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