How Much Work Available?

[The Knighty NI]

The team I am a member of The Knights Who Say NI (KWSN), do a project of the month or POTM for short. Questions are always asked such as:

Is there enough work for the team to shrub (our expression for doing WU's), crunch, fold etc for a month.

Is there a project status page where can I see how much work is available so that I can promote RNA World as an option for our POTM?

Unfortunately I am not able to read German and am not able to see any headings on the English version that suggests there is a status page.

Greg. AKA The Knighty Ni

[Michael H.W. Weber]

Is there enough work for the team to shrub (our expression for doing WU's), crunch, fold etc for a month.

It would be nice, if you could announce that to us in advance, then it could be ensured that there is enough work.

Is there a project status page where can I see how much work is available so that I can promote RNA World as an option for our POTM?

Unfortunately I am not able to read German and am not able to see any headings on the English version that suggests there is a status page.

Well, just take a look at the server staus page, but please understand that on that page, the system just displays the WUs that are curently fed into the system. Usually, there is no limit in work in this project unless we announce otherwise on the mainpage.

At present we are working out a system to improve the server responsiveness in competition races, i.e. we are bundling sets of very small WUs to give combined archives that run 1-x hours (just at our desire). This minimizes the number of client connections and will lead to a generally more stable system. It would be nice, if you could wait with your challenge, until these modifications run properly.

Michael.

P.S.: Thanks for asking in advance.

[The Knighty NI]

Hi Michael

Thanks for the reply.

The next time POTM comes around I'll promote RNA World as an option. So April will be the earliest this could happen.

Since I've been working on your WU's I have moved my team up from 82nd position to 58th so this will probably make it more interesting for other team members to consider. By the time April arrives I am hoping that I'll have a new 6 core processor installed, moved us up into the top 50 teams, personally getting into the top 200 people doing RNA world wide and in the process of building a new 48 core shrubber specially for RNA world.

Not sure who the vote is going to this month ATM. However, RNA World was not on the list because I didn't get the suggestion submitted in time.

regards

Greg

[Michael H.W. Weber]

Thanks for your support! If we know things in advance, we can prepare more suitable WUs for such a race.

Michael.

[mxplm]

By the time April arrives I am hoping that I'll have a new 6 core processor installed, moved us up into the top 50 teams, personally getting into the top 200 people doing RNA world wide :D and in the process of building a new 48 core shrubber specially for RNA world.

First of all, thanks for the effort (and I hope the 6-core host gets enough RAM ;)! It should be no problem for you to get into the top 100 users in RNA World, I'm at 103 now with a Core i3 crunching for 3 months. Say hi if you pass by me with your 48 cores ^_^

[The Knighty NI]

By the time April arrives I am hoping that I'll have a new 6 core processor installed, moved us up into the top 50 teams, personally getting into the top 200 people doing RNA world wide and in the process of building a new 48 core shrubber specially for RNA world.

First of all, thanks for the effort (and I hope the 6-core host gets enough RAM ! It should be no problem for you to get into the top 100 users in RNA World, I'm at 103 now with a Core i3 crunching for 3 months. Say hi if you pass by me with your 48 cores ^_^

RAM is a good point. For the small WU's there will be ooodles of RAM available. Basically I am putting a 6 core onto my existing MB which can take the 6 core upgrade. Currently have 4 GB of RAM installed which is the maximum Windows XP Pro can run as far as I know.

How much RAM will be needed if I get 6 large WU's to process?

When I build the 48 core machine my plan is to install 64 GB of RAM unless there is a need to install more.

This is the MB I am planning on purchasing:

ftp://ftp.tyan.com/img_mobo/S8812_2D_S.jpg

with 4 x Opteron 6180 se processors

Not sure weather to put 2 or 4 GB sticks of memory in at present. However the MB can take up to 256 GB of RAM. Any suggestions?

I'll give you a nod when I pass you with the new shrubber

[mxplm]

Currently have 4 GB of RAM installed which is the maximum Windows XP Pro can run as far as I know.
How much RAM will be needed if I get 6 large WU's to process?

You could use more than 4 GB with XP Pro x64. This could make sense for a six-core host running BOINC/RNA. Since you can't even use or full 4 GB for userspace programs (just 2,75 or 3,25 GB I think), your normal software and six BOINC tasks running at the same time could consume that amount quite quickly.

[Txt.file]

Currently have 4 GB of RAM installed which is the maximum Windows XP Pro can run as far as I know.
How much RAM will be needed if I get 6 large WU's to process?

You could use more than 4 GB with XP Pro x64.

But XP64 has a driver problem. For some Hardware there are no XP64 drivers. In the server segment it could be less painful but the desktop has a few problems. I recommend Win7 (desktop) or Windows Server 2008 R2 when you want to use more than 3.5GB RAM.

[The Knighty NI]

Thanks for the help.

When I start to build the new machine if you guys are happy to, I may pick your brains for optimizing the system for the best results.

Currently I am not sure which operating system to use. Been thinking about using Linux. However, its a question of which build as there are so many?

For the machine I am currently using I will probably stick with what I know as that is in my comfort zone although I may go for Win7 at some stage if it becomes untenable to use XP PRO with 6 cores while shrubbing RNA World WU's.

Also planning to network this current 4 core into my landladys Puter so this asset will not be lost

Theory says that I should end up with 58 cores on this project which I hope will give you a real big boost

Regards

Greg

[mxplm]

I believe most of the distros out there will do a good job. I use Ubuntu for my Desktop/Notebook and Debian for my Servers and VMs, so that's my comfort zone ;)

[Norman]

with linux you will get more performance in rnaworld cm-apps because the code and the used compiler (intel) give a boost 10%+.
otherwise I would suggest win7 for a better and stable handling and future support then the old xp.

[mxplm]

...And with Linux x86_64, you could also crunch the cmcalibrate app, which is not delivered to any other architecture/OS.