General / Off-Topic Use idle time on your computer for research!

[Pomerlaw]

Use the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy:

Choose projects
Download BOINC software
Enter an email address and password.
Or, if you run several projects, try an account manager such as GridRepublic or BAM!.

For Android devices, download the BOINC or HTC Power To Give app from the Google Play Store.


[video=youtube;buLKZnyzOdI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buLKZnyzOdI[/video]


Great screensaver, and useful for humanity!

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/index.php

 

[Elgered]

I used to run seti@home in the past (about ten years ago) on our campus servers . After I replaced the old hardware, I didn't reinstall it and guess what: Not doing it reduces average power consumption by about 95% (the average processor idle time of a file-server). That makes a huge difference (the old Primergy TX200S2 took about 700W around the clock running seti (6132 kWh per year) the new TX300 only needs 29W (~250kWh per year) in energy consumption (ok, newer hardware needs less). I didn't have to pay the electricity bill, but we ran six TX200 which sums up to an average difference of € 18.500 over 7 years (@ 7,5 ct / kWh). Actually even more, because we now need only 4 servers...

I really love the idea of crowd computing, but today, as we all know about our environmental problems, and computers use be very efficient when idle, but still take their energy when needed, I don't think it should become even more popular and common (e.g. an i7 4790 pulls around 7W in idle, and about 90 under heavy load or think about the cooling required for CUDA graphics, idk if boinc uses CUDA).

 

[Magic Man]

Not unless they pay my electric bill thanks.

 

[Pomerlaw]

I used to run seti@home in the past (about ten years ago) on our campus servers . After I replaced the old hardware, I didn't reinstall it and guess what: Not doing it reduces average power consumption by about 95% (the average processor idle time of a file-server). That makes a huge difference (the old Primergy TX200S2 took about 700W around the clock running seti (6132 kWh per year) the new TX300 only needs 29W (~250kWh per year) in energy consumption (ok, newer hardware needs less). I didn't have to pay the electricity bill, but we ran six TX200 which sums up to an average difference of € 18.500 over 7 years (@ 7,5 ct / kWh). Actually even more, because we now need only 4 servers...

I really love the idea of crowd computing, but today, as we all know about our environmental problems, and computers use be very efficient when idle, but still take their energy when needed, I don't think it should become even more popular and common (e.g. an i7 4790 pulls around 7W in idle, and about 90 under heavy load or think about the cooling required for CUDA graphics, idk if boinc uses CUDA).

Good point. But you can configure it to use as much power as you want.

Mine runs only when I download during the night.

Anyway I can think of dozens of cases where people use energy in totally useless ways.

 

[Porina]

It is up to the individual if any given project is worth the electricity cost. It is a form of volunteering, just with computer time (and energy) as opposed to personal. If you believe in the cause, you can contribute. Don't like it? Don't do it.

Throughput wise, it is worth keeping not too far off cutting edge. I recently made a Haswell box to see how much things had moved on my from still primary Sandy Bridge box. In short, Haswell can do more work at a lower clock and lower power usage. So running more than a few generations back isn't very energy efficient. Of course all this is project dependant. Less optimised projects might gain less from keeping up to date. I haven't even touched on GPUs.

Don't forget that energy gets turned to heat. Not so bad in winter where it can actually be used as heating, if not the most efficient way to do so. When electricity was much cheaper than it was now, I ran up to about 15 boxes at home. Now, I rarely fire up more than a couple.

 

[Jpotter]

Not unless they pay my electric bill thanks.

I just look at it as my way of providing a monetary donation. I've been running BIONIC since inception; anyone recall the old client? It's a couple of $'s a month for me; just like my ASPCA and Humane society donations, cept those are actual monetary.

I enjoy the fact that something I built is helping society and all I have to feed it is a couple of $'s in power a month.

It's like those girl scout cookies or other fund raisers that provide a 'gift' - you have to look at it as a donation because if you look at it for what it is - ($20 for a bin of popcorn?!) - you loose perspective on what it's all about.

 

[insidah]

...or crack codes for the chinese!

 

[Stompmaster]

Did Seti at home years ago.

I was the founder of the Australian Seti Searchers with over 100 members and when I passed on the leadership we had completed over 300 years of processing.

But thanks for the nostalgia.

CMDR J Stompmaster