General / Off-Topic Do you partake in Distributed Computing? Ex: BOINC

[DrToxic]

Are you running Distributed Computing on your computer?
Do you run it while Elite: Dangerous is running?
Do you partake in certain projects (Ones with screensavers, ones to do with space etc...)

If the link ever disappears from my signature (which is likely..) Here are my stats: [LINKY] (Click on the project names to get more information on them)

I allow BOINC to run when anything is running, however the GPU processing gets suspended while exclusive applications (Elite: Dangerous) are running to maintain as close to 75FPS as possible. Needless to say, I likes my storage heater under my desk. I've not used the gas heating to warm my bedroom in over a year.. and since running BOINC, I've been able to adjust the heat output.

My PC is actively looking for Thargoids (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)

Edit: I should have put an option in place to say that the community doesn't know what distributed computing is about... Meh. too late now

Edit: If there is enough interest on this forum, I will consider creating a distributed processing group for Elite: Dangerous players. If we find Thargoids... No telling what might happen. (seriously, I haven't looked up rewards or anything yet)

 

[Surfinjo]

I did this for a short while with some file shareing sites, until I discovered some of the files were . And illegal stuff.

I also accepted the equipment to allow spare bandwidth to be used for public access to the net. I didn't go ahead with that when I was reminded that it was against the terms and condition with my current isp.

I have considered allowing a link to some of these academic sites who seem to want extra computing power for their research. But equally I can't be sure they won't use it for other things.

So, in a word, no. No way.

 

[Porina]

I'm a long term participant. seti@home is my first since 1999. Since then I've done all sorts of projects. At the moment my focus is to find prime numbers with the goal of getting myself back into the top 100 in the world. I was top 30 at my peak, but that was a long time ago, and now I'm somewhere in top 200 or so. My earlier big finds were with a project that no longer exists, and currently I hang around PrimeGrid.

I find it a difficult balance of power vs. return. For the tasks I do I find Skylake has best raw IPC, about 14% above Haswell, which in turn has a fair boost over Sandy Bridge. Anything without AVX basically isn't worth running for me as that's about half the IPC of Sandy Bridge. Also ram bandwidth has a noticeable influence on performance. On my Skylake build I'm finding tens of % performance increase from running 3333 ram over standard 2133, but it isn't 100% crunching stable so I had to back down to 3100 for now.

I find GPU crunching a bit too warm in comparison. My R9 280X was originally chosen as it had a high level of DP compute compared to others in the price range, but it sure is power thirsty. I'm still waiting for it to get cooler before I fire that up once more.

I leave the CPU tasks running while I play ED as it has zero detectable impact. As far as ED is concerned, my system is CPU unlimited.

I've dabbled with Android crunching on phones too. seti@home gave in the ball park of 50 credits per unit, each of which takes 8 hours or so. So pretty much worthless compared to a PC. I've moved to World Community Grid since their badges are awarded on time not credit.

 

[metatheurgist]

Distributed computing is Digital Communism. Communism is bad!

 

[DrToxic]

I did this for a short while with some file shareing sites, until I discovered some of the files were . And illegal stuff.

So, in a word, no. No way.

Bad experiences unfortunately. Sorry to hear that, bud.

I'm a long term participant.
I leave the CPU tasks running while I play ED as it has zero detectable impact. As far as ED is concerned, my system is CPU unlimited.

I've dabbled with Android crunching on phones too. seti@home gave in the ball park of 50 credits per unit, each of which takes 8 hours or so. So pretty much worthless compared to a PC. I've moved to World Community Grid since their badges are awarded on time not credit.

Now that's something I like to hear... I second you completely on the CPU, I'm sure you will have checked my stats, enough CPU power for me, my 3 virtual machines that run 24/7 and my games as well as BOINC. I used to partake years ago but forgot my old account details, alas I've had to start with blank score slates. life's a .. not a very nice word sometimes.

As for Phone Processing... With todays phones that get barely a day runtime? that was brave

Distributed computing is Digital Communism. Communism is bad!

but Thargoids!

 

[Porina]

As for Phone Processing... With todays phones that get barely a day runtime? that was brave

Not as bad as you think. Mobile boinc only runs while the phone is on charger, and battery level is above 90%. So it doesn't interfere with life when unplugged, and if the battery is low it still wont run so it still recharges quickly. The part I'm not sure about is if the work done by a phone is actually significant compared to PC tasks. Then again, the power used is small compared to a PC also. Maybe in quantity project wide it still adds up.

 

[DrToxic]

Not as bad as you think. Mobile boinc only runs while the phone is on charger, and battery level is above 90%.

I may give it a bash then... the Sony Xperia M2 gets uncomfortably hot as it is for the material it is made from.. but I Do run Power-Grids on it for control for games, so maybe.

Edit: I installed mobile boinc last night to give it a try and it gave no joy; even after fine-combing the settings. it would start the tasks and then say "Computational error" and stop. It might have something to do with the android version, because the comments on the Play Store are showing roughly the same story.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Have Seti@home running for twenty years now. Even have the mobile BOINC running on an old cellphone. I run Einstein@home on my main comp.
Never had a problem with shady files.
Not sure what Surfer Jo is talking about.

 

[Surfinjo]

Have Seti@home running for twenty years now. Even have the mobile BOINC running on an old cellphone. I run Einstein@home on my main comp.
Never had a problem with shady files.
Not sure what Surfer Jo is talking about.

Essentially the same as you but without the mouth.