Hello from Dallas!

[BlackFox1]

Awesome, thanks Dave gpu. I imagine that's where I'll be spending a lot of my time. I am not sure what I'll be crunching just yet. The 980 will be in my new build paired with a 5820k, so I probably won't use it for crunching. I will be using that pc for heavy multiple VMWare labs, 2k gaming and 3D rendering/design. What I will be using is a SLI'd pair of 8800 GTX's from an old alienware system and the current R9 270 I'll be overclocking when I get home to get the most out of it since it's pretty old.

See I want to get a GTX 970 and SLI it in the future, but not sure if it is worth it now because when overclocked to *almost* match the 980 performance, it would require more power than just a 980 alone. Plus 970 SLI'd will cost about $100 more than the 980. That's why I opted to just get the 980 and SLI in the near future maybe 6 months or so. What do you think?

[Al]

For a pure crunching rig, SLI really offers no benefit unless things have changed in the last year or two. Many crunches actually prefer to run mixed ati/Nvidia systems to give more project options per rig. Just throwing that idea out there to help keep your upgrade juices flowing.

[Shandia]

Hi Josh. Welcome to the group. Everyone has given really good advice. The laptop is always good for occasional crunching. Unfortunately, it's not built for it. Even an old PC can over power a laptop's performance. I managed to test drive a fairly new one last year. Even though it was able to do the work, my oldest PC was just slightly worse when it came to time and points. I only bring that computer out when points really count during competitions. I agree with Sphynx. Running an AMD and Nvidia gpu together has it's advantages, There are a few projects that only run one or the other. In those instances, having a gpu free to do whatever is nice. Different projects that run both often run different on the different gpus. Once again, it's nice to be able to have the balance of the differences due to the versatility. No one project ever runs the same way as another when it comes to gpu. Having a good AMD that can do double precision math is almost a must. Even though there is only one project that requires it, they can do twice the work that one without can do. A good nvidia also can't be taken for granted or overlooked either. Adding and crunching the different projects is a great way to learn the capabilities of your hardware. Just keep in mind that even the most intense games out there today has nothing on running Boinc. If you really want to push your system as hard as it can go, Boinc is a great long term stress test. It has been known to break a many systems as you will find out. That's actually THE reason why not to use a laptop too much. They are much more costly to repair/replace and will stress it out super quick.

[BlackFox1]

Sphynx, I think you may have saved me a hundred bucks. Thank you!
Also thanks for the advice. I have an old AMD 270 I have in my main computer that we use as a family. I was thinking of replacing that anyway with a GTX 960 since it performs better and takes less power. I'll post that on the other forum. Thanks again.

Shandia, thank you for the insight. I will keep that in mind and turn down the percentages on the laptop. The thing is I want to keep building up my numbers crunching while I am away from home. I also don't want to break the only system I have available to Skype back home, internet, etc. after reading your advice. Do you think by lowering the percentages of CPU usage, that will be enough to minimize hardware failure while still being an active cruncher? This is kind of addicting for some reason

[Shandia]

Turning the cpu usage down will help a little if you are running other stuff or using the computer. What helps more is turning the memory usage down and swap file lower than normal. Boinc when running gpu apps tend to use it all. That is one reason to run a mixed system. Most of the time I'll let my nvidia crunch while leaving my amd free to run the computer. Computers rely on gpus far more than most people realize. If I'm using both cards, the internet on the computer is totally unresponsive. Using only one I usually can run full bore and the computer is still useable. Keeping he check mark on suspend gpu tasks when computer is in use is a good idea for when you are away.

As for hardware failure, there are several reasons for it. The main killer is heat and dust. If you don't have tools that you can use to disassemble the housing on a gpu or other stuff from time to time, it would be good to pick them up. Within the last few weeks I lost my best gpu due to that very thing. It was the first time I pulled it apart and the dust was totally blocking the air passage inside. Cleaning it out after the fact is kinda pointless but it strengthens the notion 0f doing a proper cleanout on a regular basis. Another killer is a power supply that doesn't give enough power to what it needs. Spending the extra on a good hi wattage psu is more than worth the cost. Of course there is another killer.....oversight. We all do it. If it hasn't happened to any of us yet, it eventually will. Most of us who are really active tend to push our systems as hard as they will go. By the time they give an indication that something may be wrong, it's too late. I had just gotten in a few parts from a team mate. One of the boards was cooked but still useable. Upon further inspection, there were pins pushing through the insulation of the metal cpu cooler back plate and touching the metal. Not sure how long it took to burn up the 4 pin port. As it is, I had to trim those pins down and give the back plate a little insulation to make sure the pins wouldn't be doing that again. The second board in that batch I got had the same thing with the pins. It showed no signs of being burnt.....but some of the onboard things refused to work like a chip or two had fried. In this case, the oversight of the original owner was to believe assembling it without giving any thought to the eventual outcome.....the pins on the back going through and touching a metal place, is what caused damage. According to the owner it also took out his power supply. Some of this can be taken care of being a little more mindful instead of just assuming that things are good right out of the box. Of course, the last killer......stupidity.....can hit at any time and without warning of when and where. lol Sometimes, this is the easiest one to fix but can be very time consuming. Having to re-install an OS while in the middle of a competition is not out of the norm.

[BlackFox1]

Shandia,

I am not really running anything at all other than the OS programs like antivirus, etc. I will look at the memory usage and turn that down a little, but my temps stay constant around 48c full load so it is less than half of my max CPU temp. My room is about 58-60f with a laptop cooler. My laptop doesn't have a discreet GPU so I'm not sure if it uses the integrated graphics on the mobo or not. When I get home I will be trying to run a mixed system and it will be dedicated to crunching so I won't have to worry about much other than optimum cooling and dust/dirt.

Yea, the first thing you learn in IT is that heat and dust are not your friends lol. I actually take my builds and laptops apart every couple of months, including the GPU, PSU and fans. I am obsessed with proper case airflow and consider myself a pc enthusiast so I'm a little OCD and I like to make sure everything is running cool and optimum. I just haven't ever crunched before. It seems like a constant stress test but not sure how it compares to running Prime. Usually my PSU has about 10-15% headroom with overclocking. Stupidity... Lol. I can vouch for that one. I have definitely done some stupid things building my first machine haha. So what competitions are you referring to?

[Al]

So you know how the other half lives, I clean my machines once a year. Usually during the FB downtime in December. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never lost anything but 1 PSU and it died quietly and it was a piece of crap I bought cheap and it still lasted 4 years. I pay little attention to temps except when I initially build a system. After it has proven worthy I don't really look at it until it starts erroring out wus. That goes for cpu and gpu. I'm of the group (probably a minority) that feels if it's working, don't muck around with it. Not everyone can do that, but I'm mostly lazy and don't want to create work for myself. Maybe that's puts me in the stupidity class, but it's served me well up till this point.

I will say, when I hear about all the work others are doing I feel sort of guilty and think "maybe I should do that" and then I think better of it and go have a beer.

[Shandia]

The normal team vs team challenges are the main thing that keep some of us occupied. Then there is the Pentathlon. It's the most intense of all competitions. There is a little time before the next one so you have some time to get broke in on that one. lol Like anyone is really prepared for THAT!

Prime?? Um.....if it passes Prime, you may still fail on Boinc. Some of the projects are touchy as hell. This is just an example. I have adequate air flow on my core i7. Side is off and have some nice cooling fans installed running 100%. Right now the only thing I'm running is Bitcoin Utopia.....my gpu temps with blower on max is 90*C. My cpu cores are bouncing between 92*C and 96*C. I do have my cpu overclocked as it just runs better at these settings. I do not have my gpu overclocked. None the less, I'm probably running about normal temps. I will admit the a/c is off and have one of my computers doubling as the fan system for the room. (open window--2 120mm fans sitting in window) It really wouldn't matter if the a/c was on or not. It pretty much remains hot in this room. ;-)

One of the better pieces of software to monitor your system and output is called Afterburner. It doesn't matter if you have MSI hardware or not. It still works and works with multiple gpus and cpus. It's a most valuable tool to see if one is not using a gpu to it's limit and also shows OC so one can easily adjust if needed.

[Shandia]

So you know how the other half lives, I clean my machines once a year. Usually during the FB downtime in December. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never lost anything but 1 PSU and it died quietly and it was a piece of crap I bought cheap and it still lasted 4 years. I pay little attention to temps except when I initially build a system. After it has proven worthy I don't really look at it until it starts erroring out wus. That goes for cpu and gpu. I'm of the group (probably a minority) that feels if it's working, don't muck around with it. Not everyone can do that, but I'm mostly lazy and don't want to create work for myself. Maybe that's puts me in the stupidity class, but it's served me well up till this point.

I will say, when I hear about all the work others are doing I feel sort of guilty and think "maybe I should do that" and then I think better of it and go have a beer.

LUCKY! I use to do a deep cleaning at least once a year. It's easy to see I can't do even half that. Lost my gtx 580 in less than 9 months of continuous use and lost an r-box in 6 months. It's something about running 24/7 that just collects the dust around here. When I'm feeling lazy I will take a toothbrush and quickly scrape some of the crap out. I've also found a nicely washed mascara brush works very nice. It's small, flexible and will fit into some really tight places. Not to mention, it's designed to grab hair. It also fits between fins and goes down into holes a normal brush won't fit. (just a tip) Ask wife/gf/ or someone your in the friend zone with for a used up thing of mascara just for the brush......I myself am amazed at how well it works and can't believe I didn't have a tool like that before.

[Al]

LUCKY! I use to do a deep cleaning at least once a year. It's easy to see I can't do even half that. Lost my gtx 580 in less than 9 months of continuous use and lost an r-box in 6 months. It's something about running 24/7 that just collects the dust around here. When I'm feeling lazy I will take a toothbrush and quickly scrape some of the crap out. I've also found a nicely washed mascara brush works very nice. It's small, flexible and will fit into some really tight places. Not to mention, it's designed to grab hair. It also fits between fins and goes down into holes a normal brush won't fit. (just a tip) Ask wife/gf/ or someone your in the friend zone with for a used up thing of mascara just for the brush......I myself am amazed at how well it works and can't believe I didn't have a tool like that before.

Wow! I really do suck! My cleaning consists of blowing out the computer with an air compressor and on gpus, I hold the fan while I do it which I thought was a lot of extra effort. Yeah...I'm not sure I can fit all that into my busy schedule. I like the 30 seconds and done. I can work that in yearly. Besides, I need my mascara brush.