Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM

[pinhodecarlos]

I am going to buy a laptop with an Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM with 16 GB DDR 1600 MHz of memory. This processor has 4 cores, 8 threads, with clock speed of 2.4 GHz with max turbo frequency of 3.4 GHz. My question: if I go to BIOS is it possible to set all threads to run at 3.4 GHz? Can I change on the laptop the vcore?

The real question is, is the laptop BIOS equivalent, with the same settings, than for a normal desktop machine?

Carlos

[Draconian]

I am going to buy a laptop with an Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM with 16 GB DDR 1600 MHz of memory. This processor has 4 cores, 8 threads, with clock speed of 2.4 GHz with max turbo frequency of 3.4 GHz. My question: if I go to BIOS is it possible to set all threads to run at 3.4 GHz? Can I change on the laptop the vcore?

The real question is, is the laptop BIOS equivalent, with the same settings, than for a normal desktop machine?

Carlos

Doubtful that you will be able to change these settings without at least a 3rd party tool. Laptop BIOS are normally VERY generic and not granular in their settings - they are "dumbed down" for the most part. They have their "optimal settings" selection - and that is fairly much hard coded into the BIOS. The reasoning, more are less, is warranty related - if you buy a laptop and were able to make all these settings changes and burned in up - well, the company would be expected to replace it. Therefore, they don't allow you to make these changes - they set them up when they leave the factory and that is more or less it.
There are some tools and moded BIOS out there for various laptops - but you take the warranty into your own hands when you use them.
Basically, laptops aren't generally made for "tweakers".

BIOS for your desktop motherboard is different (unless it was part of a made system). if you build it yourself - the motherboard bios has to come with many different settings available as the manufacturer doesn't know what CPU, RAM etc you will be putting in the board - they have to allow you to be able to change the settings in order to be compatible with the broadest array of devices.
So, in short - no - you will not find the BIOS of a laptop and desktop motherboard to be in any way similar.

I have a pretty high end laptop and it still has the dumbed down BIOS - I think it is fairly standard.

[pinhodecarlos]

Thank you Draconian. That was also my thought but I needed a second one.

[Draconian]

Thank you Draconian. That was also my thought but I needed a second one.

Anytime Buddy.
Unfortunately, you just don't see the options in laptop BIOS that you do in a desktop motherboard that you buy to build a system.
Some laptop manufacturers have an active user base that do BIOS mods - my laptop is an MSI and they are doing a lot of work on the BIOS and you CAN have a custom BIOS built (it's not expensive).
Desktops are pretty much seen as the workers - while they have, for the most part, left laptops to folks that are just happy having a computer - they don't have to mess with it. It's changing, gradually, at least with the high end gaming laptops.

[pinhodecarlos]

This Friday I will pick up the laptop. It brings a AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M, VRAM 1024 MB. What GPU project can be ran on this GPU?

Carlos Pinho

[pinhodecarlos]

Posting under my new laptop and already running NFS@Home. I installed Linux Ubuntu not Win 7....lol

[Fire$torm]

Posting under my new laptop and already running NFS@Home. I installed Linux Ubuntu not Win 7....lol

Ha, trashed Win8, good for you! Enjoy the new tech. :-bd

[pinhodecarlos]

Is there a program under ubuntu linux to burn mds files and iso files?

[Fire$torm]

Is there a program under ubuntu linux to burn mds files and iso files?

Yes, but I cannot remember the name. Let me dig it up.

[pinhodecarlos]

Yes, but I cannot remember the name. Let me dig it up.

I have here brasero, I still need to test it. Anyway,I am now going to watch an episode of without a trace.

[Fire$torm]

Yes, but I cannot remember the name. Let me dig it up.
OK here we are.

Ubuntu has built-in software. Read this tutorial ---> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto#Burning_from_Ubuntu

Also, to mount/unmount a DVD for viewing its contents (or to play the movie :D ) take a look at these tutorials

AcetoneISO (GUI Tool) ---> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=463972

Other Methods ---> http://www.debianadmin.com/mount-and-unmout-iso-images-without-burning-them.html

And while your at it.....

Things to try After installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ---> http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/to-do-list-after-installing-ubuntu-12-04-lts-aka-precise-pangolin/

Things to try After installing Ubuntu 12.10 ---> https://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/to-do-list-after-installing-ubuntu-12-10-aka-quantal-quetzal/

[pinhodecarlos]

Hi all,

I bought a new laptop so I installed on it Ubuntu because I couldn’t understand very well Windows 8 that came incorporated with it. Then I installed virtual box and installed windows 7 64 bits sp1.My question, is why can't I have USB access under VM+Win? There's was a usb plug-in to install on VM and I did it but I still don't have access to USB connection under virtual box.

Carlos

[Mumps]

Hi all,

I bought a new laptop so I installed on it Ubuntu because I couldn’t understand very well Windows 8 that came incorporated with it. Then I installed virtual box and installed windows 7 64 bits sp1.My question, is why can't I have USB access under VM+Win? There's was a usb plug-in to install on VM and I did it but I still don't have access to USB connection under virtual box.

Carlos

Been a while since I played with USB under VirtualBox, but by default it it used to be that it didn't present any USB devices to the guest unless you specifically tell it to. So, for starters, you have gone into your Guests "USB" settings and enabled the USB Controller, right? Then, you probably just need to add a Filter with all empty strings so any USB device seen by the host can be seen by the Guest. Be aware though, any USB device you present to the Guest, will then not be visible on the host as long as that Guest is running.

If you want to adjust what USB devices are seen by specific guests, you can right-click on the USB icon at the bottom of the Guest window to enable/disable specific USB devices. That is, if you can figure out which devices are which from the sometimes difficult to figure out names.

[pinhodecarlos]

Been a while since I played with USB under VirtualBox, but by default it it used to be that it didn't present any USB devices to the guest unless you specifically tell it to. So, for starters, you have gone into your Guests "USB" settings and enabled the USB Controller, right? Then, you probably just need to add a Filter with all empty strings so any USB device seen by the host can be seen by the Guest. Be aware though, any USB device you present to the Guest, will then not be visible on the host as long as that Guest is running.

If you want to adjust what USB devices are seen by specific guests, you can right-click on the USB icon at the bottom of the Guest window to enable/disable specific USB devices. That is, if you can figure out which devices are which from the sometimes difficult to figure out names.

Right now I am not at home so I can't be sure of the following. I remember under VM+Win 7 to see the USB icon and when clicked it shows me the virtual hard drive. And yes, I enabled the USB controller and added a new filter but I think something is escaping me because I can easily see the DVD driver (I installed under it Microsoft Office) but not other USB devices are visible.
When I get home I'll go deep to investigate more.

Thank you in advance,

Carlos

[pinhodecarlos]

How do I disable hyper threading on my laptop? There's no BIOS settings. Using linux Ubuntu.

Carlos

[Fire$torm]

How do I disable hyper threading on my laptop? There's no BIOS settings. Using linux Ubuntu.

Carlos

As far as I know, if the BIOS does not have a setting for it then it cannot be deactivated. Sorry. Maybe contact the manufacturer and ask them?

[pinhodecarlos]

As far as I know, if the BIOS does not have a setting for it then it cannot be deactivated. Sorry. Maybe contact the manufacturer and ask them?

The Portuguese manufacturer assistance are stupid because they didn't understand what I wanted. I am on linux, the BIOS upgrade is only available for windows, they can't guarantee the new BIOS will have the option to disable hyper threading. They don't know nothing at all.

Carlos

[Fire$torm]

The Portuguese manufacturer assistance are stupid because they didn't understand what I wanted. I am on linux, the BIOS upgrade is only available for windows, they can't guarantee the new BIOS will have the option to disable hyper threading. They don't know nothing at all.

Carlos

LoL.... Sorry to hear about the poor tech support. You should download the update anyway. Every BIOS update I have ever seen can be installed from DOS. And the best way to boot from DOS is with a USB stick. Download a USB format utility to make the thumb drive usable then copy the BIOS utility & BIOS image file to the stick. Now boot from it. You may need to edit the device boot order in BIOS before your laptop will accept the thumb drive as a boot device.

How-To's (Tutorials)

In Windows
Try this one first ---> Boot DOS from USB (Link (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-dos-from-usb/))

How to flash BIOS by USB Memory Stick Drive ? (Link (http://www.dfi.com.tw/DFI-Lanparty/support/forum/faq_en.html))

BIOS Update using USB Stick. (Link (http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=12292))


In Linux
Updating the BIOS from an USB flash drive (Link (http://koroshiyaitchy.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/updating-the-bios-from-an-usb-flash-drive/))

[pinhodecarlos]

Just made a big mess. I was trying to install ATI drivers and linux ubuntu didn't boot anymore. I attempted to install Ubuntu again in parallel to the previous installation so I can have access to my post-processing job but I wasn't successful.
I can even install again linux erasing the previous partions!
I am going to take the laptop to the university where they have experts and software to help me install Windows 7 64 bits Professional. I am amazed by the fact that installing the ATI drivers on linux stalls the computer, Windows is much much easier to work with.

Carlos

[denim]

Strong machine, you should be putting down some serious credits in no time. :)

[Fire$torm]

Just made a big mess. I was trying to install ATI drivers and linux ubuntu didn't boot anymore. I attempted to install Ubuntu again in parallel to the previous installation so I can have access to my post-processing job but I wasn't successful.
I can even install again linux erasing the previous partions!
I am going to take the laptop to the university where they have experts and software to help me install Windows 7 64 bits Professional. I am amazed by the fact that installing the ATI drivers on linux stalls the computer, Windows is much much easier to work with.

Carlos

That issue is the fault of ATI/AMD not Linux. ATI has never really made it easy for Linux users and many times the drivers have been buggy.

[Mumps]

That issue is the fault of ATI/AMD not Linux. ATI has never really made it easy for Linux users and many times the drivers have been buggy.

I would disagree with that "buggy" statement Fire$torm. If you're not at least somewhat used to Linux, from my experience, you can easily totally destroy your system if you simply try to install them in the wrong way. Their Installer is so poor at error checking it's downright dangerous! Criminal even.

[pinhodecarlos]

I was so pissed off that I didn't realize the English mistakes I made on my previous post. That happens when I get nervous. Sorry for that.
I am pleased to know that it wasn't my entire fault. Anyway, only next Monday or Tuesday I will have my laptop again so can re-start my NFS@Home job on Winodws environment where I am more comfortable. With this issue I just lost 7 days of crunching.

Carlos

[Fire$torm]

I would disagree with that "buggy" statement Fire$torm. If you're not at least somewhat used to Linux, from my experience, you can easily totally destroy your system if you simply try to install them in the wrong way. Their Installer is so poor at error checking it's downright dangerous! Criminal even.

Sorry Mumps, that is what I was referring to. The installer is buggy, I just wasn't very clear on that point. oooops.......


I was so pissed off that I didn't realize the English mistakes I made on my previous post. That happens when I get nervous. Sorry for that.
I am pleased to know that it wasn't my entire fault. Anyway, only next Monday or Tuesday I will have my laptop again so can re-start my NFS@Home job on Winodws environment where I am more comfortable. With this issue I just lost 7 days of crunching.

Carlos

Well at least you'll have a useable system. It is a shame you lost so many days of crunching.

[kmanley57]

I am not quite sure why you did not just use the vesa driver. I have been running one of my boxes for a week now fine after messing up the video drivers install. So in a few days after I purge all the NFS WU's I have from the challenge, then I will just go and reinstall the Linux OS. :confused:

[pinhodecarlos]

I am not quite sure why you did not just use the vesa driver. I have been running one of my boxes for a week now fine after messing up the video drivers install. So in a few days after I purge all the NFS WU's I have from the challenge, then I will just go and reinstall the Linux OS. :confused:

I was using the generic drivers since January but I wanted to install the AMD/ATI drivers so make use of the GPU for calculations. I messed up. Tomorrow I expect to have back my laptop. Until then I have to watch the others battle with Sic at NFS@Home.

Carlos

[pinhodecarlos]

I'm back with my laptop but now under windows 7 SP1 64 bits. I want to put my GPU to work, already tested a few programs but not yet Boinc.
I have a few questions about my GPU ATI based because I never had an ATI before, always Nvidia cards without CUDA capable.
The GPU is

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/04/18/4sp.png

I see at university that they installed old drivers. Under Nvidia card I would download the drivers and install above the current ones. Can I do this on an ATI card or do I need first uninstall the drivers?
My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L850-1HZ with

Serial number: YC131163R
PartNu. PSICG8E-02HOOLEP

IYC131163RSSKG802HOOLEP8

I'm afraid of updating the drivers...
Also which BOINC project can take advantage of my GPU without using much processing power because I want to run post-processing tasks for NFS@Home. Also can I run NFS@Home Boinc under VM+Ubuntu using all processors and under windows only use the GPU for calculations? So many questions...maybe someone can re-direct me to posts or threads to calmly read...

Thank you.

Please help.

Carlos

[DrPop]

Hi Carlos, great to see a new rig on! :)

First of all, I would run it on Collatz. It will not take any of your CPU (so you have full power for NFS) and will run cool enough that it won't over heat the laptop.

You could install the driver over the old ones, but I wouldn't. I would take the extra 3 minutes to go into the control panel and uninstall the Catalyst drivers, and then reboot. Once the machine is rebooted, just install the new ones and you're good to go! Really simple, not like Linux where it blew out your O/S! ;). This will be a walk in the park for you.

Oh and yes, you can do what you're asking for the crunching. Just attach to NFS in your Ubuntu VM, and give it 100% processor use. Then in Windows, ONLY attach to Collatz, and in your preferences at Collatz, uncheck The CPU, and ONLY check GPU. Then it will do exactly what you are wanting it to. CPU in Linux and GPU in Windows. :)

[pinhodecarlos]

DrPop,

Thank you. I managed to start running a DistrRTgen wu, without finishing it, in parallel with the post-processing job I had to re-start for NFS@Home. I felt the desktop a little slow. Also I compared the wu, which would take me like 3 hours, to the fastest ATI card available and I am very disappointed about my GPU. Anyway, at least with you help I managed to run a GPU wu and therefore I appreciate very much the help given.

I tested so far several GPU applications as the distributed.net, primegrid, DistrRTgen, Trial Division with OpenCL (mfakto), etc..., and I still didn't feel where my GPU is better applied.

Carlos

[DrPop]

Yes, unfortunately the GPU built-in to many laptops is just not powerful enough like the desktop GPUs to give you much crunching satisfaction.

You should definitely try running Collatz on there, because it won't slow down your screen, and it also won't steal CPU resources away from your NFS duties. Many of the other GPU projects will at least take a part of your CPU to run. So please try Collatz next, and let me know how that one does.:)

[pinhodecarlos]

Which one to run?

collatz
mini_collatz
solo_collatz

[DrPop]

Which one to run?

collatz
mini_collatz
solo_collatz

I would run the solo_collatz. :)

[pinhodecarlos]

I ran 3 wu's of the mini_collatz application due to its size. Still waiting for their validation so I can see which boinc project gives more credit and uses less % of GPU usage without limiting the desktop interaction.

Carlos

[Slicker]

I ran 3 wu's of the mini_collatz application due to its size. Still waiting for their validation so I can see which boinc project gives more credit and uses less % of GPU usage without limiting the desktop interaction.

Carlos

While all three Collatz apps use the same credit calculation based on total steps, collatz is much larger and puts less stress on the server and network lines, so it gets 10% more credit than mini_collatz as an incentive for users to run it.

Since the solo app checks all results twice eliminating the need for a wingman, twice as much work gets done. That and since AMD's OpenCL performance sucks, it should pay about the same as the Collatz v2.09 ATI app. So, I thought it only fair to award double the credit. Those with NVidia GPUs should smile since they get the same credit bonus even though the CUDA app isn't much slower than the v2.xx versions.

[Fire$torm]

While all three Collatz apps use the same credit calculation based on total steps, collatz is much larger and puts less stress on the server and network lines, so it gets 10% more credit than mini_collatz as an incentive for users to run it.

Since the solo app checks all results twice eliminating the need for a wingman, twice as much work gets done. That and since AMD's OpenCL performance sucks, it should pay about the same as the Collatz v2.09 ATI app. So, I thought it only fair to award double the credit. Those with NVidia GPUs should smile since they get the same credit bonus even though the CUDA app isn't much slower than the v2.xx versions.

So I was correct when I told DrPop that Solo_Collatz pays better.... Good to know.

[Mumps]

While all three Collatz apps use the same credit calculation based on total steps, collatz is much larger and puts less stress on the server and network lines, so it gets 10% more credit than mini_collatz as an incentive for users to run it.

Since the solo app checks all results twice eliminating the need for a wingman, twice as much work gets done. That and since AMD's OpenCL performance sucks, it should pay about the same as the Collatz v2.09 ATI app. So, I thought it only fair to award double the credit. Those with NVidia GPUs should smile since they get the same credit bonus even though the CUDA app isn't much slower than the v2.xx versions.

But, correct me if I misunderstand it, didn't you say the "solo" is accomplished by doing the "Wingman" check using the CPU? Is that computationally intense? Meaning Carlos wouldn't want to dedicate the CPU to that rather than his NFS post-processing.

[pinhodecarlos]

Here's the deal, with Collatz running mini_collatz wu's I can do 53k points per day when compared to 63k per day with Moo! Wrapper. Both run smoothy on my laptop.
About the wu using a little bit of CPU, it doesn't matter because due to the fact that msieve, the program I use for post-processing jobs, isn't well optimized to take advantage of the cache and threads of an i7. Right now the job is running on 4 threads leaving 4 for the system.

Carlos

[Fire$torm]

But, correct me if I misunderstand it, didn't you say the "solo" is accomplished by doing the "Wingman" check using the CPU? Is that computationally intense? Meaning Carlos wouldn't want to dedicate the CPU to that rather than his NFS post-processing.

Good question since the app only allocates 0.02 cores per wu. At least on my boxes

[DrPop]

I would like to see the temps of your GPU cores when running Collatz vs Moo!. At least on my rigs, Moo! has always been quite a bit more demanding of the hardware and runs hotter - not something that goes too well with a laptop, although yours might be high end with good cooling so maybe it doesn't matter?
Try with the solo_Collatz as well, and see how much more you get than min_collatz. It will make a difference. :)

[pinhodecarlos]

I would like to see the temps of your GPU cores when running Collatz vs Moo!. At least on my rigs, Moo! has always been quite a bit more demanding of the hardware and runs hotter - not something that goes too well with a laptop, although yours might be high end with good cooling so maybe it doesn't matter?
Try with the solo_Collatz as well, and see how much more you get than min_collatz. It will make a difference. :)

I am not worried about the GPU temps because I use a cooling PAD and I noticed that temperature never raised above 63 ºC, in any kind of the tested GPU applications.
Another question is that having an Ivy Bridge processor I can use the internal GPU to help the calculations.
I think I will stay with Collatz because the RC5-72 is a waste of processing power, always had been since the days I crunched for them. They are attacking a problem by brute force and mathematically it is not the best way when there is another.

Here is the temps running mini_collatz:

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/04/23/3d8.png

Carlos

[pinhodecarlos]

While all three Collatz apps use the same credit calculation based on total steps, collatz is much larger and puts less stress on the server and network lines, so it gets 10% more credit than mini_collatz as an incentive for users to run it.

Since the solo app checks all results twice eliminating the need for a wingman, twice as much work gets done. That and since AMD's OpenCL performance sucks, it should pay about the same as the Collatz v2.09 ATI app. So, I thought it only fair to award double the credit. Those with NVidia GPUs should smile since they get the same credit bonus even though the CUDA app isn't much slower than the v2.xx versions.

Sorry, didn't see you reply. After a few hours testing which wu to run I prefer the mini_collatz ones because they effect less the GUI desktop reaction. I am still not sure how much I can do with this GPU due to the fact that first each wu isn't uploaded immediately and second I am dependent on the wingman for wu validation.
Anyway, I'll stay with Collatz. Thank you Slicker and mainly DrPop for the help and orientation.

Another thing I would like to ask is what's the difference between Collatz and http://ericr.nl/wondrous/index.html? I knew the lather since 2001, contacted several times the project leader but I didn't at the time had a powerful computer to help, and so far didn't have time yet to study the Collatz project goals. Slicker, can you enlighten me?

Carlos