How fast does your computer calculate a Seti@home unit?

My record is 7 hours and 15 minutes on a 1,3 GHz Celeron Tualatin, but the average is somewhere around 8 hours. I've tested different OS'es (win98 linux win2000 xp) But they are all the same. So I'm wondering if I would gain much from a faster Processor.

Slack Space 1613 This topic was started by ,


data/avatar/default/avatar28.webp

530 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-10-09
My record is 7 hours and 15 minutes on a 1,3 GHz Celeron Tualatin, but the average is somewhere around 8 hours.
I've tested different OS'es (win98 linux win2000 xp) But they are all the same. So I'm wondering if I would gain much from a faster Processor. Post how much time does it take for your athlons and pentium 4's to crush a unit, how much average, and how much units have you crushed?
I have completed 153 units on this computer and 346 on a celeron 433@541MHz. The slowest time I tested was on a 486 133@166Mhz 32Mb ram and guess how long did it take to do it? One whole week! I had my comp runing for one week uninterruptly, didn't tuch keyoard or mouse. Maybe with more ram it would be a little faster, but who cares anyway. Did anyone test a 386 or a 286 (don't think it would run on a 286 anyway). I'm sure I have a 386 40MHz with 8Mb ram somewhere at home, maybe I'll test it. I'll post back in a MONTH or so The electricity bill will exceed the cost of the computer :x. Have fun everyone

Participate on our website and join the conversation

You have already an account on our website? Use the link below to login.
Login
Create a new user account. Registration is free and takes only a few seconds.
Register
This topic is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.

Responses to this topic


data/avatar/default/avatar35.webp

2172 Posts
Location -
Joined 2002-08-26
On my P4 2.26, I think 1 work unit took about 3 hours, if I remember correctly. If you use the screensaving client, be sure to turn off the graphical reporting tool, otherwise your work units will take twice as long. Also, the command line versions are supposed to be even faster, from what I've heard.

data/avatar/default/avatar36.webp

1207 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-03-27
Specs as below, one unit takes on average 3.5hrs.
I get the odd unit that will take 4 and then again the odd one can be done in just over 2.
Of course the occasional 1-5min unit (end of tape) unit turns up too.

data/avatar/default/avatar16.webp

9 Posts
Location -
Joined 2002-09-02
I was just wondering if someone could tell me what you guys are talking about? I have no idea what units are or what crushing them is. A brief overview would be very nice.

data/avatar/default/avatar35.webp

2172 Posts
Location -
Joined 2002-08-26
Seti is the Search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, it runs (generally) as a screen saver, and uses your cpu idle cycles to analyze or 'crush' the work units.

data/avatar/default/avatar28.webp

530 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-10-09
OP
Quote:I was just wondering if someone could tell me what you guys are talking about? I have no idea what units are or what crushing them is. A brief overview would be very nice.

Check out http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ There you can download the utility and learn about seti@home

data/avatar/default/avatar28.webp

530 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-10-09
OP
Quote:On my P4 2.26, I think 1 work unit took about 3 hours, if I remember correctly. If you use the screensaving client, be sure to turn off the graphical reporting tool, otherwise your work units will take twice as long. Also, the command line versions are supposed to be even faster, from what I've heard.

How do I turn off the graphical reporting tool?

data/avatar/default/avatar35.webp

2172 Posts
Location -
Joined 2002-08-26
In the screen saver options, just choose blank the screen after xx minuites... I usually choose 1 min.

data/avatar/default/avatar31.webp

1015 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-06-29
Yup, bout 3 hours here as well for the main pc. But i use the command line client, as it takes at least half the time.
 
If you wanna run it, go to the seti site and grab the WinNT command line client.
 
Then, go to http://www.wakeassoc.com/setidriver/ and grab setidriver, which gives the commandline a graphical front end, and sits in the system tray.
 
Its pretty simple to setup and its alot cooler than the graphical interface
 
Ive got my pc 1.6 @ 2.3, a duron 850 and 2x athlon 1.3s and the average is just less than 4 hours for all of them.

data/avatar/default/avatar05.webp

748 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-05-21
On my work PC, it's around 10 hours
Here at home, I have set my server up running the command line version running as a service, and it was completing 3-4 units a day! Remember, that's running as a service in the background, with the lowest priority setting.
 
Got an e-mail from the SETI people today, looks like exciting times are ahead: they've been down to Arecibo (today is their last day) to get re-observation data of a few likely candidates from the data they've (we've)crunched over the last few years. It also looks like we might be getting a new SETI client to crunch some of this new data, as well as using the "normal" client to crunch more new data from the Southern Hemisphere!
 
Exciting times! If we don't discover alien life (policiticians not included) soon, I'm going to be soooo disappointed! (This weekend is the last episode of Taken in the UK, so I'm feeling kind of hyped up about aliens!)
 
Rgds
AndyF

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

266 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-10-25
Is there any way to run Seti Driver as a System Service?

data/avatar/default/avatar05.webp

748 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-05-21
Yes, it's quite easy. There are oodles of guides on the web ( here's one) to show you how to do it. You'll need instsrv and srvany from the Resource Kit, and a bit of registry hacking, but that's about all.
 
The command line client runs much faster than the screensaver client, because it has no extra baggage to worry about.
 
Hope this helps,
Rgds
AndyF