What projects are you running on BOINC?

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freitasm

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Topic # 60148 20-Apr-2010 15:02

Is anyone out there running BOINC? What projects?

I ran SETI@Home even before it was on BOINC and decided that my Windows Home Server stays on for a long time with nothing better to do. So I looked at BOINC projects and wondered which ones you folks are running, and why?

By the way, just looking at my SETI@home page and I've registered in 18 May 1999.

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Stu

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Reply # 320733 20-Apr-2010 15:46

Just had a look and I registered on 1 July 1999. I haven't run it much since they switched to BOINC and haven't run it at all for about 3 years.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

NZCoderGuy

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Reply # 320734 20-Apr-2010 15:48

I sometimes use my spare PS3 cpu cycles for Life with Playstation, which does a similar background task whilst you read news, or listen to music. Very creative and ingenius.

Not sure if that is a BOINC project, but it used to be called Folding@Home.

:)

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bvidulich

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Reply # 320741 20-Apr-2010 16:35

I'm running rosetta@home and FreeHAL@home just because I have spare CPU cycles to donate.

mentalinc

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Reply # 320743 20-Apr-2010 16:44

My current box uses about $20 a month more power (based on calculations full load etc) plus all the extra download and upload eating the cap. So it works out to be more than a free exercise.

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lurker

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Reply # 321039 20-Apr-2010 22:39

I don't use BOINC but instead run Folding@Home for Stanford. Basically it's part of the fight to find a cure for nasty things like cancer. Some more interesting info on Folding at Wikipedia here.

There are a variety of clients you can run, the most trouble-free is the single core CPU client (of which you can run multiples of for multiple cores). You can run this full time and it's trouble free. Just make sure you have adequate CPU cooling that's all.

But GPU processing is where it's really at, with a decent GPU you can really make a lot of headway. I switch it off when doing anything graphics intensive (like gaming) but even with the downtime it does far more work than a CPU client could manage. And there is also a PS3 client as well.

It's such a popular project and the teams you can join tend to have their own forums where people are happy to assist in any way they can. It really is one of the friendliest communities on the internet. and some teams give away hardware in regular competitions. You can Fold anonymously but it's far more fun to give yourself a username, join a team, and track your progress. There are regular races & events amongst the top teams, and the enthusiasm from the more dedicated people is great.

The only problem is the increase in power bills! Some people are critical of distributed computing projects for the power consumption involved with running PCs at full load, but well... screw 'em!

SepticSceptic

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Reply # 321158 21-Apr-2010 09:34

Still running BOINC / Seti. For a while our team was 2nd / 3rd in NZ ( behind a university ). But since VM'ing many of our test boxes, ranking dropped somewhat. Been on it since 14 Oct 1999. - Nearly 3 mil credits...

My thoughts are no longer my own and is probably representative of our media-controlled government

Stu

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Reply # 321440 21-Apr-2010 19:59

SepticSceptic: Still running BOINC / Seti. For a while our team was 2nd / 3rd in NZ ( behind a university ). But since VM'ing many of our test boxes, ranking dropped somewhat. Been on it since 14 Oct 1999. - Nearly 3 mil credits...

Which team? (if you can say) I was contributing to "The Knights Who Say 'Ni!'" when I was running BOINC/SETI

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

SepticSceptic

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Reply # 321571 22-Apr-2010 09:26

BigHammer:
SepticSceptic: Still running BOINC / Seti. For a while our team was 2nd / 3rd in NZ ( behind a university ). But since VM'ing many of our test boxes, ranking dropped somewhat. Been on it since 14 Oct 1999. - Nearly 3 mil credits...

Which team? (if you can say) I was contributing to "The Knights Who Say 'Ni!'" when I was running BOINC/SETI

Konica Minolta NZ - for a while we had nearly 20-odd machines running flat tack on BOINC - NT boxes, Mac's, spare laptops, anything with a few CPU cycles spare got plugged in :-)

Then our IT dept blocked access to the workunits, so that was all nixed. Only a few running now, and not connected to our corporate network ...

My thoughts are no longer my own and is probably representative of our media-controlled government

dontpanic42

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Reply # 326448 4-May-2010 13:12

I have only just got back into running Folding@Home, and I have also just installed BOINC. Will probably try Rosetta@Home as well.

I used to run Folding@home on my PS3, my CPU, and GPU full time. Coming back into the winter months I might start doing that again. Heat my room, while curing cancer at the same time. Sounds good to me.