The Scottish Boinc Team

Hi All...

After some time away, I'm jumping back into the crunching scene. I'm updating the rig that was in my garage after cannibalizing it (likely going to be putting a cheapo Seagate or WD Sata HDD - but open to recommendations) and am going to have it hooked up at my office so it can run 24/7. Otherwise, the main system (after a PSU update) is plinking away at World Community Grid.

I'm likely going to be setting up the 24/7 rig to use Linux (which I have very little experience with), so if anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

Look forward to seeing you all around the boards again!

- LC

Hi Lee - you won't know me but very nice to have you back on.

leecarver wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:08 pm Seagate or WD Sata HDD

Since you asked for recommendations, mine would be a small SSD. They are also pretty cheap and make a massive difference.

All my systems use Ubuntu 19.04 so happy to help with that. https://tsbt.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=139&t=10495

Only reason not to IMHO, would be if you also wanted AMD GPU crunching - this is troublesome on recent Linuxes (although Dirk has posted a fix recently). nVidia GPU crunching on Linux is fine

Hi David,

I was actually considering that - saw some flash deals this weekend for a 120GB drive. My fear/hesitancy was the read/write life of the SSD drives with as much as BOINC projects do. I take it that is a minimal concern based on your comments?

I'll definitely come to you with questions for Linux. I put a R5770 Hawk in the crunching rig. Should I look at doing Windows instead? I had some other driver issues with the wireless USB adapter with Linux previously that I never really got sorted out. $14 on a copy of Windows 10 isn't that bad.

- LC

3 of my machines have 120GB SSDs that have been running BOINC 24/7 for 6 years now. I wouldn't be too concerned with reliability.

I think your wireless USB will fail before a recent SSD will, to be honest. (Betcha your wireless USB it is supported under Ubuntu 19.04)

Seems many folks still dual boot: Windows / AMD for the ease of driver configuration / performance & Linux for CPU projects (tends to pay better on most projects). I don't dual boot as Windows is too detrimental to my mental health & takes me out in a rash. I just stay Linux / nVidia throughout but this means I suffer on challenges involving Einstein and MilkyWay (and Gerasim of course)

Thanks Bryan and David. I'll go ahead and pick-up a SSD and plan on using Ubuntu. I think scole had recommended I run "funky" or some similarly named project on my Linux machine (purely for stats). Does that mean anything to you all?

Having a helluva a time responding today - site seems to keep crashing with SQL errors.

WUprop ?

Found the old thread... Scole had suggested running "goofy" on Linux. I knew it was akin to funky or something :)