LHC@home

I saw in another non Boinc project, that the percentage of the cpu use can be set.

that would be real handy for letting me continue to work with Boinc running. Most of the time I'm just surfing around and don't need alot of cpu.

addit:
If it is an option here, I just can't find it again! :D

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

Hi meckano,
well, Boinc uses only IDLE time of your PC, this means that it gets only CPU power if nothing else is to do. So if you are just surfing around it will get a lot of CPU-Time, and if you start to Play Quake, BOINC will get near to zero of that.

So BOINC shouldnt interfere with your surfing arround, or whatever you are doing...

If you'd like to set the maximum used CPU Power for one thread, then you can use "thread master". Its a little program that keeps a spezified task (eg sixtrack for LHC) from using all of the CPU-Power. But this is mostly for keeping the CPU-Temperature a little down!

---

Great! thanks.

Surfing IS hindered. Ex:
it takes a bit of time to open a browser window, then I surf a bit, then
if i want another one open, no idling on my part, it takes time again.
then, if I want calculator open, again a pause.

I shall try the program.

addit:
I found it here, of all places:
http://predictor.scripps.edu/download_network.php

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

Oh my, that program will take some getting used-to.

I'll pass :D

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

I'll add that, although the actual projects are low priority, winXP so easy to see, Boinc is normal, so whatever it is doing when I want to do something else at the same time is what is causing the lag.... I'm presuming.

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

Sounds to me like you really need more memory. That'll sort out the pauses you complain of. Note that Einstein generates large files (10-20Mb) at its checkpoints, and the response of my machines becomes very clunky while it's doing it. As a result I set BOINC to run only when the machine is idle.

---

Gaspode the UnDressed
http://www.littlevale.co.uk

512M 400Mhz Corsair.

That is the whole point, to not lose crunch time due to computers that are being used at only 5%.

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

Oh my, that program will take some getting used-to.

I'll pass :D

Meckano: Why? ThreadMaster is really easy-to-use.

Just:

1. DL it (really small-size one ^^ )
2. Install it, as described on the HP (easy,too!)
3. RTOM! - Read The Online Manual, that means! - It clearly describes where in regedit you have to fill in the Values to give any process more than 20% CPU-Power. For the ones who dont wanna read it on the HP: it's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\
SYSTEM\\
CurrentControlSet\\
Services\\
Threadmaster\\
Parameters\\
Applications
There, fill in all the project executables your BOINC uses (e.g. rosetta_4.80_windows_intelx86.exe or mfoldb125_4.28_windows_intelx86.exe, and all your cpu-eating games, e.g. hl2.exe or gw.exe, and give'em a value, it's the percentage of cpu they get, mine is 80 for all boinc exe's, and 90 for the games.
If you don't know the names of the threads/exes boinc uses, look at your taskmanager. ThreadMaster uses the same filenames.
BTW: If you're playing a game, shut down BOINC, or else, you might get a low response in-game and/or WU errors.
Hope that helps a bit.

Ah, one thing for MikeW: My PC has 1 Gig RAM, and before I installed ThreadMaster, I had the same problems with "lame" responding Programs, with ThreadMaster, I can do everything now (even burn DVD's 8x) with BOINC running on "run always".

Friendly greetings from Northern Germany (hopefully my english was not TOO bad)
=Lupus=

---

Appreciated, I'll give it a look-see.

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

Ok, it's installed.
If I take the "it's simple" at face value, then yes, it's simple.
I just hope nothing is missed in the exemption folder: firewall, a/v...

Points:
1) Boinc projects will now never run at 100%
2) After a change I have to run: ThreadMast.exe (true?)
3) If everything is static, does threadmaster have to be showing in processes window? I'm guessing yes. It is set as a service though.
4) a program at 90% will not sit at 90%, it floats up and down. How much cpu is being used to keep it at 90%?
5) There are no install instructions that I could find on homepage

More to come would be a good guess. :)

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

More:

6) I've added the 4 Boincages I do to the applications folder with 90 as value.
7) I've added my game: UnrealTournament.exe to the exceptions folder.
8) Is there a good place on my computer to see a list of programs that I should make sure are in the exceptions folder? (refering to msconfig as example)

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D

1. good ^^

2. a change? you mean, when you added another proggie in reg-values? no. it "constantly" reads the values (as i recall, every minute or somthing like that.)

3. threadmast.exe is inside the process window

4. well, the 90% is not a "perfect" value. so the ups and downs you can't get rid of - that's why i use 80%, now I can even run something "mem-eating-and-cpu-intensive" like azureus or viewing a video without big fallbacks.
My own tests show that in one hour BOINC crunches 47 CPU-minutes - 48 minutes would be 80%, so it nearly hits the mark ^^
Own CPU usage: I've NEVER seen it use anything greater than 1%, even when "pressing down" any process to 20% or 5% or anything like that.
Ah, btw: boinc.exe and boincmgr.exe don't need to be in exceptions nor applications.

5. Install: use the "install.cmd" in the zip!
Uninstall: open Commandline with cmd, go to c:\\windows\\system\\Threadmaster, type "net stop threadmaster", type "ThreadMast -remove", Delete the folder, you're done.

6. good ^^

7. well, I'd put any game into applications, beacause they are not "vital" for your systam, but feel free to do so

8. every vital process is already inside the exceptions - I run 2 av's scanners (avg & avast) and a spy-scanner (pestpatrol) in background, and they are not in my list, they nearly use nothing of cpu-power (because they only do work on file read/write, and that's really not very often).
Even nero.exe is not in my list - not of the applications and not of the exceptions.
If your CPU is a slower one, feel free to add the proggies to play media files, wmplayer.exe, vlc.exe, or winamp.exe to your list of applications, give 'em a value so they'll get around 400-500 MHz, (still around 20% for me *g*) then you can even play dvd-quality DivX/Xvid without "stuttering".
For me, having an AMD AthlonXP 2200+ (1,8 GHz real CPU-speed), all other processes don't need to be cut down.
One thing that comes to my mind: some games get started thru one exe (let's say start.exe) which is only a loader for the main and cpu-intensive exe (let's say game.exe) - the process to include into the applications is NOT start.exe, it's game.exe in this case.

---

Thank you again! Seasons Greetings!

MY computer is much more ME friendly now! :)

:cheers:

---

-----------------------
Click to see my tag
My tag
SNAFU'ed? Turn the Page! :D