[Grant_G]

I was wondering last week why SETI no longer ran as a screen saver, even though Prefs are set that way. I had to start up the application, which sometimes slows other things down, so it just wasn't getting much of my G5's time. So I thought I would check the setiathome website. Sure enough, there's a new OS X version out, 3.08. I downloaded it and
WOW!
You should this G5 1.8 SP go through the SETI files! I'm going to leave it on for the next couple of nights to run as screen saver (yes, that's fixed with this update), and I fully expect close to two sets per night. I am impressed.
G

[jasondudley]

Hah, seems its going slightly faster for you than it is on my dual 500 G4. It's still tired from me making it calculate prime numbers for 18 hours /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
But, ummm, I downloaded SETI@Home and am running it right now. But what is it?

[digedit]

Grant,
How many hours does it take to process one unit ? Any Dual CPU Seti@home users with results to share ? My current Seti@home leader is an AMD Athlon 2500+ which does one unit in around 3 and a half hours !

[berg]

SETI is based near Phoenix is it not ... ?
Maybe they're looking in the wrong direction ...
Just around the corner

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
That's great Grant! Have you thought about using the CLI version? It's the difference between night and day. It takes half of the time or less per work unit then using the GUI version, including the screen saver.
The Sawtooth gets 'em done in about 14-16 hours now and the Titanium takes about 7-9 hours now per unit. Plus, now I don't have to worry about shutting it down everytime I want to use another app, as it engulfed the CPU before and even killed my regular screen saver.
I now run it 24/7 again except for playing things like Halo and sometimes when using apps like Photoshop if I know I'm going to be doing a lot.
If you want here's how I did it.
1) Download SetiDockling (188KB) and the SETI CLI for Apple's Darwin-PowerPC (188KB)
2) Put SetiDockling in /Applications
3) Run these commands through the Terminal

code:
mkdir /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI

mv ~/Desktop/setiathome-3.03.powerpc-apple-darwin1.2/setiathome /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI

mv ~/Desktop/setiathome-3.03.powerpc-apple-darwin1.2/README /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI

cd /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI

exec /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI/setiathome

---

4) Follow the remaining steps and once finished downloading the workunit press Control-C to "kill" the client
5) Launch the SetiDockling and go to Preferences...
New: Seti
Path = /Applications/SETI@HomeCLI
Email = Removed for privacy
Nice Level = 19
Proxy = unchecked
Display Colors = Green, Red
Show in Dock Menu = Path, Email, Progression, Work Units, CPU Time
Display Preferences...
Refresh Every = 60 s
Transparency = 0 (fully transparent)
Top Display = Progression
Bottom Display = CPU Time
6) In SetiDockling go to Launch-->And Process Indefinitely
NOTE: It is a little more clumsy on dial-up as the only way you can monitor the workunit upload and download progress is running setiathome through the Terminal using the last two commands listed above. A partial workunit is to go to SetiDockling and Stop Execution Now, connect to the Internet, go to SetiDockling and Process Indefinitely, wait about 3-5 minutes and than you may disconnect. Sloppy...But to me is well worth the amount of CPU cycles and time per workunit you save.
MacCheetah3
Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium 1GHz, 1GB, 60GB, SuperDrive, Airport, Mac OS X
Apple Power Mac G4 Sawtooth 400MHz, 768MB, 80GB, DVD, Mac OS X
15GB iPod
Debug Computer Services http://www.click2debug.com

[jasondudley]

My dual 500 g4 is at 9 hr 35 min, and only 51.204% done. About an hour of that, other programs were running but nothing more than iChat/Safari.

[drmbb]

My dual 1.25GHz G4 (1GB RAM) runs the command-line version of seti with SetiCntl. Even with seti nice'd to 10 (since this is my main machine at work, and I do need to do other things on it), it takes about 6-6.5hrs per work unit. Since there are 2 separate copies of seti running at the same time, I get nearly 8 work units done per day. Just for comparison, my home 2.8GHz PIV does a work unit in about 4 hours (using the windows screen saver version).

[Grant_G]

Well, late yesterday afternoon when I posted this, I was at 1077 units, at the very beginning of it. This morning I am up to 1081 and about 50% finished with it. So I'd say it's really fast on the G5, especially when it isn't doing anything else. That IS in screensaver mode. For the person who asked, you can "read all about it" at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu
G

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
When SETI-BOINK is released it will be even better. Since the current SETI is based on raw clock speed as it takes no advantage of things like AltiVec, MMX, 3D-Now, etc.
My 1.1GHz P3 does them in about 9-11 hours but I might start it on the CLI version.
I'm am just so surprised yet how poor the GUI version is taking 50% (of the apps total resources) of the CPU power just to do the graphics etc,
MacCheetah3
Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium 1GHz, 1GB, 60GB, SuperDrive, Airport, Mac OS X
Apple Power Mac G4 Sawtooth 400MHz, 768MB, 80GB, DVD, Mac OS X
15GB iPod
Debug Computer Services http://www.click2debug.com

[Grant_G]

1086 this morning, 23% in with 44 minutes elapsed. Meaning they're taking three hours plus for each unit. That is spectacularly faster than the G4/450/Cube, which was probably taking closer to 10 hours per unit ... just a guess at this point, but probably not far off. I feel like I'm back to helping "the cause" again.
G /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[d00d]

In reply to:

---

When SETI-BOINK is released

---

Ack! It's BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) and it's even open source. Fancy!

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
DOH! I knew that, sorry d00d. Should've proofread my post.
MacCheetah3
Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium 1GHz, 1GB, 60GB, SuperDrive, Airport, Mac OS X
Apple Power Mac G4 Sawtooth 400MHz, 768MB, 80GB, DVD, Mac OS X
15GB iPod
Debug Computer Services http://www.click2debug.com

[Grant_G]

Four more now, and over 50% into #1091. And the G5 was shut down overnight. But I didn't use it much yesterday either, so it had time to process the SETI data. I'll stop keeping tabs now because I've made my points (v.3.08 available, and VERY fast on a G5).
G

[contralj]

Sorry to be off-topic, but what is the story with the margins/word wrap on this thread? It's interesting to read, but very annoying to scroll left and right.
I thought only out-of-control http addresses caused this kind of trouble.
-larry /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif