My new rig and BOINCView question

After getting back into boinc after a year or so away I decided that my main machine wasn't good enough. After seeing how cheap xeon machines could be i decided to make it a project and build a dual xeon computer solely for boinc, partly so i can get more work done and overtake some people as well as a plaything for overclocking. Well after a couple of weeks of getting components i've built it and its rearing to go having just sent its first 2 seti WU's!

So heres the spec:-

Pair of 1.6lv D1 xeons (£50)
Tagan 480w-U22
PCH-DL Mobo
30GB IDE HD
Pair of thermaltake A1608
3 Fans
1GB crucial value RAM (nicked from my other machine til 1GB geil ulta platinum arrives)

After doing a wire mod to the processor seats to get from the stock 1.3v to 1.5volts and playing a bit with the bios the 1.6's are now running at 2.62GHz. When the new RAM arrives i'm going to go for 3GHz.











As you may have noticed i have a thing about black tape. . I modded an old cheap case to get as much airflow as i can and at the moment the chips are at 41 degrees with 4 processes of seti running. Overall the whole project cost me just under £250. Bargain!

Now onto the BOINCView question. I have installed it on both machines and placed the remote_hosts.cfg file with the names and IP's of the machines in the boinc folders of both machines. The programs can find the boinc files on their own machines but I cant get them to access the statistics etcc on the other machines. I have opened the specified port on both machines (windows firewall). When i go into the location setup and choose network access it finds the other machine but comes up with a window saying "there is no boinc program behind port 1043" Im assuming its something to do with the "-allow_remote_gui_rpc" but i dont know what to do with it. can somebody help? Also is there any good software which i can use to monitor temps and shutdown and possibly startup the computer remotely?

The 2 computers are setup on their own seperate network with this computer (my main one) connected to the rest of the network in the house and the xeon computer connected by a crossover cable to this one via another port so it can access the internet etc.


Thanks

Lookin' sharp there, man. You got that together amazingly fast.

You'll have to join in on the next Xeon-shootout-of-death.

Beginning with the latest official BOINC client 5.2.2, the client creates and uses a random password for remote connections by default. If you have not set a gui rpc password before and update your clients to 5.2.2, you will not be able to monitor them.
You can find the necessary client password in the file gui_rpc_auth.cfg located at the BOINC folder. Enter that password at the BoincView locations setup and you will be able to monitor the client again.

Two notes: Every client uses a different password, so you have to repeat the procedure for each client. And when editing the password file, be sure you restart the client before trying to connect with the new password.

Click to expand...

?

You have a nice rig like that and you're using it for Seti?

Joke Nice work getting that together! I'd imagine they'll reach 3Ghz easily, most of them seem to.

Me wants a rig like that /drools

Aye, as Fillado points out, check that you've entered the correct passwords (within the Locations window) for each cruncher. Also, ensure that you've chosen the 'via network access (using GUI RPC)' Update Mode; otherwise, the local machine is the only one that'll have data displayed. Apart from that, you should be good to go.

BillytheImpaler said:

Lookin' sharp there, man. You got that together amazingly fast.

You'll have to join in on the next Xeon-shootout-of-death.

Click to expand...

Tis called impatience. I think of something and do it as quick as possible, I'm also a student and so have plenty of time on my hands.

I also found a couple of 1.6lv's for a cheap price as well as a cheap board so went for it. The rest of the stuff was easy to get or i already had it so it wasnt too difficult to get.

I may just take you up on that challenge depending on how fast i can get the computer running.

Fillado thanks for that, where did you get that from, I looked on the boincview website but couldnt find anything like that. It still doesnt solve the problem though unfortunatly as boincview still tells me "there is no boinc program behind port 1043" when i try to connect. I'll have a go at turning the firewalls off completly in a minute and see if that helps.

Mattus said:

You have a nice rig like that and you're using it for Seti?

Joke Nice work getting that together! I'd imagine they'll reach 3Ghz easily, most of them seem to.

Click to expand...

My main machine is an x2 4400 so its no slouch and at the moment even with hyperthreading the AMD still puts out a WU faster (although admittedly its only about 15 mins) than the 2.6 xeons although that could be because of the extra cache on the X2.

http://boincview.amanheis.de/

Top post

Another way to do it would be to share the boinc folder in program files on your network, and then just point BOINCView to that folder

Fillado said:

http://boincview.amanheis.de/

Top post

Another way to do it would be to share the boinc folder in program files on your network, and then just point BOINCView to that folder

Click to expand...

I think I may actually be blind. I've even read that before but it just didnt go in.

The sharing folder works, thanks but it still doesnt explain why i cant do it normally.

Can anyone fill me in on what the "-allow_remote_gui_rpc" does and what names etc i need to put in the remote_hosts.cfg file, i put in the name which the computer is regstered as on the seti computers page. I am assuming its right?

Thanks

So Amp, can I claim you as the third person who I (at least partially) convinced to build/buy a cheap dual Xeon DC cruncher?

Dunc was the first.
My next door neighbor was the second.


EDIT: also, what is the CPU heatsink/fan setup you're running?

Lol yes you can,

The HSF's are thermaltake A1608's. They're not too bad, pretty noisy especially at bootup when they go to full power but at normal speed they're not too bad, no worse than a stock AMD HSF. They seem to be good coolers and are low profile and cheap to boot. Got both for £25 new. They are 70mm fans though so may be quite difficult to replace.

That PCH-DL looks very similar to my PC-DL. As you mentioned it's probably just an update to add 64-bit PCI-X slots. I'm working on a few upgrades for my board. If you like, Amp, I can send you whatever mechanical drawings I end up using on the final parts.

You don't want to use the folder mode it doesn't allow you to control boinc it just allows you to see what its doing.

Two files in the boinc folder:
remote_hosts.cfg
gui_rpc_auth.cfg

You edit both of them in a text editor.

gui_rpc_auth.cfg is the password to access the boinc client and
remote_hosts.cfg is the list of machines that are allowed to use the password to access the boinc client.

Stop the Boinc service by going to Start -> Run and typing Services.msc and hitting enter. Locate BOINC, select and click stop.

Find out your machine name by holding the Windows Key and pressing Pause Break or by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties, then go to the Computer Name tab and copy the fulle computer name and paste it in the remote_hosts.cfg file and save.

Restart BOINC in the Services.msc page.

Assuming your firewall/s are setup correctly that should work.

If BOINCview still doesn't see them then go to the machine and restart the BOINC service. On 4 of my machines I have to manually restart the BOINC service before BOINCview can see them every time I start windows

Hope that helps

oceaness said:

You don't want to use the folder mode it doesn't allow you to control boinc it just allows you to see what its doing.

Two files in the boinc folder:
remote_hosts.cfg
gui_rpc_auth.cfg

You edit both of them in a text editor.

gui_rpc_auth.cfg is the password to access the boinc client and
remote_hosts.cfg is the list of machines that are allowed to use the password to access the boinc client.

Stop the Boinc service by going to Start -> Run and typing Services.msc and hitting enter. Locate BOINC, select and click stop.

Find out your machine name by holding the Windows Key and pressing Pause Break or by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties, then go to the Computer Name tab and copy the fulle computer name and paste it in the remote_hosts.cfg file and save.

Restart BOINC in the Services.msc page.

Assuming your firewall/s are setup correctly that should work.

If BOINCview still doesn't see them then go to the machine and restart the BOINC service. On 4 of my machines I have to manually restart the BOINC service before BOINCview can see them every time I start windows

Hope that helps

Click to expand...

Yep thats done it thanks. it now works!

BilliytheImpaler that would be great if you could do that. I'd be very interested.

Lovely.

Glad I could help

BOINCview is a nice tool when it works but when I have to go to the machines and restart the BOINC service everytime I start windows I might as well admin the bloody things there.

I'm wondering perhaps wether I can set a scheduled batch file that restarts the service 2 mins or something after the PC's start.

Have a look at the BR script in the sticky, with it you can, install, uninstall, stop and start BOINC from the CLI.

Nice rig amp34, ive been drooling over it the last week, untill I could resist temptation no more. Just bought a PC-DL, as soon as I can round up the rest of the bits I'm joining the club, so BillytheImpaler your up to no.4

Finding a pair of 1.6lv D1's might take a bit, not seen any lately. If anyone sees some it would be appreciated.

Anything I need to know ? Ive got the memory, drives what else do I need to round up. Whats the deal with power supplies, quiet would be nice.

Any details of the wire mod ?

TDF.

The power supply plugs on the mobo are for EPS12V PSUs, not ATX power supplies. The main connector is backward compatible but the secondary power connector is not. Normally you'd see a 2x2 pin connector refered to as the "P4" plug. This mobo requires a 2x4 connector of similar capacity. Amp tried to find an adaptor but failed. Personally I use a SPARKLE FSP550-60PLG EPS12V 550W. It is a fantastic PSU, heavy as heck, (relatively) cheap at $103.50 (USD), and pretty darn quiet. Finding these in Europe can be a challenge from what I gather.

If you're really concerned about sound it's the CPU heatsinks I'd worry about. Amp is a greater knowledge source on this matter than myself.

For info on the wire mod check out the extreme systems forums. They detail pretty much the entire build including pictures. Essentially what you're doing is using 3 tiny bits of wire to bridge some adjacent pins in the each CPU socket. The pins are tiny but with a half hour of concentration I'm sure anybody could do it.

On a PC-DL to get uber overclocks you might find it necessary to increase the memory voltage. To do that you need to solder to the motherboard. though it's not incredibly difficult to do I'd be sure to make a few practive solders to get warmed up lest you nuke your 100 GBP mobo.

Thanks BillytheImpaler, very nice link. Just wish id cut'n'pasted the relevant bits to save wading through all 27 pages again.

It all seems easy enough, done harder in the past. Just finding the right cpu's might take a bit.

TDF.

Just looking at the caps on both these boards, are they the only obstructions around the socket ?

Amp's THERMALTAKE A1608 are 7cm X 9cm so can I get a 9cm circumference disc over each socket ?

How are you getting on Amp, have you got your new ram yet ?

TDF.

another Q, these run ok with just one cpu, or do you need some sort of doodah ?

They will with just one CPU as long as that CPu is in socket No. 1. the top one IIRC.

Any PGA603/604 HSF will fit these boards becasue they are some of the most popular boards out there. the tightest place I see is between socket 1 and the PSU. The power connector for the motherboard is between CPU1 and the back of the case. This is a very tight fit. I ended up cutting off the little hold-down clip that connects the connector to the board becasue I could never fit my fingers down there to grab it properly.