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Borging an i7 920

Doozer

Doozer

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Any suggestions on what would be the best way to borg an i7?
My aunt is having me put together a computer for her and she gave me the ok to borg it. :)

Oh yeah, the computer will be in GA and I'm in Ohio.
 
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I personally would install 2 x uni-processor clients and install them as a service.

You *could* do 4x clients but I have found that if i borg it too heavy, I get calls about the PC running slow ...

Even though the uni-processor client does not get tons of ppd, it is stable as heck and will keep on running without a second thought
 
I would enable HT and run 8 uniprocessor clients. The i7 will be fast enough that there will be no noticeable performance impact. Anything else would require too much maintenance.
 
Zero82z said:
I would enable HT and run 8 uniprocessor clients. The i7 will be fast enough that there will be no noticeable performance impact. Anything else would require too much maintenance.
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While there is a performance difference going from smp -4 to smp -8 with a Core i7, to my knowledge no one has tested the uni-processor client.

The boost you get from SMP *may* be due to how well the A2/A1 cores scale.

The uni-processor client does make full use of a CPU core and not sure how well the Hyper-Threading will perform under that situation.

I plan to test this when I get my setup going, so keep that in mind.

Also, i try and borg only 1/2 of the cpu. Don't want to have it running at 100% with F@H and have them complain about it being slugish. Heat will also be a concern if you are using the Stock i7 cooler on the build. One more reason not to load it up 100% with F@H.
 
i think it would be better leaving the HT on but only borging 4 cores.. a lot of the other projects like W@H show that actually running processes on the HT virtual cores only get half the points they should when running 8 threads.. but running 4 threads still gets the same ppd due to the way the HT is.. its just splitting a single core into 2 threads.. probably should test it out first then find out what works best..

eg.. W@H
8 threads(4 cores + HT) = 890ish ppd per thread
4 threads(4 cores only) = 1800ish ppd per thread..
 
EvilAlchemist said:
While there is a performance difference going from smp -4 to smp -8 with a Core i7, to my knowledge no one has tested the uni-processor client.

The boost you get from SMP *may* be due to how well the A2/A1 cores scale.

The uni-processor client does make full use of a CPU core and not sure how well the Hyper-Threading will perform under that situation.

I plan to test this when I get my setup going, so keep that in mind.

Also, i try and borg only 1/2 of the cpu. Don't want to have it running at 100% with F@H and have them complain about it being slugish. Heat will also be a concern if you are using the Stock i7 cooler on the build. One more reason not to load it up 100% with F@H.
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The performance impact I was referring to was the effect on overall system responsiveness with 8 F@H clients running in the background.

Anyway, from personal experience running the uniprocessor on P4s with HT, I can tell you that there is definitely a benefit. Running one client per logical core on my old P4 gave me about 1.5 times the overall performance that I would get from a single client. Since HT works basically the same way in i7 CPUs (without getting into the technical details), there should be a performance boost from running 8 clients, although it may not be as much as 50% due to the differences in design between i7 and P4 CPUs.
 
Thanks for the input guys!
All of the parts should arrive this week so I'll post some results hopefully by this weekend.
 
With hyperthreading on I would do 4 uniprocessor clients. Any lag to the system which might happen should easily be offset by having hyperthreading enabled. Otherwise, I would only put two clients on the machine.

I have two uniprocessor clients running on my buddy's Q6600@3.0Ghz. At one time I had four running on there and he would bitch and complain about slowdowns and whatnot. In most cases he was basically full of shit because I would have the clients on there for at least a couple of weeks before he even noticed they were there.

However, there are some cases where having all cores loaded up with clients will cause slowdowns and stuttering in games. This should not happen but it does anyway. I've had the problem with F@H and WCG. When gaming or encoding I kill all clients on my machine. This stops any stuttering in games and it allows my encoding processes to use all four cores. While encoding and running WCG, the encoder will only use 2 cores. If I shut down WCG, it will use all four cores.

 
crazjayz said:
May I ask why your aunt needs an i7?
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She has me build her something "top of the line" every few years.
It was 5 or six years ago when she last upgraded.
The parts cost around $1200 and I don't charge her anything for my time.
She doesn't play any games that are more demanding than mahjong but she does use the computer for her accounting work and personal use.
I always try to put something together for her that will last around 5 years or so.
I'm not sure about the 9400GT so I may wind up swapping it out for something a little beefier.
I am also considering an aftermarket HSF depending on the heat levels.

24" LCD
Antec 300
750w PSU *got a great deal from EvilAlchemist :D
i7 920
6GB DDR3
9400GT
1TB HDD
Vista w/Windows 7 upgrade coupon
etc
 
I put a 9600 GSO in my gf's machine about 6 months ago. It has been running with no problems with a GPU overclock ever since. I live over 2 hrs away and she comes my way more often than the other way around. What I'm saying is that running the GPU client on a long-distance borg is really no problem as long as it's only 1. Just install per the guide and put the shortcut in the startup folder and let er go.

BTW doozer I think I got a laceration or two as you mercilessly mowed me down the other day.
 
Doozer said:
She has me build her something "top of the line" every few years.
It was 5 or six years ago when she last upgraded.
The parts cost around $1200 and I don't charge her anything for my time.
She doesn't play any games that are more demanding than mahjong but she does use the computer for her accounting work and personal use.
I always try to put something together for her that will last around 5 years or so.
I'm not sure about the 9400GT so I may wind up swapping it out for something a little beefier.
I am also considering an aftermarket HSF depending on the heat levels.

24" LCD
Antec 300
750w PSU *got a great deal from EvilAlchemist :D
i7 920
6GB DDR3
9400GT
1TB HDD
Vista w/Windows 7 upgrade coupon
etc
Click to expand...

This makes perfect sense, especially due to the fact that she's not in close proximity to you. It's good to know that there are people out there who have relatively no computer knowledge, but still entrust someone close to build them one. I hate how my family has jumped onto the $500 dollar PC bandwagon that has no warranty or and uses crap components.

As far as the vid card goes, get something that can reasonably fold, and maybe you can borg a GPU as well :D
 
+1 for long distance GPU.

I have one 15 miles away and one the other side of the street, set and forget.

If there is ever a problem a reboot sets it strait.

I think she needs a GTX260 minimum. ;)
 
Kendrak said:
I think she needs a GTX260 minimum. ;)
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If only I could justify the cost. :)
She was nice enough to lay down the $$$ to upgrade me to an i7 as well so I'm not gonna push it.
Maybe after I get back to work I can upgrade her to a gtx275 as long as she folds on it. :D
 
I'm saying drop the i7 for something more affordable and put the money saved into a GPU. She might get whiplash if she is paying attention to what you are putting into it but that's what I was suggesting.
 
flogge said:
I'm saying drop the i7 for something more affordable and put the money saved into a GPU. She might get whiplash if she is paying attention to what you are putting into it but that's what I was suggesting.
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id have to agree with flogge.. i dont know how willing she would be to deal with the heat output of the i7.. especially if its in a small space.. gpu's arent that much better but with decent cooling atleast its more bareable.. but 80C+ constant from an i7 may be way to much..
 
I just priced out a quad 775 on newegg with nice parts, 4gb ram, corsair PSU, P45 mobo, and a GTX 275 for 950, including OS.

For desktop work, she wont need more than that for a long long time.
 
I tried to sell her my Q9450 but she insisted on having the "latest thing" :)
 
I set 4 uniprocessor clients on my " wifes" Q6600 at 80% cpu usage- she has even forgot they are on there. Might want to try that. The client has time and cycles to unload when the cpu hits over 95% usage. Man was she miffed when I had it set to 96% and it started to slow down.. "How much for this slower machine?" LOL

I also set each client to run 184mb ram, fyi
 
Get her a Phenom II 955 BE. 3.2 Ghz stock for the same money that the i7 costs and it was released a few months after the i7 :D
 
flogge said:
Get her a Phenom II 955 BE. 3.2 Ghz stock for the same money that the i7 costs and it was released a few months after the i7 :D
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This is a good idea.

Then get the vid card. "It will be a more balanced system, with a strong upgrade path if you need it"
 
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