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OneMacGuy · Mar 12, 2006, 09:41 AM

I have looked through the forums, looked through the folders on my computer and cannot find where to install the Optimized G4 Boinc Superbench client that I downloaded from our forums.

I did run it and wow, it gave me almost three times the benchmark numbers that the normal client gave me so I can't wait to get it to run.

Thanks!

Knightrider · Mar 12, 2006, 01:21 PM

OK.... Here is what I did for Mac os X 10.4.xx. This may not be the correct or best way but seemed to work for me.

If you are already running BOINC manager, select 'no new work' and let it run out. When its run out of work deselect the 'no new work' i.e. 'get new work', and then close down BOINC.

Open the applications folder and drag the BOINC application to the trash and trash it. Drag the superbencher into the Applications folder.

At this point you may want to consider putting in an optimised client, if one is available for the project you wish to run. This would go into hdd/library/application support/boinc data/projects/(project folder) if these are not there, then look in (user)/library/application support/boinc data/projects/(project folder)

Restart the manager from the applications folder and it should run. If it starts ok and gets work ignore any messages about resetting the project for the first week or so, it should settle down.

BOINC will run from about anywhere, and if you have already run it from anywhere other than the Applications folder then the associated running files will be all over the place. You will have to trawl through your folders to find and remove them, then do a fresh install and run the application again from the applications folder.

The BOINC manager superbencher gives a very high benchmark and, IMHO, its value is debatable as most projects use a quorum to decide the amount of credit, usually the middle value of three. So if one machine has 20 credits, another 30 and your third has 80 credits, you will all get 30. The menu superbencher benchmark is not so high.

The superbenchers are optimised on seti at home and may not run well on other projects, though they do run on Einstein at home. In addition they may not run very well on multiple project sharing.

Hope this helps.

(any additional comments, observations, experience, corrections welcome)

K.

OneMacGuy · Mar 12, 2006, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by Knightrider

OK.... Here is what I did for Mac os X 10.4.xx. This may not be the correct or best way but seemed to work for me.

If you are already running BOINC manager, select 'no new work' and let it run out. When its run out of work deselect the 'no new work' i.e. 'get new work', and then close down BOINC.

Open the applications folder and drag the BOINC application to the trash and trash it. Drag the superbencher into the Applications folder.

At this point you may want to consider putting in an optimised client, if one is available for the project you wish to run. This would go into hdd/library/application support/boinc data/projects/(project folder) if these are not there, then look in (user)/library/application support/boinc data/projects/(project folder)

Restart the manager from the applications folder and it should run. If it starts ok and gets work ignore any messages about resetting the project for the first week or so, it should settle down.

BOINC will run from about anywhere, and if you have already run it from anywhere other than the Applications folder then the associated running files will be all over the place. You will have to trawl through your folders to find and remove them, then do a fresh install and run the application again from the applications folder.

The BOINC manager superbencher gives a very high benchmark and, IMHO, its value is debatable as most projects use a quorum to decide the amount of credit, usually the middle value of three. So if one machine has 20 credits, another 30 and your third has 80 credits, you will all get 30. The menu superbencher benchmark is not so high.

The superbenchers are optimised on seti at home and may not run well on other projects, though they do run on Einstein at home. In addition they may not run very well on multiple project sharing.

Hope this helps.

(any additional comments, observations, experience, corrections welcome)

K.

I cannot find the Boinc client. I can find the Boinc Manager and I can find the hdd\library\applications support\boinc data\projects folder, but no boinc client in there. Does it make a difference that I am running Rosetta? It did not seem to matter on the Windoze clients and all went smooth there when I installed the optimized cliens. Most of them are getting around a 50% boost in points from the optimized clients!

When I ran the optimized CLI boinc client on my Mac, it got almost exactly three times the benchmark scores that the unoptimized client got. I was told over on the forums at bakerlabs that the score was generated by the simple equation of benchmark score * points for each WU and it does seem to be the case when I look at completed work units on their site.

So where is the boinc client that the boinc manager is running?

Knightrider · Mar 12, 2006, 06:18 PM

The client downloads automatically for all projects into the projects folder for that project. On seti at home you have an option to install a highly optimised client which is available to download from

http://writhe.org.uk/seti@home/

There are two files, just drop both of them into the seti folder in the projects folder in boinc data.

You may also want to spend some time reading back through the recent pages on this thread

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=266339

K.

beadman · Mar 12, 2006, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by OneMacGuy

I cannot find the Boinc client. I can find the Boinc Manager and I can find the hdd\library\applications support\boinc data\projects folder, but no boinc client in there. Does it make a difference that I am running Rosetta? It did not seem to matter on the Windoze clients and all went smooth there when I installed the optimized cliens. Most of them are getting around a 50% boost in points from the optimized clients!

When I ran the optimized CLI boinc client on my Mac, it got almost exactly three times the benchmark scores that the unoptimized client got. I was told over on the forums at bakerlabs that the score was generated by the simple equation of benchmark score * points for each WU and it does seem to be the case when I look at completed work units on their site.

So where is the boinc client that the boinc manager is running?

BOINC Manager IS the BOINC Client. The SETI Client is, for example, named "seti@home-G4-a5" or something close to that. If you use the SETI client, don't forget to also put the "app_info.xml" file into the same folder in which you place the SETI Client, or the client won't run - BOINC will not recognize it and will download the standard (and slower) SETI client automatically.

beadman

OneMacGuy · Mar 13, 2006, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by beadman

BOINC Manager IS the BOINC Client. The SETI Client is, for example, named "seti@home-G4-a5" or something close to that. If you use the SETI client, don't forget to also put the "app_info.xml" file into the same folder in which you place the SETI Client, or the client won't run - BOINC will not recognize it and will download the standard (and slower) SETI client automatically.

beadman

Is there an optimized Boinc Manager? I am running Rosetta and have so far only found the Bionc Manager that I downloaded from the project. Should I be switching to the optimized Boinc CLI version for Rosetta? I found that version and tried to get it run and recognize my Rosetta settings, but no go. It has benchmarks that are about three times that of my Boinc Manager benchmarks.

beadman · Mar 13, 2006, 12:17 PM

Team MacNN has several different flavors of optimized BOINC Manager, depending on whether you have a G3, G4, or G5, and 10.4.x or 10.3.9. The web site is here for the optimized BOINC 4.4 clients:
http://members.dslextreme.com/~reade...eam/boinc.html

and here for the beta test version of the BOINC 5.2.13 client:
http://members.dslextreme.com/~reade...boincbeta.html but this one is only OS X 10.4.x.

As I understand it, the optimized client gives you a little higher bench marks, which helps your credit scores, but it also results in the BOINC server sending you more WU than you would get with the standard version. Use of the optimized SETI client means you do work much faster than the standard BOINC client thinks you can, so it would only download half as many, for example, WU as you'd need.
beadman

gulliver · Mar 13, 2006, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by beadman

As I understand it, the optimized client gives you a little higher bench marks, which helps your credit scores, but it also results in the BOINC server sending you more WU than you would get with the standard version. Use of the optimized SETI client means you do work much faster than the standard BOINC client thinks you can, so it would only download half as many, for example, WU as you'd need.
beadman

That's correct: the optimized clients (and science apps) make optimum use of the altivec engine of the G4 and G5 processors. Therefore they give higher benchmarks and also crunch the workunits much faster. While the gain on Intel processors with optimized clients is only 10-15%, on the G4 and G5 machines the gain is around 50% (=twice as fast).

OneMacGuy · Mar 14, 2006, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by gulliver

That's correct: the optimized clients (and science apps) make optimum use of the altivec engine of the G4 and G5 processors. Therefore they give higher benchmarks and also crunch the workunits much faster. While the gain on Intel processors with optimized clients is only 10-15%, on the G4 and G5 machines the gain is around 50% (=twice as fast).

That is not quite true for the gain on the Intel based optimized clients. I have installed the optimized clients on probably 10 of my computers and I generally see an increase of at least 2X in points. On my Athlon 64 based systems I am seeing around 2.5X increase. I just cannot get the Mac version of the Boinc Manager to give me any real increase. When I tried the Boinc CLI client on my Mac, it showed a HUGE increase in benchmark numbers, around 3-3.5 times the non-optimized client, but I do not want to run the CLI version.

Shaktai · Mar 14, 2006, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by OneMacGuy

That is not quite true for the gain on the Intel based optimized clients. I have installed the optimized clients on probably 10 of my computers and I generally see an increase of at least 2X in points. On my Athlon 64 based systems I am seeing around 2.5X increase. I just cannot get the Mac version of the Boinc Manager to give me any real increase. When I tried the Boinc CLI client on my Mac, it showed a HUGE increase in benchmark numbers, around 3-3.5 times the non-optimized client, but I do not want to run the CLI version.

control clicking on the BOINC manager app to "show contents" of the package.
Once you do, a window will open with a folder called contents.
(be sure to quit boinc first.)
Open Contents and you will see several folders.
Open Resources. In there you will see "boinc".
Remove "boinc" and replace it with the optimized client.
rename the optimized client to "boinc" (without quotations of course) just like the original. It should now look like the original.
Close everything up and restart BOINC Manager.
Rerun your benchmarks.
You should now be good to go.

OneMacGuy · Mar 15, 2006, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by Shaktai

control clicking on the BOINC manager app to "show contents" of the package.
Once you do, a window will open with a folder called contents.
(be sure to quit boinc first.)
Open Contents and you will see several folders.
Open Resources. In there you will see "boinc".
Remove "boinc" and replace it with the optimized client.
rename the optimized client to "boinc" (without quotations of course) just like the original. It should now look like the original.
Close everything up and restart BOINC Manager.
Rerun your benchmarks.
You should now be good to go.

Shaktai, you da man! What a difference in points! For similar work units overnight, my Mac is now getting approximately 3X the points! WOW!!!

Thanx dude!

njmaugbill · Mar 16, 2006, 12:10 AM

I need some help on this.

I've switched from CLI to Boinc manager. However the Boinc manager is not sending the completed work units. I switched because, the prior CLI stopped sending completed work units. All the others computers work fine.

Any idea?

OneMacGuy · Mar 24, 2006, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by OneMacGuy

Shaktai, you da man! What a difference in points! For similar work units overnight, my Mac is now getting approximately 3X the points! WOW!!!

Thanx dude!

My Dual 1.2 G4 was limping along with an RAC of around 190 ppd until I installed this superbench client. Now after 10 days of running it, my RAC for that machine hs jumped to to 565 and seems to be still climbing! It is my highest producer, ahead of all of Athlon 64s even. WOW.

I also moved all of my PC's to the crunch3r optimized client, an equally impressive increase! My RAC has gone from around 3000 ppd to well over twice that, around 6250 this morning. That puts me in the top 25 (number 24) top producers:

http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/to...edit&offset=20

Thanks all of you who helped me to get the optimized clients installed and configured.