New Toy

[BlackAdder]

Your exactly right about the Fluke meter or any other clamp on style ammeter, (the Fluke is a multimeter not just an ammeter) , you can only run one wire thru the clamp to get a measurement but it doesn't matter which. The neutral carries as much current as the hot wire does.

[Bender10]

Here is the most recent BOINCpe box. This is the one with the X2 4200 (89w). Running on a Sandisk mini cruzer (1 Gig, was ~$14 at Staples).



This is still a $350 computer. But good ram cost a little more, and of course the CPU is the most expensive item.



I suppose I could have just screwed it to a Plank. Maybe next time...

The picture above shows my new workbench. The cabinets are from the 'old' kitchen. I'm still working on pegboard for the wall, and a real counter top. I also have some anti-static mats to put down, and more outlets...I picked up a used 19" LCD monitor without a stand (cheep). Then $5 for a used articulated wall mount and Voila', more counter space!!

I took a break from the BOINCpe stuff for a while. When I started up again, I forgot which image files I was using to create the boot CD. My notes got lost in whirlwind of cleaning one weekend...

Anyway, I had a basic set of notes. So I started in on using the Flash Drive. The Flash Drive is easier to run than the CD. Now, I just do the basic BOINCpe 'build', and copy it to the Flash Drive.

Now I can 'Install' my other DC Project software to a folder on the Flash Drive (D2OL, TSC, Pi Segment etc), and run my other projects through BOINCpe.

This box is still clogging up my 'workbench'. I'll have to move it to the 'rack' after this race...

[mitchellds]

Very nice Bender! I want to do the same with Boincpe as soon as I can make time. Getting rid of some extra heat (harddrives) for the summer wont hurt at all.

Are you creating a ram disk to run from after the Boincpe boots, or are you running off a shared network drive type setup after boot?

I understand that flash drives actually have a limited "write many" lifetime. I wonder how long that actually is.

[Bender10]

It runs on a 'RamDisk' plugin, you set the size. I use 256 mb or 512 mb, since all BOINC wu's are stored on the 'ramdisk'. 256mb seems to be plenty so far. I even had 100 wu's from proteins loaded with space to spare.

So in theory, the writes to the Flash Drive should not be too often.

Actually, If you just run BOINCpe, disk 'writes' are zero. It is designed to run from a CD-ROM. The complete OS loads to the 'ramdisk'. There may be some disk 'Reads' during operation (I don't think so)....I think that's how it would work.



EDIT: I'm running 1 gig of ram, so I figured using 256mb for the 'ramdisk' would still leave enough system ram for crunching...I may increase to 1.5 or 2 gig if necessary.

[drezha]

Bender's right, RAMdisk would only require loads really as it cant write. I guess if persistency is enabled, it may write to the USB drive or a network server.

Bender, nice PC case, I have one as well. Really impressed with it