Hi - 'relative' newbie. Been away for awhile, trying to ease myself back into the flow. I'm on an 1.25GHZ iMac w/1GB RAM, 250GB HD.

I am running Folding@home (a non-BOINC project) in the background.

Just attached the only 5 Mac-oriented projects (Seti, World Com, Rosetta, Einstein, Sztaki). Suddenly my message panel tells me that my Mac is 'overcommitted'; doesn't sound very good to me!

1. If there are other Mac apps, I'd like to know.

2. Need to know how to set my web and user preferences AMONG these projects so as to balance? or make the whole scheme as efficient as possible so each project gets approx. equal time; w/particular attention to % of resource usage choices. Is there a FAQ somewhere with this kind of guidance?

Right now, my Mac splits its CPU usage to about 45% for Folding and the same for any running BOINC project (only 1 BOINC EVER runs at any one time). Is this good???

Thanks and regards, dwdockins

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I am running Folding@home (a non-BOINC project) in the background.

You do know that both FAH and BOINC crunch mainly on the unused CPU cycles left by the PC/Mac? So if you want to run both, that they compete for the CPU?

Suddenly my message panel tells me that my Mac is 'overcommitted'; doesn't sound very good to me!

And that this is something that can happen due to FAH and BOINC competing for the CPU?

I'm not up to speed about the latest developments of FAH, but BOINC has a number of intricate schedulers, designed to work with the preferences set which are constantly recalculating if you manage to get all the work done before the deadlines imposed by the projects you crunch for. If you don't, you get the overcommitted message.

One big preference in your case is the amount of work you requested to download. On more than 2 projects, it's better to set the "connect to server every x days" to a lower number. How high is it now?

1. If there are other Mac apps, I'd like to know.

Projects you mean? I think you've covered it. Well, maybe Astropulse, but I wouldn't hold my hopes up yet.

2. Need to know how to set my web and user preferences AMONG these projects so as to balance? Is there a FAQ somewhere with this kind of guidance?

Preferences set on one project will propagate to all other projects and used by them as well. If you fancy a nice read, try the Boinc Wiki.
Or ask here what you want answered. :)

(only 1 BOINC EVER runs at any one time). Is this good???

BOINC doesn't crunch. BOINC is a managing program, so only one instance of it will run at any time. The science applications are what do the crunching and they can be run multiple times, if you have multiple CPUs. One instance per CPU.
And even then only one application at a time (so not all 5 projects simultaniously).

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Ageless, HEY! Thanks alot - that was really fast! I did take a look at Wikipedia - whew, there is a lot to plow through there, but I'll keep at it.

So, I assume from the below that if I just let FAH finish its present task and then stop FAH (I'd hate to just stop FAH now and 'lose' all that processing time), that the BOINC manager will use my Mac resources properly? I have 1 CPU.

Specifically, If I want to leave 10% or so of my CPU power for my daily use (is that a good compromise?), should I set the all the project CPU % to 90% (on the grounds that only one at a time will be running)?

I presently have ALL the 'Connect to network' options set to .5 days (one/half day), and ALL project CPU% are set to 50%. That seems to work sort of OK when FAH is running, with the occasional 'overcommitted' msg.

I am at dwdockins@charter.net if it is more convenient for you. Thanks again.

I am running Folding@home (a non-BOINC project) in the background.

You do know that both FAH and BOINC crunch mainly on the unused CPU cycles left by the PC/Mac? So if you want to run both, that they compete for the CPU?

Suddenly my message panel tells me that my Mac is 'overcommitted'; doesn't sound very good to me!

And that this is something that can happen due to FAH and BOINC competing for the CPU?

I'm not up to speed about the latest developments of FAH, but BOINC has a number of intricate schedulers, designed to work with the preferences set which are constantly recalculating if you manage to get all the work done before the deadlines imposed by the projects you crunch for. If you don't, you get the overcommitted message.

One big preference in your case is the amount of work you requested to download. On more than 2 projects, it's better to set the "connect to server every x days" to a lower number. How high is it now?

1. If there are other Mac apps, I'd like to know.

Projects you mean?

Yes, I meant projects!

I think you've covered it. Well, maybe Astropulse, but I wouldn't hold my hopes up yet.

2. Need to know how to set my web and user preferences AMONG these projects so as to balance? Is there a FAQ somewhere with this kind of guidance?

Preferences set on one project will propagate to all other projects and used by them as well. If you fancy a nice read, try the Boinc Wiki.
Or ask here what you want answered. :)

(only 1 BOINC EVER runs at any one time). Is this good???

BOINC doesn't crunch. BOINC is a managing program, so only one instance of it will run at any time. The science applications are what do the crunching and they can be run multiple times, if you have multiple CPUs. One instance per CPU.
And even then only one application at a time (so not all 5 projects simultaneously).
____________

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So, I assume from the below that if I just let FAH finish its present task and then stop FAH (I'd hate to just stop FAH now and 'lose' all that processing time), that the BOINC manager will use my Mac resources properly? I have 1 CPU.

If you'd only run or FAH or BOINC, then yes, at all times.

Specifically, If I want to leave 10% or so of my CPU power for my daily use (is that a good compromise?), should I set the all the project CPU % to 90% (on the grounds that only one at a time will be running)?

The setting to use the maximum percentage of CPU isn't in use in the Boinc version you are using. It'll be available in the next version of BOINC. (And there's no version in test yet for the Mac, so I won't point to the alpha test ;))

I presently have ALL the 'Connect to network' options set to .5 days (one/half day)

OK, that's still reasonable. When you only run BOINC, it'll take about 2 weeks (more) to learn about your processor usage. As said, the maximum percentage usage isn't compatible with Boinc 5.4.x, so it'll always run flat out. And I don't think there's a Threadmaster or BES kind of program for the Mac... But I'll ask around.

I am at dwdockins at charter dot net

If you want to leave your email address around, make it like I show in the quote. These forums are read by SPAM crawlers. Nothing we can do about that.
You can edit your post up to 60 minutes after you made it. I won't be able to edit your post, the software doesn't allow me to do so.

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Just attached the only 5 Mac-oriented projects (Seti, World Com, Rosetta, Einstein, Sztaki). [...]
1. If there are other Mac apps, I'd like to know.

I run:

• SETI@home Beta (until Astropulse is ready for testing it's just a slightly newer version of S@h Enhanced
  
• Leiden Classical
  
• Pirates@home (work is very infrequently available, especially for Macs)
  

I believe Climate Prediction also has a Mac app; I've been meaning to look into that one myself.

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Climate prediction doesn't have a Mac app.

Climate prediction doesn't have a Mac app.

Why, then, does BOINCstats say that over 3600 hosts run "Darwin" there, showing about sixty models of Power Mac in the CPU listings? An obsolete version?

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Those were most probably the Sulphur Cycle models. For the present Coupled Models there's no Macintosh application. Sulphur models are no longer given out.

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Those were most probably the Sulphur Cycle models. For the present Coupled Models there's no Macintosh application. Sulphur models are no longer given out.

Thanks for the clarification; I guess I procrastinated too long.

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