SSD* Disk Usage (I'm not sure why I wrote 'Hard Disk' because we're not in the 90's anymore! and can't edit my post title ha!)
Hi, I'm excited to have recently installed the Windows desktop client!
I want to configure my computing preferences optimally. One thing I noticed is that by default the disk usage is capped at 20GB. I'm often filling up my SSD so my knee jerk reaction to this was to immediately set it to 1GB. I wondered if and how this will affect projects, as I can easily keep it at 20GB if needed (esp. when I clear more space/upgrade).
Oo, I just discoverd the 'advanced view' where I can see the disk usage (which I saw somewhere else, but can't find now) so I know that it's hardly changed from 100-110mb since my first install a couple of days or so ago.
I'm guessing if disk usage was something that was worth considering, it would be highlighted somewhere so I've made the slight assumption based on all this that not much disk space is used or needed generally. Let me know if my guesswork is way off!
On a side note, I'm checking out my computing preferences. Here is what they look like right now:
Do these settings look OK? Let's click 'Use web prefs'... to see what happens...
Here is the view after resetting to web-prefs:
*edit: my screenshot I pasted in vanished, but they were the same (except my custom disk usage 20GB -> 1GB)
I notice that 'Suspend when computer is in use' is unticked. I want 100% of my CPU when I'm live streaming (or doing other video encoding tasks that use 100%) so how can I be sure that my preferences are set optimally?
I've changed my disk space back to 1GB as in the first screenshot now I'm confident I'm using default settings, and left the rest at the default values (for now).
Perhaps some settings are set in the cloud on the website, that would be nifty. I'm guessing that it's more likely that using web-based preferences will always default to the same value for any (Windows) user, which surely have been set to make sure things run as intended for all parties.
Hi Andreas, I'm glad to see you're finding your way around the preference settings. You're right that the default settings are intended to be ideal for a sort of median user and that customizing in the areas where you'd like it to behave differently is just the thing to do.
If you want to let Charity Engine run in the background when you're doing minor tasks on your computer, but also suspend when you're doing significant things like encoding, switch to the Advanced View and then open up Options -> Computing preferences. It will show a few additional options under the Computing tab, and particularly I think you will want to use the option to "Suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above [x]%". You can set this to an appropriate level so that Charity Engine work will stop when encoding is in progress (e.g. if usage is > 50%, or > 75%).
As for disk space, the easiest way to tell whether more space would be used now is to set the limits higher for a day or two and then check back (the Disk tab appears in the Advanced view) to see if any additional space is being used. There are jobs occasionally that use much more than 100MB (I seem to recall one using nearly 10GB, due to a virtual machine and a large scientific dataset being involved), so it's likely that setting the limit to 1GB will cause some to be skipped; but I'd suggest setting the limit where you're comfortable and if you miss one that is too large there will be others that are a better fit.
That is a big part of what Charity Engine is doing, after all--connecting those who need resources with those who have them. You decide what you have to offer and we'll find someone with a computing need to match!
Thanks for sharing your excitement and your experience in getting started --
SSD* Disk Usage (I'm not sure why I wrote 'Hard Disk' because we're not in the 90's anymore! and can't edit my post title ha!)
Hi, I'm excited to have recently installed the Windows desktop client!
I want to configure my computing preferences optimally. One thing I noticed is that by default the disk usage is capped at 20GB. I'm often filling up my SSD so my knee jerk reaction to this was to immediately set it to 1GB. I wondered if and how this will affect projects, as I can easily keep it at 20GB if needed (esp. when I clear more space/upgrade).
Oo, I just discoverd the 'advanced view' where I can see the disk usage (which I saw somewhere else, but can't find now) so I know that it's hardly changed from 100-110mb since my first install a couple of days or so ago.
I'm guessing if disk usage was something that was worth considering, it would be highlighted somewhere so I've made the slight assumption based on all this that not much disk space is used or needed generally. Let me know if my guesswork is way off!
On a side note, I'm checking out my computing preferences. Here is what they look like right now:
Do these settings look OK? Let's click 'Use web prefs'... to see what happens...
Here is the view after resetting to web-prefs:
*edit: my screenshot I pasted in vanished, but they were the same (except my custom disk usage 20GB -> 1GB)
I notice that 'Suspend when computer is in use' is unticked. I want 100% of my CPU when I'm live streaming (or doing other video encoding tasks that use 100%) so how can I be sure that my preferences are set optimally?
I've changed my disk space back to 1GB as in the first screenshot now I'm confident I'm using default settings, and left the rest at the default values (for now).
Perhaps some settings are set in the cloud on the website, that would be nifty. I'm guessing that it's more likely that using web-based preferences will always default to the same value for any (Windows) user, which surely have been set to make sure things run as intended for all parties.
Hi Andreas, I'm glad to see you're finding your way around the preference settings. You're right that the default settings are intended to be ideal for a sort of median user and that customizing in the areas where you'd like it to behave differently is just the thing to do.
If you want to let Charity Engine run in the background when you're doing minor tasks on your computer, but also suspend when you're doing significant things like encoding, switch to the Advanced View and then open up Options -> Computing preferences. It will show a few additional options under the Computing tab, and particularly I think you will want to use the option to "Suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above [x]%". You can set this to an appropriate level so that Charity Engine work will stop when encoding is in progress (e.g. if usage is > 50%, or > 75%).
As for disk space, the easiest way to tell whether more space would be used now is to set the limits higher for a day or two and then check back (the Disk tab appears in the Advanced view) to see if any additional space is being used. There are jobs occasionally that use much more than 100MB (I seem to recall one using nearly 10GB, due to a virtual machine and a large scientific dataset being involved), so it's likely that setting the limit to 1GB will cause some to be skipped; but I'd suggest setting the limit where you're comfortable and if you miss one that is too large there will be others that are a better fit.
That is a big part of what Charity Engine is doing, after all--connecting those who need resources with those who have them. You decide what you have to offer and we'll find someone with a computing need to match!
Thanks for sharing your excitement and your experience in getting started --