How to change versions during a test + Ecological cost of GIMPS

I've been running the prime95 program for some time leaving the computer endlessly powered on. I wondered if the potential by-products of this project are valued above the environmental expense of the energy required to run my computer while away from it.

2. How can I move work from an older version of the program into a newer faster version of the prime95 program?

[dave_0273]

Well, as for 2, just install the newer version of prime95 into the already existing prime95 directory. Most likely in c:\program files\prime95

As for the first question, I think that you are asking in the wrong place. I have 4 computers, 3 of which 'live' for the sole purpose of running prime95 24/7 - and I am new to the project.

[geoff]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I wondered if the potential by-products of this project are valued above the environmental expense of the energy required to run my computer while away from it.

For the project as a whole I think the answer is yes, because the by-products include new programming techniques being discovered, faulty hardware being detected, people becomming interested in and learning about mathematics and computers and related subjects, people having fun, and (occasionally) new Mersenne primes being found.

thanks for the info. i thought i installed both versions to the default directory. but i see they are in different directories.

[R.D. Silverman]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I've been running the prime95 program for some time leaving the computer endlessly powered on. I wondered if the potential by-products of this project are valued above the environmental expense of the energy required to run my computer while away from it.

2. How can I move work from an older version of the program into a newer faster version of the prime95 program?

The question is somewhat "short-sighted". It assumes that the contrary
action, turning the computer off, has no environmental cost. And this
is simply not true.

When you ask about the environmental expense of running Prime95, do
you mean as compared with turning the computer off, or as compared with
leaving it on, but idle? It still draws power, even when it is idle.

If you propose turning it off, you must then ask: what is the expected
environmental cost associated with this action? Turning it off/on does have
an environmental cost. An extensive study by the NSF and some other
gov't. agencies in the 80's showed that:

(1) Most computer failures occur during power up/down.
(2) The cost of the electricity to leave them on full time is less than the
average cost of repairs due to failure at power up/down.

Nowadays, PC's are so cheap that for a lot of hardware failures it is cheaper
to buy a new one than repair the old one. Now ask: what is the
environmental cost of disposing of a dead computer?

So you must ask which is greater: the environmental cost of the power
needed to run Prime95 or the expected environmental cost associated with
hardware failure due to turning it on/off.

[Reboot It]

When you are upgrading from an older version of Prime95 to a newer version, you need to take care that the old version is completely stopped and unloaded before upgrading. From the Prime95 menu choose Test -> Stop and when the program reports that it has stopped choose Test -> Exit.

Then unzip the contents of the ZIP file that contains the newer version straight into the directory you have had Prime95 working in, saying "Yes" to any questions about overwriting any older files it finds there. Finally restart Prime95 using the new executable.

This process will not alter or overwrite any settings stored or part-completed work in that directory. (There is one extremely rare exception to this: if you upgrade from version 23.2 or earlier to version 23.3 or later and are in the middle of Stage 2 of a P-1 process, then the Stage 2 will restart. See WhatsNew.TXT in the Prime95 directory for more information on this very specific situation.)