When I have the "Suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above XX%" setting turned on the processor usage constantly bounces. This causes the CPU fans to constantly spin up and down. It does this a LOT, I fee like I'm losing a lot of processing time to this.

BOINC is allowed 70% CPUs with 100% time. Suspend when non-BOINC is over 25%. The system has 32 processors, so it takes a lot to hit that 25%. This server does have an in home media server on it which is why I use this setting. If I'm watching something that requires significant transcoding in HD I don't want the video quality to suffer.

In my testing I ensured the media server was turned off.
With the suspend setting off, proc usage is solid 70%

With the suspend setting on it constantly pauses and un-Pauses. Some times several times per minute, some times it'll wait a few minute between pauses. It's not clear in this image, but when a pause happens processor usage drops to less than 5% for a few seconds, then jumps back up.


Is there a way to stop the bouncing?

I had a similar problem with DVDFAB transcoding from Blu Ray to mp4. I found I had to exclude boinc from running when DVDFAB was processing or I would have problems. I am not using DVDFAB media server, just the ripper.

Do you have a coprocessor like NVidia CUDA or are you just using the CPUs?

I'm pretty sure it's using just CPUs.

I don't think the issue is anything to do with the media server (just an example of alternate load). It does this when the media server is off, and the computer is effectively doing nothing (other than BOINC).

Any one have thoughts on this? is it by design?