Why So Sad Hybrid? (Part 1 of 2)

There is a Chinese proverb; a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  There is a similar saying when it comes to the speed of computers; its speed is determined by its slowest component.  In the past, the bottleneck would be the CPU itself.  It has also been the bus or pathway between various components.  Today, the slowest component is the hard drive. 

While other components are chugging along at the speed of light, hard drives have to wait while a spinning platter reaches its proper placement so a magnetic thingamajig can read some random 1’s and 0’s and attempt to make sense of it.  Various strategies have been developed in an attempt to solve this problem.  One attempt is to use multiple hard drives and combine them into one monster hard drive which while it increases the storage capacity linearly, the read and seek times increase geometrically.  But this RAID solution is fairly expensive and not really applicable in small servers, desktops or personal machines.  It’s just not cost-effective.

So you can imagine the cries of joy when flash memory was developed.  Not quite ROM (Read-Only Memory) and not quite RAM, but a memory which would hold its state like ROM but can be written to and hold its state, like RAM, and can hold its state without the need for constant electricity.  It is best known as USB drives, thumb drives or flash drives.  By whatever name it is known, this type of memory is found in all of these portable drives, and has allowed for the explosion of growth in the tablet market.

The next logical place for this memory is to try and make an entire hard drive based on this flash memory.  The technology is fairly simple.  RAM disks were popular in the early days on the personal computer and one could really detect the performance increase.  While no one really expected to replicate the performance increase, people did expect to see a performance increase when this type of flash technology was made into a stand-alone hard drive or even its cousin, the hybrid drive, a drive with an SSD partition as well as a traditional platter for additional storage.

Billions of dollars have been spent in infrastructure to build the drives that experts said there would be a demand for.  Yet SSD drives and hybrid drives have not really taken off.  It is not the cost of these drives, although that is a small factor.  It is not the performance as every independent test shows that these drives perform as advertised.   Why haven’t flash memory drives taken off and more importantly, how does this affect us bot owners?  I’ll discuss that next time.

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware 3) Part 6

More on hardware 2/2:

Yesterday we started off this post with some basic things to keep in mind when buying hardware for your botting computer. The post got a bit long so here is the second part, continuing with some recommendations and a bit more in depth information on what hardware you might actually need to buy.

Individual Parts: 

When it comes to botting MTGO CPU and RAM is the most important parts so you'll want to focus your budget on these.

CPU (Processor): 

You'll need a CPU around these lines. (These are just quick estimates and not necessarily completely correct)

    •   1-5 bots - Intel i3 Quad Core / AMD 2 - 4 Core
    •   6-9 bots - Intel i5 Quad Core / AMD 6 Core
    •   10-14 bots - Intel i7 Quad Core / AMD 8 Core

I for one decided to buy an AMD CPU mainly because they're cheaper, my main computer runs an Intel i7 and I didn't feel like spending a lot on another one. The slight advantage an Intel CPU will bring is usually not worth the extra cash in my opinion. Just make sure to compare benchmarks you'll find online, don't listen blindly to what each brand tells you.

Ram (Memory):

Running Windows XP you'll need around 1.5 GB RAM down to 1.1 GB per bot if you have an extra HDD to put the pagefile on (I highly recommend this and will be talking more about this in future posts)  and 2 GB+ for Win 7.

The speed of the RAM Isn't really important, any 1333 MHz + will do just fine.

GPU (Graphics Card):

MTGO have a GPU system recommendation of 128 MB video RAM (not to be confused with normal RAM) and support for DirectX9, which is nothing.

The GPU must also support 1080x1024 resolution which also isn't much.

Most motherboards with integrated GPU will be powerful enough for MTGO so you might not need to buy a separate GPU at all.

PSU (Power Supply):

When it comes to PSU it only have to support wattage of as much(or more) as the rest of the parts consume.

You can easily calculate how high wattage you'll need using: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite
Just input your other computer parts and click calculate.

When it comes to PSU you're better off buying a quality one with 80+ certificate than a budget one as it will consume much less power.
It'll also last you much longer, which is important for a machine that will be running 24/7.

Motherboard:

The motherboard only has to support the other parts and isn't going to cost you much.
Just make sure it's compatible with the rest and have enough slots for your RAM.

You might want to buy one with an integrated GPU so you don't have to buy one separately.

Hard Drive/SSD:

I would recommend running your bot and Operative System on an SSD.
It's not necessary but will greatly increase the speed of your bots if you're running multiple.

I would also recommend getting a regular HDD to backup your bots on and run the pagefiles on.
Each bot needs around 5-10 GB space.

Unless you're planning on overclocking you won't have to spend on extra, fancy cooling (unless you want your computer to be quiet) the case fans and stock cooling will likely be enough to begin with.

When it comes to brands I would recommend not to buy the cheapest, generic crap.
This computer will run 24/7 so you'll want to spend a little bit extra on getting parts from brands such as Corsair, Samsung, Kingston, ASUS and the like.

The dvd-writer, case and a backup HDD doesn't matter much though, any brand will most likely do.

My dedicated botting computer runs the following hardware: 

    •    16 GB (2x8) 1600 MHz Corsair RAM

    •   AMD FX-8320 8 core 3.5GHz CPU

    •   Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard

    •   Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze PSU

    •   Samsung 840-Series 120GB SSD

    •   500GB Samsung 7200rpm HDD

On this computer I run 5 bots with lots of room for expanding and upgrading to MTGO v4.

When picking your parts I would suggest using: PC Part Picker to make sure your parts are compatible with each other.

Just remember that these estimates are based on performance of MTGO v3 and Win XP, things will change a lot when v4 is released but we can't know for sure until it's time. I'll get back to this in a new article when v4 is released.

More next week and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware 2) Part 5

More on hardware 1/2:

Last week we talked some basic hardware for the new botter.
This week we'll go a little more in depth into choosing hardware, this is going to be an article mainly for the aspiring botter who doesn't have a suitable computer lying around to run his first bots on, but also the botter who's looking to upgrade from his old attic computer. I'm not going to tell you what to get, since that is totally dependent on your budget, plans and so on and so forth but I will give you some tips and stuff to keep in mind when buying hardware.

Tips and thoughts: 

Always when buying a new computer it's best to buy each individual part and build it yourself, or to have a friend build it rather than buying a complete package. These packages will almost always include stuff you don't need, and they will also charge a lot extra for setting it up for you.

When it comes to computer hardware it's the absolute latest parts and the oldest parts that are going to be the most expensive ones, so you're better off buying new but not the absolute latest parts to make sure you're not spending too much.

I would say the only reason to just buy a computer that only can run one or two bots would be if it only cost a few bucks second hand. If you're going to buy brand new you're better off at least leaving some room for expanding later on, or you'll end up wasting a lot of money.

What lies ahead: 

You also have to take into account that Wizards Of The Coast is going to release their new MTGO v4 client (which is now in Beta) soon, which will require more computer power and won't run on Win XP.

Windows 7 requires more resources than XP even slimmed down so a computer that at the moment runs 5 bots might only run 2 or 3 in a few months when v4 is released.
I'm all for future proofing and find it silly to spend significant amounts of money on something you'll have to upgrade in a few months, so I would recommend spending some extra on a computer with room for expanding and room for the v4 client.

Part 2 of  'More on Hardware' tomorrow and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware) Part 4

Basic hardware:

Last week we talked about naming your bots, this week, as promised will be about basic hardware to start with for your first few bots.

MTGO Library Bot is not very resource demanding, you could actually run at least a bot or two on most computers.
I started running my first two bots without problems using only a really old Core 2 duo CPU and 1.1 GB ram each. These were parts I had lying in the attic and worked well as a first dedicated computer/server to run two bots.

Per bot you will need at least: 
       •  1.5 GB RAM (Memory) down to 1.1gb if you're ready to do some work and have an extra HDD                  (harddrive) lying around.

       •   5-10 GB HDD space.

       •   1.5 GHz CPU (Processor), preferably better

       •   1280x1024+ Screen Resolution

Then of course you need a motherboard that can run all these components together, a PSU(power supply) with high enough wattage and a GPU(graphics card) with at least 128 MB video ram(memory) and support for DirectX 9.

These are highly dependent on what other parts you choose so I can't give you any definite answer exactly what you'll need without knowing your other parts.

Using something along the line of these minimum requirements will let you run a bot or two and is a good way of starting out in the beginning.
I would however not recommend you to buy hardware that is this shitty unless you can get them for a few bucks second hand.
If you do not have a computer around that meets these requirements I would recommend getting something a bit more powerful to make room for expanding later on.

My first botting computer ran the following hardware: 

       •   4gb DDR2 RAM                                      
       •   Intel Core 2 Duo CPU at 2.8 GHz
       •   128GB SSD
       •   512 GB HDD
       •   Nvidia GTX260 GPU
       •   GA-73PVM-S2H motherboard
       •   500W PSU
All these parts except the SSD were all crap I had lying around but enough to easily run my first two bots.

I would recommend starting with something similar.
The GPU is however unnecessarily powerful, MTG doesn't require a GPU nearly as strong as this one.
The SSD is also unnecessary and you're better off spending your money on other parts that will drastically increase your performance. And the PSU only needs to be as powerful as the other parts require.

Another thing to keep in mind is that old hardware doesn't necessarily mean that it's cheap.
You can probably find a computer similar to these requirements second hand for almost nothing.
But when you buy old parts in stores they are usually hugely overpriced, since they want you to buy a new computer package with all hardware and software they'll try to trick you to get instead of repairing your old one. They also know that most people who buys the old stuff don't have much choice since the newer parts won't fit their old computer and hope that you'll decide to get a new one instead.

For example a quick check shows that the cheapest 8gb (2x4gb) DDR2 memory cost $165, while the cheapest 8gb (2x4gb) DDR3 which is twice as fast cost $53. So you could get at least twice, maybe thrice as much memory that is also at least twice as fast for the same price if you buy new components and not the old inferior ones.
So make sure to check prices, you might be better off buying all new parts instead of replacing that one old part you need for your old setup to work.

More on hardware next time and as always I'll gladly answer any questions you might have in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

You've Been Fragged! (Part 1 of 2)

Whether you are a computer tech veteran or a computer tech novice, one thing you heard was that you needed to occasionally defragment your hard drive.  You probably heard that there is a defrag program included in Windows but no one should use it.  You probably heard of Smart Defrag, MyDefrag or one that is made by the same people who do Ccleaner, or any of plethora of software offerings.

All these software offerings make a point of stating that using their program to defrag your hard drive is good for your computer that their program does something “unique” that other programs do not have or simply ignore.  When it comes to our computers, we want to use the best programs possible; especially if it is free.  Yet with all the information available, it is easy to simply get over-whelmed with information and it is difficult to ascertain what is truth, what is fiction, what is marketing and what is propaganda.

So let’s begin by describing what causes fragmentation.

Let’s begin with a brand new hard drive.  It’s been formatted and it is a data drive.  You copy three pictures onto it, 1 Meg, 2 Megs and 3 Megs in size.  You then decide that you wish to edit the 2 Meg file, increasing its size to 2.1.  Since the program will write the first then delete, it will place the 2.1 file after the 3 Meg file and then delete the 2 Meg file.  So out drive looks like

1 Meg - 2 Meg blank - 3 Meg - 2.1 Meg.

Now, you choose to edit your 3 Meg picture, increasing the size to 3.1.  Again, the picture will be written before deleting the original.  So your drive now looks like this:

1 Meg, 2 megs of the 3.1, 3 Megs of blank space, 2.1 Megs, 1.1 Megs of the 3.1 Meg file.

As this simple example shows, it does not take much to fragment a drive.  As files get fragmented, it takes more time for the computer to read the hard drive.  So defragging a hard drive is recommended.  The only question is how often and what program do you use; and how does this affect us bot owners?  I’ll answer those questions next time.

Bonus tip: NEVER EVER defrag an SSD drive.

Limited Space (Part 2)

Last time I've discussed about the high cost of Storage on Solid State Drives and about the resources our Virtual Machines take while running ML Bots.
With all answers to that topic I can assume, as it stands, that most botting VM's are using 1.5GB to 2GB memory ram and 6GB to 10GB Disk space.
A safe "general" way of seeing the botting limitations of CPU is to set about 2ghz per bot (quad core 4ghz = 16ghz = 8 bots) although this may vary depending on which CPU you use (for example a Dual core 2.4ghz celeron wont be as good as a dual core i3 2.4ghz) or the configuration and operative system of your VM's.

Would you believe me if I told you that you can run the Host OS plus 16 bots on a 32GB SSD?
I've spent the last 5 days tweaking MS Windows XP and the VM's to run as lightly as possible, using minimum resources and disk space and found some nice tricks and tips which might help you doing the same.


Step1: Put windows on a diet
Programs such as nLite allow to edit your Windows XP installation disk and remove/edit the Operative System applications/settings/services. This allows you to install windows without Media player, internet explorer, calculator, defrag, support for Printer, Smartcards, modem drivers...(endless list).
Your windows copy will still be genuine as long as you're using your Genuine XP CD and Serial keys.


Step2: Disable Useless Services

Services are windows applications that run on the background, although these might only result in 75-125Mb Memory usage, when you multiply that by 8 bots, it becomes more substantial.
Not all services can(or should) be removed from Windows installation disk. Some services such as "Windows Installer" are required to install .Net Framework on your VMs and you can only disable them after the installation of .Net . Which leads to the next step.





Step3: Need more space to Install .Net Framework

Using a USB Drive or Creating a second Hard Drive on your VM can be the solution, The setup file and extraction directory can be on the temporary (or USB) drive giving up more free space on the Drive C: to install .Net Framework.

Other option is to Compress Windows, Programs and Documents folder (decompress .net framework folder within windows/) as these will very rarely be used by your Bot (apart from when loading up windows)

With a Small Disk (such as 1-1.5GB) where will I find room to fit MTGO Folder you might ask?Thats on Step 4.




Step4: What about MTGO Folder?
Mtgo Folder can be reduced to under 150MB if you remove all the unnecessary files that ML Bot doesn't use. Store Icons, Card Pictures, Avatars, Decks Images, Symbols, Cards frames,DirectX installer, etc .. are just some of the many things you can delete from your MTGO Folder and save 500MB+ space.
The fact that MTGO wont load these images on the start of every trade might actually speed up your bot!

Step5: Can I run MTGO Library Bot without MTGO Installed?
You Might think that this is a silly question, but the answer is YES you can! In fact, this tip will allow you to run all your VM's from your Hard Disk drive and keeping the fast MTGO loading speeds.

All you need to do is to install MTGO on your Host(on a SSD), Share the MTGO Folder in the network and all your bots open MTGO from the network. This not just allows you to save 200Mb-700Mb space on each VM but also saves you from reaching Internet Download limits that your ISP might pratice because this way you will only need to update MTGO once (just make sure all bots don't do it at the same time, have not tested what happens if they all do). In my tests Loading MTGO from VM stored in SSD (MTGO_NET.EXE) took 7 seconds, while opening it via network (shared folder in SSD from host) took 9 seconds. Not the fastest but if you have a small SSD and wish to move all the bots to the HDD this is a good solution.

Conclusion
I am running 7 bots at the moment. Each of my VM's is now running with 1.5Gb ram (rarely goes over 1gb usage), No pagefile. All VM's have a 2GB disk and have MTGO installed (850MB free Disk space). At the moment the Kicker.exe is taking quite long to light up the "launch" button (main host takes about 12seconds, older bots about 15-20sec and now about 25sec) which is causing to show up the HW/SW warning sometimes. This is something that I might have to tweak or some service that I might have disabled that would actually speed this up. If you have any tips for me on this issue or would like to share your tips in savings resources with others, please comment!

Limited Space (Part 1)

With the current high cost per GB on high performance SSD Drives, shrinking our precious bots/virtual machines disk usage is crucial for success and keeping the spending on the minimum.
Every now and then I do spend some time tuning my virtual machines for performance and try to keep them as much low resources as possible (using less memory, disk space, cpu).
From removing pretty much every windows service and application to deleting all cards images from MTGO folder, there are unlimited places to cut down resources and improve your bot's performance but until today I hadn't though of something way simpler that would give me a massive advantage.

So my questions to everyone that uses virtual machines to run MTGO Library bots are:

How much memory (RAM) do you set for each Virtual Machine?
Do you use any Pagefile within the VM OS (shouldn't on a SSD)?
How much disk space do you use per VM?

I'll come back to you with mine on the next few days.