BrianW wrote:
[...]

I've just switched to BOINC, but investigation suggests that the same WU is sent to multiple people. If so, does the first to complete it get the cobblestones, and everybody else lose out?

No, provided you return your correct result within the deadline.

Multiple copies are sent out to compare and confirm the results against rounding errors or corruptions. Participants get their credits if they return what is compared to be a valid result.

Unlike in s@h 'classic', overclockers no longer get credited for fast corrupted rubbish for example. (Hint: Check out your systems with Memtest86 and The GIMPS mprime tourture test.)

If so there's no point in me running BOINC on my ancient 333mhz Pentium 2!

I hope that milli-Hertz is actually 333 _MHz_ !

If your machine returns its results correctly within the project deadline, then you get credit.


Happy crunchin',
Martin