I just wanted to say hello to everyone who participate in the F@H Custom PC & bit-tech team. I am excited to finally be a part of the project after reading about it for a while now. My grandfather suffered from Parkinson and Alzheimer's so it is nice to feel I can contribute. I have managed to set up the SMP Client and FahMon. I followed the instructions in the magazine, got a little confused when I said yes to advanced options but I managed to figure it out. I only have my main rig connected at the moment but have a few other machines and ps3 to connect. At the moment my AMD X2 4400 is producing 1002.38 PPD but I will be making upgrades shortly. I guess I should set myself a target, how do you guys set yours? This is going to get really addictive if only my girlfriend knew my intentions when persuading their not to pick up those lampshades in IKEA.
Welcome! When I started folding on GPUs, I set my target at 1 million points, which I've now passed and set a new target at 2 million points. Guess what my next target will be... It's addictive, enjoy!
The best bet is to set attainable targets not to far in the future. When I started out it was 10K and then I started getting more adventurous. I would suggest that you add folding machines slowing. So perhaps just the PS3 and the 4400 initially, as it does have an impact on your power bill. Last thing anyone wants is for you to jump in boots and all only to discover something like power is going to slow you down or even stop you folding. Build the farm up slowly and in no time at all you'll be aiming to be in the Top Twenty http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=35947
I think I might connect all my hardware and see what my total PPD will be, think I might aim for around 500,000. what am I likely to expect from my PS3? Thanks for the link it has some good stats I will bookmark it.
The PS3 will return about 900ppd, so just those two folders will mean you are getting approx 2K. The main thing to remember when people who have been folding for while quote ppd, it is invariably dedicated machines. So no playing games on them!
No playing games! That'd rather defeat the point of owning a PS3. People use them as dedicated folding machines - they need their heads examined! Makes me look sane.
Well I may as well hook it up as it just sits there. I'm not able to play any games for a while yet as I have had an operation on my right hand and it's in a splint. I'm off work for six weeks the boredom is setting in!
Now, back on topic. What sort of hardware do you have? The things worth folding on are dual and quad core CPUs, 3000+ series AMD/ATi and 8000+ series nVidia GPUs. You can fold on older CPUs using the universal client, but generally the points for the power isn't worthwhile.
Oh right. I thought you meant that some people make a concious decision to buy a PS3 as a dedicated folding machine. Which made no sense at all to me, based on the cost and the PPD they produce. (Me, reading what I thought you said, rather than what you actually said. Sorry! )
My home PC is an AMD 4400 @2.7ghz but i will be upgrading this soon as the second core looks like it may go as the temp keeps creeping up compared to the other core. The GPU is a measly 7800gt as i have been reluctant for a while to upgrade it by draining the coolant from the system. I have a ps3 and an HTPC that to be honest i only run x264 movies on, it has a Core 2 Quad Q6700 and an 8800GT. Its not overclocked at the moment so that its remains almost inaudible but temps are still low when i do. I have a few old core2 machines im not using that i might stick back together. Its not much but i guess every little helps.
The quad 6700 would produce about 4200ppd if it was running on linux. Depending on how awkward you wish to make this..... Option one is to create a linux cd at http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/cd.html This runs in memory, so doesn't modify you existing OS, but you really would want a USB stick to save the checkpoints to. This means that when you want to stop it, the client will continue from the last checkpoint. Option two is creating a Virtual Machine using VMWare Server http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ and running the Linux client in that. This would allow you to run the GPU client as well on the 8800GT and this would produce an additional 4-5000ppd. If your HTPC is a small box with minimal cooling, all of the components would produce sufficient heat to cause a meltdown. If the other computers are Intel Core Duo with more than 2Mb cache they would produce about 2300ppd using the above linux CD. With those you purely need a PC with a cd drive and you can remove the HD to save a bit of power. So already you're producing at least 15K ppd which makes you a major producer.
Thank you iCiT i think you have done all the work for me. I think i will try option two so that i can run the GPU client also. Would folding off the Linux CD be more productive than if i install the SMP Client? Is there a way to backup the checkpoints over a network?
Basically Linux SMP runs more efficiently and effectively than the Windows SMP client. Running it as a VM generally will have minimal impact on ppd. Managing the client in a VM can cause some problems when shutting down due to the occasional lost unit. You would definitely need to shut the GPU client down to be able to use your HTPC for it's intended purpose. In computers that you need to be able to use occasionally (like a gaming or HTPC rig) I find the GPU Systray version to be quite handy. Simply right click/pause while you are doing whatever and right click/restart when you want the client running again. At the top of the page http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/ there is a link to setting up server based diskless folding which might answer your last question.
Hello mate, welcome to the team. When I started a few weeks ago i set myself a target of 10,000, then 20,000, then I thought to myself, hang on, if i keep this up i can get to 50,000, now I'm gunning for 100,000. The problems i've encountered are using smp or vmware with notfreds client, not the clients so much but the unreasonable deadlines that come with them, basically if you run smp/vmware client then you HAVE to run it 24/7, if you switch your computer off for the night, then you've just lost 8 hours and won't be able to reach the deadline. Bare in mind that my e6300 is o/c to nearly 3ghz so its not exactly a slow coach either. My advice is if you can and willing to leave computer on 24/7 then grab vmware and notfred's client as it churns out ppd, and also of course setup gpu client as thats where most of your points will come from. If your going to switch off rigs at night then go grab the normal folding client and run 1 instance per core, the deadlines are much much more reasonable, yes the points are a lot less but at least you will actually get some points. My 2p worth.
Thanks guys im going to give running linux on the virtual machine a go, hope things wont get too complicated
Sorry it didn't take me long to come across a hurdle, if i install vmware onto my x86 version of vista can i run a x64 version of the Linux CD within it?
amazing thanks guys, using vmware and notfred's client has provided a 500ppd boost. Once im happy with the set up i might start on another machine, i don't want to start any WU that i cant finish in time because of my tinkering!
