Hardware What is Folding and Why Does it Matter?

I have two 'main' rigs and the trusty ol' PS3. It used to tear at me about the enormous amounts of electricity that I burned through, but after some internal debate and a few adult beverages it was simple:

I blow more money on stupid crap than on the extra money going towards electricity. Why not?

 

Well, you can do it for whatever cause you want, we don't need to see your e-peenis, you know?

Competition and trying to prove something often has beneficial results for innovation and progress.
Competing for points might seems silly to you, but it gets the job done. Hell, it gets the job done better!
Good luck with asking for donations, as others have already mentioned...

Energy consumption, CO2 and all that.. it's relevant, but I think it should mostly be approached from a different perspective; save power where the waiste is obvious and unjustified, work towards using renewable energy etc.

 

The energy consumption and carbon footprint is justified IMHO, because when the solutions are found, the extra energy consumed and the like froim caring for the afflicted would decrease. Trust me, as I have two alzheimers and parkinsons afflicted grandparents, it takes a LOT more time, money and energy to care for them. Short term loss, long term gain.

Oh, and here in New Zealand, a vast majority of the power consumed is renewable (hydro, thermal and wind power). Next rig I build will be multi core, multi gpu to help this cause along. While Im using it for other tasks of course. If i'm not actively using the pc, it gets switched off.

Re: donate the power cost. It's a lot easier for us in foriegn countries to donate cycles than donate money. Im not using the cycles when I am browsing the net or word processing so might as well put them to use.

 

Yep, it's kinda the same here in Australia also, we have a lot of solar and wind farms and a thermal energy farm now. I'm the same as you, when I am using my PC for basic things I will fold, but when I don't need to use it it gets turned off. Plus, my water cooling heats my room up a fair bit also lol so I turn off my PC when I can. I do fold overnight with my laptop though, uses hardly any power, has pretty good specs and I can actually sleep with it running.

 

I think someone should calculate the average energy consumed and cost for one working unit, then multiply it by the total number of units processed thus far.

I think that would be an interesting statistic we can compare against the actual gain from this project so far.

 

Good Article,

I can see the points with the extra power being used when leaving a dedicated rig to fold, which would put me off, but I would consider just running the folding client, when i was either working on my machine, or it was sitting idle... I wouldn't run it when the machine wasn't required to be on...

 

There's a typo on page 5 of the article:

Should read:

The disease is called Huntington's disease, but the protein itself is called huntingtin

 

Thanks, fixed.

 

when i had this running on my pc... every time i went into a fullscreen application (i.e. a game), it thought my screensaver was coming on and promptly started running, so i just had to remove it.

 

For those who would actually like to donate funds instead of CPU cycles, Folding@home accepts tax deductable donations (US taxes, other countries vary). Instructions how to donate are located on the F@h home page. Click the Donate link on the left hand column.

Also check with your employer. Many will match your contribution, effectively doubling your contribution to F@h. And you can donate each and every year, and write it off your taxes.

See also: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Donate


And for those concerned about the carbon impact, please get some perspective. Installing only 4 CFL bulbs in my house more than offset my folding "impact" even if I wasn't already using green energy. Folding@home should be the least of your worries in regards to global warming. I'll stop folding when you stop eating beef and start driving a hydrogen powered car.

http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...o-planet-than-cosub2sub-from-cars-427843.html

 

please put these in configure, that will really help me
username: 12as
team number: 143016
thanks

 

fold for
12as
team 143016