Folding @ Home - Let's find a cure for cancer - Page 53

brentpresl · 08-11-07, 02:44 PM

FAH is NOT memory sensitive. Memory speed has almost no bearing on the program.

Supermicro or Tyan would be GREAT choices for a new server.

And when running the SMP client, just keep in mind that it only maxes out 4 cores. So to max out 8 cores, you will need to install 2 copies (to 2 different folders), and run them simultaneously.

lobuxracer · 08-11-07, 05:47 PM

No, not memory speed, memory quantity. I know it will use what you have, but will it like 2Gb, 4Gb, 16Gb better with more or not? Also, how does disk speed affect it? Will a fast array be a significant benefit or not?

Ramon · 08-11-07, 05:56 PM

FaH is almost puerly a CPU intensive task. It does use some memory obvioulsy, but not that much. I/O performance makes no difference, it's a small program and once it loads, that's pretty much it, it's all number crunching from there on out.

Pearlpower · 08-11-07, 07:06 PM

So is this program more CPU intensive or VPU related?
I have my game machine with a 1000w Enermax with quad core and SLI + everything your can possible imagine in it but that would be very $$$$$ to keep on all of the time. My other security computer with an old 9800pro video card still manages to pull 185-195 watts continuously.

brentpresl · 08-11-07, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobuxracer

No, not memory speed, memory quantity. I know it will use what you have, but will it like 2Gb, 4Gb, 16Gb better with more or not? Also, how does disk speed affect it? Will a fast array be a significant benefit or not?

No. The SMP client takes up about 300MB when fully loaded. Anything above that and what your OS uses is just wasted (in terms of pure folding potential).

brentpresl · 08-11-07, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearlpower

So is this program more CPU intensive or VPU related?
I have my game machine with a 1000w Enermax with quad core and SLI + everything your can possible imagine in it but that would be very $$$$$ to keep on all of the time. My other security computer with an old 9800pro video card still manages to pull 185-195 watts continuously.

My quad fully loaded on the CPU only pulls about 75W more than at idle.

I also leave it on 24/7 b/c it is a home server as well. Sure, 75W 24/7 isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than a bear a night.

Pearlpower · 08-11-07, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brentpresl

My quad fully loaded on the CPU only pulls about 75W more than at idle.

I also leave it on 24/7 b/c it is a home server as well. Sure, 75W 24/7 isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than a bear a night.

Yeah, it is an older AMD X2 which pulls a bit, thinking of changing that to a newer and more efficient Intel. My game machine however pulls 400+watts (over 550w under load) ,not incl speakers and monitor) continuous so that is way out of the question.

DaveGS4 · 08-11-07, 08:02 PM

Lee, I'd love to see how fast your gaming rig would fold using the SMP client even if it isn't full time... know you have some crazy HW and OC skills

Ramon · 08-11-07, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearlpower

So is this program more CPU intensive or VPU related?
I have my game machine with a 1000w Enermax with quad core and SLI + everything your can possible imagine in it but that would be very $$$$$ to keep on all of the time. My other security computer with an old 9800pro video card still manages to pull 185-195 watts continuously.

There is a GPU client that puts the load on the video card, afik, it only works with certain ATI cards though. I personally would not reocmmend the GPU client becuase it slows down the windows GUI way too much and isn't practical for someone to run it if they still want to use their computer.

The standard client works on the CPU in low priority mode, so most of the time you don't even know it's on, even when doing other CPU intensive tasks like playing games.

I hear you on the power issues though, I use to participate in several distributed computing projects until the electric bill showed up. Now I turn all my computers off when I'm done using them for the day, except for my server.

RA40 · 08-11-07, 09:07 PM

I was just looking at our electricity statement. Hard to tell with the A/C on these days...best I could figure at $ .06 kwh baseline and $.09 over baseline, the new systems cost me about $8 more a month to run. Previously I'd had single cores on 24/7 year on end. So having the duals working has been minimal. YMMV.

DaveGS4 · 08-12-07, 09:41 AM

VRAA - we need your help please

Quote:

Originally Posted by vraa

If you would do a forum wide announcement -- I'll add at least 2000 points a day to the CL team.

Infact -- if you do a forum-wide announcement and Clublexus team takes off, I'll most every other machine I have now and every other machine I get under my control to the Clublexus team!

As you can see - I'll do almost anything just for more F@H exposure

That was on 4/27.... I know you have a lot to give

Status on mbworld folding team
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&username=vraa

Quote:

Active processors (within 50 days) 21
Active processors (within 7 days) 13

Status on Clublexus folding team

Quote:

Active processors (within 50 days) 3
Active processors (within 7 days) 3

Ramon · 08-12-07, 12:42 PM

Well I guess I can't just sit idle and watch mbworld walk away from CL... I'm running the client on one of my dual core PC's at home. Not using the SMP client though becusae it's a bit buggy, instead i'm running two instances of the command line client. I'm also running one instance of the client on my dual core game server, keeping it to one on that machine becuase the other core is busy running Battlefield2. So hopefully that helps out a bit.

I have quite a few more machines that I'll add after summer, i'm thinking I can use those in lieu of turning the heater on.

Oh, FWIW, the commnad line client only uses up 13-15mb of ram it's also faster than the graphical client due to less overhead.

DaveGS4 · 08-12-07, 03:11 PM

Thanks Ramon! I'd suggest switching to the SMP client and post to get folks to help with the bugs... the points are 8x what you'll get running the two consoles.

Cheap dual core folding machine (thanks Brent)

http://officedepot.shoplocal.com/off...ceDepot-070812

Ramon · 08-12-07, 03:54 PM

I guess I should have read the instructions a bit more carefully... I had missed a step in the installation process, but now have the SMP client working on my dual core. The latest beta release of the GPU client is also much improved over the last one I tried, my windows GUI is still very responsive even with it running.

Hi im SHON · 08-12-07, 04:08 PM

i have that folding@home thing on my ps3, but never knew what it was for !