Optimized folding use for newbie?

[Raycaster]

I spent a few hours last night trying to wrap my head around all the folding@home options and still am a bit dizzy.

I have 4 machines + 2 laptops (wireless) available.

1) AMD 1090T 8G RAM NVIDIA GTX 260 (WIN7X64)
2) AMD ATHLON 64 3800+ 2G RAM NVIDA 7800 (WHS)
3) AMD ATHLON DUAL 4200+ 2G RAM NVIDIA 9600GT (WIN7)
4) Intel P4 2.8 2G RAM NVIDIA GTS8800 (WINXP)

5) Intel Dual T3200@2Ghz 3G RAM Mobile GFX (WIN7)
6) AMD 64 3800+ 2G RAM (WINXP)

The machines are running so far:

1) folding@home.exe -smp -bigadv (&PASSKEY) AND running GPU2
2) folding@home.exe
3) GPU2

I have a badge and things seem to be working but kinda thought the 1090T would be pumping out more? I don't think even with every machine folding in the house I'll come close to 1/2 million points?

Thank you for being patient.

 

[SazanEyes]

Your 8800GTS will fold, but if it's the old G80 model it will run very hot. Everything else looks good, but I don't know if the 1090T can complete bigadv in time or not. Someone else will chime in, I'm sure.

edit: You should probably run SMP on the 4200+. Also, if you haven't completed 10 SMP work units yet, you won't be getting bonus points. You definitely want to complete 10 SMP before you start bigadv.

 

[Tobit]

Everything else looks good, but I don't know if the 1090T can complete bigadv in time or not. Someone else will chime in, I'm sure.

The 1090T is a hex core and would never get any bigadv units assigned to it even if it could run them. It'll run standard A3's quite well however.

 

[404 - File not found]

1090T should still be good for ~300.000 points per month
GTX 260 ~210.000 points per month
Those two are great efficient producers.

GTS8800 ~90.000 points per month
Ok producer.
The rest will produce less points, since folding@home favors fast machines.

Fold on!

 

[Raycaster]

Thank you tons guys for the replies.

So, running -bigadv really won't help? The 1090T has been running all cores 100% since I started it yesterday. The 1090T completes 1% approx. every 4 minutes 10 sec.I've run the 1090T for about 24hrs and the WHS for 12hours and just started the dual 4200 a few hours back.

My latest stats are:



Looks right?

Is it normal to run GPU2 along with CPU folding@home.exe?

I'm going to add the other machines and see what updates.

Again thx guys.

 

[amdgamer]

Welcome to the team! If you choose to fold on your laptop, I highly recommend that you get a temperature monitoring program like CoreTemp to make sure things are manageable. When I folded on my laptop, I ended up having to drop cpu utilization in the configuration down to 55% to keep temperatures below 70 degrees C.

If you havn't folded 10 SMP units yet with your passkey, you'll need to complete that first in order to get the bonus. Let us know how well you do. Have you thought about overclocking your Thuban? You will need a good air cooler, but it overclocks well and produces more when overclocked.

On #3, the star of the show is your 9600GT and i'm not sure if you could meet the deadlines running the SMP client. You could give it a try though and see what happens, although you could always just run the uniprocessor client in the background. You could also run the classic uniprocessor client on 6 as well.

Unfortunately you will not be able to run bigadv because it requires a minimum of an 8 core processor. The Core i7's are able to run it because it is a quad core processor that is detected as an 8 core processor by the folding client due to hyperthreading.

I spent a few hours last night trying to wrap my head around all the folding@home options and still am a bit dizzy.

I have 4 machines + 2 laptops (wireless) available.

1) AMD 1090T 8G RAM NVIDIA GTX 260 (WIN7X64)
2) AMD ATHLON 64 3800+ 2G RAM NVIDA 7800 (WHS)
3) AMD ATHLON DUAL 4200+ 2G RAM NVIDIA 9600GT (WIN7)
4) Intel P4 2.8 2G RAM NVIDIA GTS8800 (WINXP)

5) Intel Dual T3200@2Ghz 3G RAM Mobile GFX (WIN7)
6) AMD 64 3800+ 2G RAM (WINXP)

The machines are running so far:

1) folding@home.exe -smp -bigadv (&PASSKEY) AND running GPU2
2) folding@home.exe
3) GPU2

I have a badge and things seem to be working but kinda thought the 1090T would be pumping out more? I don't think even with every machine folding in the house I'll come close to 1/2 million points?

Thank you for being patient.

 

[lehmann]

All your duel cores will run smp. you will need to do a manuel setup and only except small wu's(work unites) this will keep you away from a couple very big wu's that bog down even a i7. now someone point him to the proper guide.

 

[SazanEyes]

So, running -bigadv really won't help? The 1090T has been running all cores 100% since I started it yesterday. The 1090T completes 1% approx. every 4 minutes 10 sec.

The client is ignoring the -bigadv flag because it doesn't have enough cores, so it's only running standard SMP. You can remove the -bigadv flag. Once you've completed ten WUs, you should see your actual points at hardfolding.com increase to match what HFM.net indicates.

Is it normal to run GPU2 along with CPU folding@home.exe?

Yes, it's fine with two exceptions. One exception is ATI cards, which use a lot of CPU and are therefore discouraged unless you implement some hacks. The other exception is SMP bonus WUs. Because GPU F@H steals a few CPU cycles, sometimes the points lost from the SMP bonus can be bigger than the gain from running the GPU. However, this normally only applies to high-end systems (multiple processors) and/or many GPU clients.

lehmann is right that even ignoring the big SMP units with bonuses, your older dual-core CPUs will produce more points running SMP than with the classic uniprocessor client. Following the setup guide, in step 5 choose 'small' as the WU size.

 

[W.Feather]

ive got a simialr setup to your 1090T....

your 1090T should push anywhere from 6-10k ppd.....at stock

the 260, anywhere from 5-7k ppd is what ive seen mine at.....all stock clocked

hope these help ya figure out what you should pull

 

[Raycaster]

Everything seems to be on par with what others have said on the forum.

4-5 Machines and even 24/7 doesn't look like any chance to meet the 1 million points per month contest requirement, oh well. Too bad can't use -bigadv for bonuses!

1) AMD 1090T -smp PPD:10515 + GTX 260 PPD:7803
2) WHS Machine - 85% - no WU yet PPD:NA
3) Dual 4200+ -smp PPD:361 + 9600GT PPD:NA
4) 8800 GT PPD: 3812
5) Dual T3200 -smp PPD:NA
6) Athlon 64 3800+ (May not use, on it's last legs already)

I'm using HFM.NET to monitor but having problems with a few of the log folders throwing permission errors at me even though I set them to SHARE in WIN7.

eg. The WHS has the folding@Home folder set to share and is seen on the network no problem. But when I try to access the folder I get the permission denial requestor.

Just networking permission problems, working on it. Seemed easier with XP...

 

[DooKey]

Even though it appears you can't meet the deadline for the computer giveaway, you can meet the GTX 460 requirement easily. Keep folding for the science and enter the video card give away as a bonus.

The [H]orde is going to try to give away a GTX 460 a month as long as we can. Stick around.


Fold On!

 

[Raycaster]

Will Do DooKey! Thank you for the patience as I'm sure all newbie questions are answered in the guides but a little hand holding goes a long way.

Now if I could just convince my wife (head librarian at local high school) to allow me to use the 40 i5s that just got installed...

 

[Moonjock]

hmmm 40 i5s? doo it!

 

[APOLLO]

Now if I could just convince my wife (head librarian at local high school) to allow me to use the 40 i5s that just got installed...

OMG, there must be something you can offer to convince her of the borg...

 

[amdgamer]

Will Do DooKey! Thank you for the patience as I'm sure all newbie questions are answered in the guides but a little hand holding goes a long way.

Now if I could just convince my wife (head librarian at local high school) to allow me to use the 40 i5s that just got installed...

If you decide to try to get her to run the folding client, make sure she gets permission from the school first. There is an old thread somewhere, but people have lost their jobs before for borging a system without getting proper authorization from their bosses. The problem is that most institutions are generally not enthusiastic about using their resources(hardware, electricity, etc...) for something they view as a hobby.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Everything seems to be on par with what others have said on the forum.

4-5 Machines and even 24/7 doesn't look like any chance to meet the 1 million points per month contest requirement, oh well. Too bad can't use -bigadv for bonuses!

1) AMD 1090T -smp PPD:10515 + GTX 260 PPD:7803
2) WHS Machine - 85% - no WU yet PPD:NA
3) Dual 4200+ -smp PPD:361 + 9600GT PPD:NA
4) 8800 GT PPD: 3812
5) Dual T3200 -smp PPD:NA
6) Athlon 64 3800+ (May not use, on it's last legs already)

I'm using HFM.NET to monitor but having problems with a few of the log folders throwing permission errors at me even though I set them to SHARE in WIN7.

eg. The WHS has the folding@Home folder set to share and is seen on the network no problem. But when I try to access the folder I get the permission denial requestor.

Just networking permission problems, working on it. Seemed easier with XP...

on system 3 i recommend removing the -SMP flag change the smp folder name to smp2 then install the smp client again(leave the original one installed).. so you will have 2 clients installed... run them as single core clients without the smp flag.. you will end up getting about the same amount of points but at least you will know you will make the deadline on the WU's.. that system running SMP will not make the deadlines on the smp WU's at 361 PPD.. same thing goes with the last 2 systems on your list..

the 8800GT if you can overclock it and temps are decent it.. set it to 600/1728/900 or 1782 on the shaders.. should gain about 800-1000 PPD..

 

[Raycaster]

I switched the Dual Core 4200+ as suggested to 2 single clients without the -smp flag but they both now are rated at around 68 PPD...

They have not completed a WU since switching, working on a (72%)6503 and (58%)6507. The PPD will change after completion?

The reason for the switch is due to the WU not getting done on time? But the deadline for both projects are more than 2 weeks away? Seems to be tons of time but I'm probably reading this wrong?

 

[SazanEyes]

For SMP units, both the absolute deadline and bonus cutoff can be short. I'm running a P6053 now and the bonus cutoff is three days and the absolute deadline is 6 days. If you can't meet the bonus cutoff, then you might as well run the single clients to be sure you make the overall deadline. Plus, if you are running the 9600GT on the same system, you won't have to worry about it slowing down the SMP client.