Optimizing my POS for F@H...

K

Kuo

Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2001
Messages
641
I see everyone here w/ their amazingly high PPDs... which I can't really compete against.. but I figured at the very least, I'll try to optimize my own POS (piece-of-shit) system. Casual folder if you may :D

It's a personal home machine, not a dedicated folding machine. 2-3 years old.

Asus P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Mobo
Q6600 CPU with some non-stock HSF I forget (load temps are ~65 C)
ATI HD 4850 512 MB GFX Card with stock cooling
Corsair 550 W PSU
Corsair 2x2 gigs Ram (4 gigs total)
Windows Vista 7 64-bit Ultimate

I guess the first question is what type of PPD should I be seeing? I haven't actually returned a WU from this machine yet (left it running at home last night), but HEF was estimating something in the 2500-3000 range. Is this normal, or should I be able to get more outa my machine?

I followed the stickied instructions to the letter for installing the SMP client. I tried out the GPU client too. One thing I realized -- my machine can't really run the SMP & GPU client at the same time. SMP only, I was averaging 9 mins per 1% complete for a given WU. When I loaded the GPU client w/ the SMP running, I was at 1-1.5 HOURS per 1% complete. Resources show all 4 cores at 100% load though. Weird.

At the moment, running the GPU client gets my GPU temp up to 108 C, so until I get those temps lower (clean case out, get a new HSF GPU cooler?), I'm too nervous to run F@H on the GPU. I'll be running the SMP client only instead. And even if I do get the GPU temps down, it doesn't seem effective to run SMP & GPU at same time regardless.

So, is there anything I could perhaps tweak, configure differently, setup/install differently that might be able to improve my times? And also, if I had $200 to spend, what might be the best upgrade? (Two different questions, the $200 is only a "what if" before I seriously consider it.)
 
I recommend that you stay away from the GPU client. It is horribly optimized for ATI GPU's and thus isn't worth the electricity and heat. Unless you utilize some hacks, it will also steal away a lot of cpu cycles.

Your best bet is to fold exclusively with the SMP client with the SMP flag enabled. Welcome to the team and don't ever call your system a POS ever again. The average team member on our team produces around 6500 ppd, and your C2Q system is going to be a very decent producer. We have people on our team who are folding with their old Athlon 64's and their old Intel Prescotts. While you arn't going to be producing anywhere near the realm of Bloomfields and Gulftowns, your system has plenty of folding life left in it. After all, we all do what we can and we do it for a very good cause.

If you had only $200 to spend, your best bet is getting a nVidia 460 based GPU, like the one in our giveaway contest. That GPU overclocks like crazy, has a decent power draw, and doesn't get anywhere near as hot as those 470/480 Fermis. We do know that Stanford is working on a better GPU client for ATI video cards, and we hope it comes out soon as so many of us run ATI cards.
 
I called it a POS cause when I was browsing these forums, all the active posters seem to have folding farms in their living room, so comparatively I felt very far behind =/

Well so here's the thing. HEF was estimating 3000 ppd for me. If the average member is 6500 ppd, and "[my] C2Q system is going to be a very decent producer" ... that means I'm underperforming, right? Which means perhaps settings/configs/something I can change to better get "bang for the processing buck"

And on a side note, I do have F@H running on 2 5-yr old work laptops, single client/core version. Estimated time per WU was 3 days... but something is more than nothing, right? :D Although they were pretty hot this morning, so I'm not sure 24/7 is safe with them, lol :D
 
I have a very similar system to you, Kuo (check it out in my sig!). After making esentially the same post you did I was advised to turn off the GPU client and turn on the smp client. It really does help and you end up making significantly more PPD that way.

Another thing to take note of is that your smp box will earn WAY less than HFM displays until you turn in 10 units to "Validate" your passkey or whatever. I was doing like 600pts a day, if that, till i got my 10 in, now i get 6200 if I don't mess with compute.

My current set up flags (at the end of the config process, or tacked on to the target of the shortcut are:
-smp
-verbosity 9

And again, Shut the GPU folding off on the C2Q boxen, ensure you have the SMP client installed and flag active, and that you wait till you're past 10 units!
Also, when i use my computer (SC2, etc) my ppd displayed drops down to 1.5k2.5k for games and 4.5k-5k for piddling around the internet.
 
I'm also running a Q6600. I have it overclocked anywhere between 3.4 and 3.8ghz. I usually see between 3500 and 6k PPD. I have a small watercooling setup for the cpu, so my temps aren't an issue, but my board can't really handle above 3.8. The power draw is too great.
Also folding on a GTX275, it average is around 8500 ppd.
It's my main computer, so PPD drops depending on what I do and for how long. Even though we don't have the latest equipment, the contribution adds up. I am using the machine as a SQL and web server as well. So my PPD has slowly decreased over the last couple of weeks, but its not an issue, my clients are still chugging along.

I wouldn't be too concerned with how many PPD others are doing. Just work for the best you can achieve out of what you own.
I don't know if your overclocked. But that will help quite a bit, so as long as your equipment can stand up to it, and you keep the temps in check.

For spending only 200$ the 460 is By Far your best bet.
 
Briliu said:
I have a very similar system to you, Kuo (check it out in my sig!).

I was doing like 600pts a day, if that, till i got my 10 in, now i get 6200 if I don't mess with compute.

Also, when i use my computer (SC2, etc) my ppd displayed drops down to 1.5k2.5k for games and 4.5k-5k for piddling around the internet.
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Hmm, that goes back to my concern that HFM was estimating only ~2500 PPD for me while all I was doing was standard web browsing in Firefox (mostly to look up F@H stuff! haha), ~3k PPD when just staring at HFM doing nothing else (but with Firefox open in the background).

Perhaps after this WU is done, I'll "re-install" again to see if there's something I missed somehow in the configurations.

nimbyfaygo said:
I'm also running a Q6600. I have it overclocked anywhere between 3.4 and 3.8ghz. I usually see between 3500 and 6k PPD. I have a small watercooling setup for the cpu, so my temps aren't an issue, but my board can't really handle above 3.8. The power draw is too great.

I wouldn't be too concerned with how many PPD others are doing. Just work for the best you can achieve out of what you own.

I don't know if your overclocked. But that will help quite a bit, so as long as your equipment can stand up to it, and you keep the temps in check.
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I'm @ 65-67 C at load on air non-OC'd. I was thinking those temps are a little high for a non-OC'd system, so maybe this long weekend I'll take things apart, clean things out, re-apply thermal paste, re-seat the HSF, etc. If I can get non-OC'd core temps down, then I'll look into pushing an OC. I've just really had no need in the past :D

Looking for the best of what I can achieve on my what I own is what I'm trying now :) Optimize with what I have

[edit] Oh and about the 460. Hmm, I didn't know ATI GPU thing didn't run well. And here I was thinking about getting a 2nd 4850 and CFing them :D Although I feel like my case temps might get rather hot.. and not sure a 550W PSU can support 2 CF'd 4850, lol. Slightly off topic there..
 
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nimbyfaygo said:
I wouldn't be too concerned with how many PPD others are doing. Just work for the best you can achieve out of what you own.
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I'll second that.

Thanks for being part of team [H] and your contributions to the project!
 
Kuo said:
I'm @ 65-67 C at load on air non-OC'd. I was thinking those temps are a little high for a non-OC'd system, so maybe this long weekend I'll take things apart, clean things out, re-apply thermal paste, re-seat the HSF, etc. If I can get non-OC'd core temps down, then I'll look into pushing an OC. I've just really had no need in the past :D
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If you have a B3 stepping cpu, those temps are about normal. My previous cooler was a Cooler master 212+, and it would hit 80c while folding at 3.0.

Those chips are just hot.
 
nimbyfaygo said:
If you have a B3 stepping cpu, those temps are about normal. My previous cooler was a Cooler master 212+, and it would hit 80c while folding at 3.0.

Those chips are just hot.
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Hmm, I don't remember off the top of my head what stepping I have. I'll have to check that when I get home in a few hours. I google'd normal Q6600 temps, and it seemed like most people were saying to not go over 70 C at load, because I'll essentially be at load 24/7 :D

I don't mind an OC, I just want to make sure I stay under a "safe" threshold. A new computer due to melting the previous one isn't really in my budget this year, lol.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Kuo welcome to the addiction :)

follow this guide for the CPU
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1511766

Trade that ATI card in for an NV card then youll be pushing some D :D
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Yep, that's the guide I followed yesterday to set it up. I'll "reinstall" after this WU finishes in case I missed something...

Aww, my poor ATI card, haha.

And yes, talk about addiction! I've gotten like no work done today cause I've been scouring the web reading about how F@H works and such. :X That and I'm trying to find out a way I can monitor all my machines remotely at any given time, haha.
 
is this machine for folding only? if so, have you considered linux? It's a super easy install and since you're not doing -bigadv you'll prob end up with better PPD
 
It is not. It is my personal home computer. I can't spare a machine dedicated to fold only :X Is that why I read about so many people running a virtual linux? or is that something else...
 
Kuo said:
It is not. It is my personal home computer. I can't spare a machine dedicated to fold only :X Is that why I read about so many people running a virtual linux? or is that something else...
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no forget that virtual linux stuff, that was some months ago when bigadv was only on linux and the windows client wasn't stable. Now everything works perfect on windows. :)
 
404 - File not found said:
no forget that virtual linux stuff, that was some months ago when bigadv was only on linux and the windows client wasn't stable. Now everything works perfect on windows. :)
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Hehe, nice to know. Didn't actually want to install a virtual environment just for linux just to fold... even though I probably would have.. although I think a bigadv requirement was 8 cores, which I don't have, so I guess my above sentence is all moot :D

Quick sidetrack from my own post about my main machine.. I was reading another thread here w/ some guy running FAH on some older laptop machines, which I'm doing too.

At the moment, I'm only running the standard client on them... someone on the other thread suggested the SMP client with "small" WU sizes (instead of 'big', which is what the SMP install instructions say to use).

Windows System info says: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2 Ghz, 778 Mhz, 2 gigs RAM

I have three options essentially. (1) continue running standard FAH client. (2) do that thing where I run 2 of the standard FAH clients with different machine IDs, one for each core (3) Run SMP (which is generally suggested for 4+ cores only), but run it with a "small" WU config.
 
Fold with what ya have, that's all ya can do. But that ATI car was stealinf cpu cycles from the SMP client. 4+k ppd should be easy with a q6600.
 
Kuo said:
Yep, that's the guide I followed yesterday to set it up. I'll "reinstall" after this WU finishes in case I missed something...

Aww, my poor ATI card, haha.

And yes, talk about addiction! I've gotten like no work done today cause I've been scouring the web reading about how F@H works and such. :X That and I'm trying to find out a way I can monitor all my machines remotely at any given time, haha.
Click to expand...

ok cool, well after you complete 10 WUs you will start getting the bonus points so your PPD should go up after that. :)

Also HFM.net will monitor all your machines and make a website so you can monitor remotely.
 
Kuo said:
Snip

Windows System info says: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2 Ghz, 778 Mhz, 2 gigs RAM
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Your laptop is running at a reduced speed. You need to go into your bios and turn off the speed step stuff.
 
I'd choose option 3 for your laptop. I have a smp client that runs on a core2 duo desktop @ 2Ghz that gets around 1.1k ppd. It will get pretty hot though. I ran one SMP unit through a new Dell Latitude with an i5 520m while I was settting it up.
 
Heh, welcome to the Fold. I'm running folding on two dual-Opteron 250s so don't ever talk about old! I pull an even 850 from each of them. :p Not including my desktop that I run when I'm away from home (in sig).
 
Kuo said:
Yep, that's the guide I followed yesterday to set it up. I'll "reinstall" after this WU finishes in case I missed something...

Aww, my poor ATI card, haha.

And yes, talk about addiction! I've gotten like no work done today cause I've been scouring the web reading about how F@H works and such. :X That and I'm trying to find out a way I can monitor all my machines remotely at any given time, haha.
Click to expand...

I was trying to figure out the same thing last night so I posted it up :) Here is the thread with many different ways of remote monitoring (HFM is quite powerful with regards to this!).

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1544113

Post any questions you have about it in there and I'm sure we can find some way to help :)
 
Kendrak said:
Fold with what ya have, that's all ya can do. But that ATI car was stealinf cpu cycles from the SMP client. 4+k ppd should be easy with a q6600.
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Yeah, that seems to be the news I'm getting, yet HMF was showing an estimate of 3k max. So when I get home from work, I'm going to see if the re-install helps or anything.

nitrobass24 said:
ok cool, well after you complete 10 WUs you will start getting the bonus points so your PPD should go up after that. :)
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True, but doesn't the PPD that HMF estimates include the bonus? So while my actual PPD is low, isn't HMF's estimate of 3k already a sign that maybe something I'm doing it's optimal...

mplee said:
I'd choose option 3 for your laptop. I have a smp client that runs on a core2 duo desktop @ 2Ghz that gets around 1.1k ppd. It will get pretty hot though. I ran one SMP unit through a new Dell Latitude with an i5 520m while I was settting it up.
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Heh, I probably should look up what are safe temps for my laptops and watch out for that. Perhaps do an auto-shutdown if it gets that hot while I'm not home.
 
Kuo said:
I called it a POS cause when I was browsing these forums, all the active posters seem to have folding farms in their living room, so comparatively I felt very far behind =/

Well so here's the thing. HEF was estimating 3000 ppd for me. If the average member is 6500 ppd, and "[my] C2Q system is going to be a very decent producer" ... that means I'm underperforming, right? Which means perhaps settings/configs/something I can change to better get "bang for the processing buck"

And on a side note, I do have F@H running on 2 5-yr old work laptops, single client/core version. Estimated time per WU was 3 days... but something is more than nothing, right? :D Although they were pretty hot this morning, so I'm not sure 24/7 is safe with them, lol :D
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Hey man, welcome to our team! We are not snobs here and we appreciate everyone who contributes to our folding team whether you are Mr Big or Mr. Small. Back when I first started, I was only originally folding on my laptop and these guys helped me get things going like I was producing 200k ppd when I was only able to produce about 400ppd. We all are in it because we believe in this. We started because we believe in the science, and the points are just that little added bonus that makes things more fun.
 
I just started as well on a Q6600/GTX 460 set up, and my Q6600 is supposedly getting ~6.5K ppd and the GPU is getting around 10K. The Q6600 is running @ 3.1 though (stupid B3 stepping). One thing I noticed is that even though F@H says 100% load, my temps are ~15C lower than if I were to stress test them, so I'm only hitting low 50s. Makes me want to raise my OC...
 
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I've been tempted to OC a little further with mine as well, maybe when the cooler weather comes around I will push it a little farther. Does anyone know what kind of PPD increase would be expected per 100MHz increase on a Q6600?

I had to lower my OC due to RAM issues now that I think about it, I should hop into BIOS and lower my voltage, I'm pretty sure I'm still at the same voltage I was at at 3.4GHz.... Hrm. 60C at load in a nonaircondition room though!
 
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