sign me up...

[scottatwittenberg]

so yeah.. i haven't folded yet... but i am going to get off my ass get my hands dirty and put about 4 computers to work here.. my mom is paying the electric bill and the computers are on 24/7 anyways... so what do i have to lose?

umm.. i am going to start readoing.. but how do i get started?

are there many different programs for folding? just one? the computers will all be running XP except 1 that runs 2k... what do you reccomend?

thanks

scott

 

[JonasSteele]

Well welcome to the fold,

The programs or "Clients" are available for download at Stanford Universities website. The general majority of current users strongly urge you to avoid the screensaver only version. In most cases it will reduce performance and generaly not serve you well. The console only version is reccomended.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

A popular add-on program that allows you to easily monitor, start and hide the folding client is Electron Microscope III. It is an all around great program to use alongside the standard Folding client.

http://www.em-dc.com/

A popular add-on program that allows you to easily run Fold@Home console client and virtually any Win32 application as a service is FireDaemon. FireDaemon though commercial is supplied in a free "Lite" version (with limited functionality for non-commercial use), however the free "lite" version will serve it's purpose for Fold@Home.

http://www.firedaemon.com/

There are a lot of great people in the forums of most any team who will be happy to answer any question that you may have.

If you have a P4 with HT it is encourged that you run two console clients and use FireDaemon or a similar program to assign it to CPU 1&2. If you have dual HT processors make that times four.

As for setup i.e the flags:

-config :- Configure user infomation.
-configonly :- Configure user infomation, then exit.
-queueinfo :- Get information on queued work units.
-delete x :- Delete item #x from work queue.
-send x :- Send result #x to server. use x=all to send all results.
-verbosity x :- Sets the output level, from 1 to 9. The default is 3.
-pause :- Pause after finishing & trying to send current unit.
-oneunit :- Exit after completing one unit.
-forceasm :- Force core assembly optimizations to be used if available.
-forceSSE :- Force SSE use (on every unit regardless of success) if available.
-advmethods :- Use new advanced scientific cores and/or work units if available.
-service :- Run in service mode (for programs such as firedaemon).
-local :- Use configuration files from local directory.

For my AMD's I just use -forceSSE and -local on my duallies.
That way I am more likely to get Tinkers which fold faster.
If I had any Intel's I would add the -advmethods flag to try and get DGromacs which again fold faster.
If you want more output in your log file then set the -verbosity flag higher.

Welcome to the fold and fold on...!


JonasSteele

2111 Points and Climing

 

[scottatwittenberg]

i just put the graphical client on this computer.. i am going to play with the console one next.. it was easier than i thought to start..

i got #2 going... trying to get EM to work becasue i got this console just sitting there that i can't send to the taskbar or anything

what do cpu info and box name mean?? what does box mean? does EM control multiple comptuers if i want it to? i could do that, they are networked...

it won't go... before when the console was running, i was at 100% cpu.. now it at 10.. it won't GO... i added a box, the box path is c:\fh3\ and i selected the "FAH4Console.exe" file...

 

[RagingSamster]

Make sure to join team #33 and sign up over @ hardfolding.com

(And if you want, you can isert the username "ragingsamster" you get an almost 20K points boost for using that name )

 

[scottatwittenberg]

i have to sign up at hardfolding.com? i just put team 33 in...

i signed up.. but it wanted to know how many cpus i am using, how many ghz, shit like that.. i don't know... it is going to change... so i just guessed.. and i still don't know if it worked...

 

[rogue_jedi]

actually, folding doesn't like HT much, so if you have HT on a folding box it doesn't do much good to run 2 copies (i think it is actually slower then)

you can change the cpu # and all that later on when it changes. make sure you get your colored [H] link!

http://www.mentallyretired.com/h/index.cfm/u_USER NAME HERE.gif

wrap that in a hyperlink to hardfolding.com and put IMG tags on it. then just put your folding username in there and insert into posts as you wish.

good luck!

 

[JonasSteele]

i got #2 going... trying to get EM to work becasue i got this console just sitting there that i can't send to the taskbar or anything

what do cpu info and box name mean?? what does box mean? does EM control multiple comptuers if i want it to? i could do that, they are networked...

it won't go... before when the console was running, i was at 100% cpu.. now it at 10.. it won't GO... i added a box, the box path is c:\fh3\ and i selected the "FAH4Console.exe" file...

1) In order to hide the console you'll need either Firedaemon as listed above or another hiding client, firdaemon also allows you to set the console up as a service to start when windows does.. out of sight out of mind.

2) in EM III cpu info usually lists the speed of your processor, not always auto detected so it may say unknown. Box name is the name in EM III you assign to each monitored instance i.e I am JonasSteele running 2 consoles I track them in EM III as JS1 and JS2 it's just a label.. Can't help you on the network control question I am after all only 2 weeks into this...

3) I would suggest reading the Manual for EM III

Cheers

JonasSteele

2157 Points and Climing

 

[JonasSteele]

actually, folding doesn't like HT much, so if you have HT on a folding box it doesn't do much good to run 2 copies (i think it is actually slower then)

In a recent post others tended to think otherwise...

I believe if you leave HT on and run 2 instances of folding you will see about a 15% gain in productivity. If I am wrong on the numbers someone will correct me.

That is my understanding. I could be wrong too though.

That sounds about right

....... It takes two instances to take advantage of HT. HT allows multiple threads to be worked on at one time, hence the advantage. Running a single thread (instance of FAH) is only going to run on one virtual CPU and give you no advantage.......

Some say yes some say no.. I think HT helps...

JonasSteele

2157 Points and Climing

 

[scottatwittenberg]

none of my computers have HT.. so i don't have to worry about that...

i can't sign up at hardfolding.com// i sign in, and it says "welcome guest" do i have to use my hardforum name?

 

[budec]

You have 3 user names.

One for the Hard forums (here )

One at Standford for your Folding at home client (that's the name you put in the configuation box)

One at hardfolding.com (you'll have to create a new account).

 

[scottatwittenberg]

it won't let me create one at hardfolding.com... i can't figure out why... and how does hardfolding.com track your progress?

 

[Mattman]

Welcome to the team scottatwittenberg! The hardfolding.com stuff is just for our own fun - you enter your info and it gets added into the team members database. Your progress (in WU's and points) is tracked based on information that the hardfolding site downloads from Stanford, not on what you enter. If you go to the stats page, you should be able to find your name on there to see how you're doing even if you don't enter any information into the [H]orde Members page. Have we straightened everything out for you or do you need more info?

 

[Carnival Forces]

ahh, sorry to hijack your thread a bit, but i just decided to switch to the console version; i don't understand how to change the flags? someone enlighten me please?

 

[Mattman]

Carnival,
To add flags, just put them at the end of the command line. It's something like this:
C:\F@H\FAH4CONSOLE.EXE -ADVMETHODS -FORCESSE -SERVICE
If you've got spaces in your path you might need quotes around everything before the flags.

 

[BillR]

And beyond all the good tech support here, I too would like to welcome you aboard, just keep in mind it's and addictive sport

BillR

 

[Carnival Forces]

Carnival,
To add flags, just put them at the end of the command line. It's something like this:
C:\F@H\FAH4CONSOLE.EXE -ADVMETHODS -FORCESSE -SERVICE
If you've got spaces in your path you might need quotes around everything before the flags.

thanks a bunch

 

[Carnival Forces]

how come my "Time Remaining" on EMIII isn't showing? does it take a while to benchmark and figure it out ?

 

[Carnival Forces]

nevermind, it's working now

 

[wraieghaeien]

Yah, depending on if EMIII is lookin over the network, or where in a frame the client is on ive seen it take a few minutes at times to load up all the information from the client so that I can display all its stats.