Want to possibly get back into folding

Hallis

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,556
Hi Team [H]. It's been a while since i folded last but wanted to see if any of this spare gear I have sitting around is worth installing any of the current folding software on.

I've got several Dell Poweredge servers. R710, R610, R810, etc. Most are dual s1366 Xeons, some quad, some hex core. And one newer Poweredge with 4x octa core CPU's in it. They've just been sitting under the desk gathering dust. They may not even really be capable of doing any worth while work units but wanted to ask those of you who keep up with that stuff what you thought.

Thanks
 
Well if you are talking about Folding@home i would say its not worth it to run that on CPU's and hasn't been for a long time. A single low to mid range GPU could out perform all of your CPU's in FAH with ease and spend way less power doing it.
That being said there are lots of other worthwhile projects that could take advantage of your CPU's A popular choice would be to install the BOINC software and run something like World Community Grid which is CPU only and would do well. If you like the goals of Folding@home then you will likely appreciate a project such as World community grid for its fight against things like Cancer / Aids and other diseases.
 
Those are still very decent hardware to run CPU projects. Not worth folding with CPU anymore. Those days are gone.

If you are looking for good bio-medical projects, WCG which stands for World Community Grid is hosted by IBM is one of the popular choices. Our daily team stat can be found here or here. Other CPU bio-medical project such as Rosetta is worth considering.

If you just like to help our team in Formula BOINC races, just pick any projects that are listed here in our forum. Note some projects have ended.

Any question, just post it here or search in our DC forum.
 
I said Folding but I guess I should have just said distributed computing in general. O did F@H and SETI way back in the day. I don't know what projects are good to try on what hardware anymore since it's been a LONG time since i bothered with it. Probably at least 6-7 years if not a decade.

Not looking to get into any GPU folding just yet as I just have the one old GTX 970 in my gaming machine. If I upgrade to something new I may look back into GPU folding.

But yeah BOINC is certainly an option. WCG sounds cool. Rosetta, etc. I'll get these machines set back up in a rack and get operating systems on them. Is there any advantage to running Windows over Linux or vice versa? area ny of the things you mentioned benefit from faster IO with an SSD over a spinner?
 
No need for SSD in almost all cases. Linux is faster in most projects. Good to have you back and crunching!
 
Is there any advantage to running Windows over Linux or vice versa?
Yes. For WCG, open zika, Fight against Aids and Help stop TB sub projects have advantage with Linux over Windows. I think choose the projects that you like first and I'm sure some of us here can give guide you along the way.
 
SSD would help if you expand to the projects that utilize Virtualbox for their applications. So, if you have the drives already, then yes use them. Rosetta (IIRC) can put a heavy IO on the hard drive when several instances start up as well. Just food for thought. My boss at work picks up WD green SSD's for like $25 a piece for 120GB drives now. So, it should be an affordable enough upgrade to be worth the performance gain. So, it really just depends on what you end up deciding to support. WCG also has a new climate application coming down the pipeline. No idea what it will require when it starts up.

Oh, and if you don't have a WCG account yet, use this link: https://join.worldcommunitygrid.org?recruiterId=338542&teamId=BP5XNJBR9N1

It will assign you to the correct team automatically.
 
Thank you. It's a lot to sift through. I'll get some linux installs set up. I don't think I want to worry about Virtual Box Unless it becomes advantageous to split up clients based on number of threads uses. (say if a client only can use a max of 4 threads then there's no desire for me to install it on my 64 thread machine unless it's on ~16 individual 4 thread VM's.) I have a few SSD's laying around from previous projects that I could set these up on. So no additional outlay in cost.
 
The Virtualbox projects send out the VM's as work units, so you don't create them. The number of threads depends on the project, the work unit, and whether you set up a config file to force a limitation or not. Only thing you have to do is install virtualbox along with BOINC.
 
Gilthanis I used your link to sign up for WCG and just installed on a test machine. Just a little linux install on a spare desktop to get a handle of the setup and operation before i attempt to deploy it on the big machines. May try some of the other stuff too. That's the good thing about having all these old machines, lol.
 
I'm not a Linux guy but I'm pretty good at copy/pasting commands, lol. The install/setup on the WCG page got me up and running. crunching a WU right now on the little old test box... ETA.. 4 hours, LOL it's just an old quad core i7 of some kind I picked out of the trash at work.
 
Last edited:
Yeah...the bank I work for is cycling out Optiplex 7010's, 790's, 390's, and 3010's right now. Mostly i5's in the 3rd gen range. Good solid boxes but have lived their accounting life cycle. It is a shame that a lot of them go to the ecycler because I cannot find enough homes for them. Nobody wants desktops any more.
 
I wish I were... Even the "poor" individuals that constantly have their hands out are getting overly picky these days.
 
I used to get a bunch of laptops as well. Everybody I knew that needed one got one. The laptops were pretty closely inventoried so those didn't go into the normal junk pile but I purchased my fair share of them for almost nothing. I still daily drive one as a general usage machine because it uses much less power than my gaming box. (which, consequently had gone down and now I have the video card in one of the desktop machines i got from work, lol. and it games fine.) I'm waiting for the new nvidia super cards to hit the shelves to see what the retail bundles look like before putting a new rig together.

But yeah. Most of the desktops that they're tossing lately are core2duo and earlier. But I always pick through the recycle pile. That's where I found this box that i'm crunching on now. Couldn't believe they tossed an i7 but they probably refreshed the entire department. As well as some DDR3 that I threw into a gaming machine im putting together for my girlfriend's son. Better it go to some good use than to whatever electronics recycler scrap merchants give the company for it.
 
Yeah...the bank I work for is cycling out Optiplex 7010's, 790's, 390's, and 3010's right now. Mostly i5's in the 3rd gen range. Good solid boxes but have lived their accounting life cycle. It is a shame that a lot of them go to the ecycler because I cannot find enough homes for them. Nobody wants desktops any more.

I5 would be a nice upgrade for my FIL
 
Well I have a few units turned in. Tweaked some of the in-client settings to up the percentage of CPU time used. If I have some time tonight I may deploy to one of the server chassis. I really hope I have time lol because i'm tired of not having enough time to get stuff done that I want to do instead of other people's action items. lol.

Either way it's a few computing cycles added to the team count
 
Last edited:
I do have a spare Nvidia Quadro 2000 (not the newer P2000) that I can slide into that machine as well. Will WCG utilize it? Or could I install a GPU only program to crunch on another project?
 
WCG does not currently have any GPU capable sub projects. You should put that to use at another project. With such a low number of CUDA cores, I don't know if anyone would say they are worth running. However, I tend to run a lot of old gear many deem not worth it. I keep a project list somewhat up to date that you can refence here: https://hardforum.com/threads/all-inclusive-dc-project-list-v-2.1895029/

I typically recommend GPUGrid if you want to stay with BIO/Medical. That low of a card may have trouble making deadlines or may not be powerful enough anymore. Otherwise, you will see that Collatz is a point whores wonderland for GPU's. But we will welcome contributions for the team in any of the projects.
 
WCG does not currently have any GPU capable sub projects. You should put that to use at another project. With such a low number of CUDA cores, I don't know if anyone would say they are worth running. However, I tend to run a lot of old gear many deem not worth it. I keep a project list somewhat up to date that you can refence here: https://hardforum.com/threads/all-inclusive-dc-project-list-v-2.1895029/

I typically recommend GPUGrid if you want to stay with BIO/Medical. That low of a card may have trouble making deadlines or may not be powerful enough anymore. Otherwise, you will see that Collatz is a point whores wonderland for GPU's. But we will welcome contributions for the team in any of the projects.

Roger that. This stuff isn't really worth trying to sell so I figured i'd try to compute with it if i could.
 
So in regards to maximizing the efficiency of my machines. I have seen some threads where certain projects run better on just physical cores with HT disabled. Is WCG one of those? By default I run with HT enabled on everything as it stands right now.
 
Well the test rig has been running pretty stable for a few days. Pulled a spare laptop out of the pile (Core i7) and did a linux install for WCG and it got pretty hot pretty fast. The exhaust was uncomfortably hot, lol. I had to turn the processor usage percentages way down. But I may tweak it a bit and leave that one running. I've got a few old Core i7 laptops that i'm not doing anything with.
 
Well I have it going on some of the server hardware. Just threw the client on the Server 2008 R2 install that was on there. Will probably reinstall Linux at some point this weekend. I won't have ANY time to mess with stuff util Sunday, unfortunately

Capture.PNG
 
laptops are not well suited for CPU intensive DC. If you pick up some cheap laptop cooler pads that they sit on, they will help quite a bit. Otherwise, on the laptops just run them with HT off and it will help with temps. I just let mine cook as they are so old they aren't worth worrying about.

Also, two more project you should add to ALL of your machines are WUProp and GoofyxGrid - NCI

http://nci.goofyxgridathome.net/
https://wuprop.boinc-af.org/

Those will run alongside all of your other work units without taking anything away from them. NCI stands for Non-CPU intensive. You will find that you can rack up a ton of points by running multiple instances of the NCI project GoofyxGrid but I only recommend you do that if you don't mind doing a little legwork. Not to mention, the science isn't really all that useful. https://hardforum.com/threads/goofyxgrid-multi-client-setup.1924298/

Old laptops that aren't worth running other projects are great for running 250 instances (1,000 work units at a time) of GoofyxGrid....lol.
 
I'll give those a look just for giggles. I'm really more interested in calculations for science :)

These laptops are all ones I picked up for almost nothing from work when they were retired. So if I burn them down there's no real big loss. They aren't worth much cash.
 
I just wanted to say thanks to OP and all who provided such great info in this thread! This past Saturday I was telling my wife about F@H that I has participated in years ago. She is a STEM teacher at an elementary school and loves projects that use technology in someone to help people. So I came here to start a thread just like OP's, and found everything I needed.
I've already signed up with WCG, with both my home server and gaming PC working on projects now. Now the plan is to put a small system together for her classroom, so she can teach the class about the process and give them a sense of involvement in helping.

Thanks again everyone!
 
I just wanted to say thanks to OP and all who provided such great info in this thread! This past Saturday I was telling my wife about F@H that I has participated in years ago. She is a STEM teacher at an elementary school and loves projects that use technology in someone to help people. So I came here to start a thread just like OP's, and found everything I needed.
I've already signed up with WCG, with both my home server and gaming PC working on projects now. Now the plan is to put a small system together for her classroom, so she can teach the class about the process and give them a sense of involvement in helping.

Thanks again everyone!

I'm glad that somebody else is also able to benefit from my re-emergence in distributed computing. One thing I can confirm is that on like PC's Linux does yeild better CPU crunching results. But I haven't tried an install on a machine with a good enough GPU to work on. My Gaming machine is Windows and has a GTX970 in it but I am not crunching on it. Only some spare laptops, desktops, and eventually some socket 1366 Xeon servers.

The Boinc Task app (in my earlier screenshot) is a little clunky in its communication but otherwise extremely valuable, it keep me from having to baby sit all of my rigs to see how they're doing.
 
I just wanted to say thanks to OP and all who provided such great info in this thread! This past Saturday I was telling my wife about F@H that I has participated in years ago. She is a STEM teacher at an elementary school and loves projects that use technology in someone to help people. So I came here to start a thread just like OP's, and found everything I needed.
I've already signed up with WCG, with both my home server and gaming PC working on projects now. Now the plan is to put a small system together for her classroom, so she can teach the class about the process and give them a sense of involvement in helping.

Thanks again everyone!

Glad to have you onboard and glad our info was helpful. If you have any questions/concerns just let us know. :)
 
I have a 970 that is working 24/7 right now its on MOO wraper and it makes around 300K per day points. Its also does pretty good on GPU grid (relatively speaking certainly nothing like my 10 series cards) I run it at 60% power target and it much more reasonable heat and power wise that way.
 
I have a 970 that is working 24/7 right now its on MOO wraper and it makes around 300K per day points. Its also does pretty good on GPU grid (relatively speaking certainly nothing like my 10 series cards) I run it at 60% power target and it much more reasonable heat and power wise that way.

I looked at both of those projects last night. I may get a GPUgrid install up and test that out. It looks pretty cool. I have an RX470 on the way that should be delivered today that I bought from a fellow [H] member. I was going to put it into a gaming PC that i'm putting together for my girlfriend's 13 year old son but he's been a bit of an asshole to her lately so I may just put the box on DC duty in the meantime until I decide if he deserves it or now.
 
GPUGrid is actually chosen for a 3 day sprint we typically participate in. https://hardforum.com/threads/formula-boinc-2019.1974162/ I've been on the road all day so haven't had a chance to update the thread yet. MIGHT be able to do it tomorrow as I will be on the road again AND is my daughter's 6th birthday tomorrow.

Oh...and I still have 2 970's that I run when temps are cooler.
 
Yes. For WCG, open zika, Fight against Aids and Help stop TB sub projects have advantage with Linux over Windows. I think choose the projects that you like first and I'm sure some of us here can give guide you along the way.

So I've picked up an old Dell R620-E16S that I just added some drives to. Is there a particular Linux Distro that is preferred? I'm mostly a linux noob, but can google any necessary commands.
 
Back
Top