Anyone out there Folding@Home?

Sure! To describe it in the simplest possible terms, the motherboard supplies the processor with a certain voltage. Too low of a voltage causes the processor to become unstable, too much makes it run hot and consume too much power. (Way too much voltage can damage the processor.) Generally speaking, manufacturers sell computers with the voltage set higher than it really needs to be. This is particularly bad for notebook computers since they run on batteries and have very wimpy, often noisy cooling systems. (Mine sounds like a jet engine when it really gets moving.)

The good news is that we can fix it. I followed this excellent tutorial:
Undervolting a laptop | NordicHardware

Anybody who wants to give it a serious shot should read the whole thing. For me, it was well worth a few hours of my time. I decreased the maximum loaded CPU temp from 80C (waaaay too hot) to 51C (perfectly acceptable) and now the fan doesn't need to run at its super-high setting in order to keep up with the heat output. At idle the fan shuts off completely, which it never did before. (Not that it ever idles while Folding, of course.) I get longer battery life, better hardware longevity (in theory), less noise, and zero loss in performance since the chip is running at the same speed it did before. And while the effects might be less noticeable, you can do the same thing to your desktop.

As always, YMMV. My little Dell with its 1.6GHz Pentium M responded very well to this. Some computers I've played with respond less well, and still others (particularly some newer Core2 Duo machines) don't appear to need that much tweaking to begin with. There is no "XX voltage will work for XX chip" because they're all slightly different, even different examples of the same type. And while it really isn't that difficult to undervolt properly, it is possible to go too far and make the system unstable. That's why you always have to perform thorough tests of stability before you use the computer for anything important.

 

SMP Affinity Changer

Anyone interested to try out this application? There are users reporting that this application will net about 10-15% more output on your SMP folding.

You can download the application from here.

 

I understand it works well with the Intel-based processors, but it doesn't help with AMD dual processors (or at least it didn't help the times I tried it).

Welcome back, by the way! We missed your huge contributions to the team.

 

it looks like a lot of people have dropped out. its too bad that many choose to stop altogether.

if you are having overheating problems, i dont see why you can not just run the app when you are actually on the computer. there are a ton of monitors that can be installed that check CPU temps and will warn you when temps get into the danger range or before.

even a small contribution is better than nothing

 

New machine's built.

I've been stress testing and working on the overclock and cooling for the better part of a week. As of right now she's humming along at 3.65GHz and folding like a champ. Frame times look to be 11min per 1% running project 2653, which works out to about 2300ppd assuming it remains stable. (I tested thoroughly before releasing it to F@H but surprises do happen.) And while consuming about 5X the power of the laptop (which used less than 20W), it should be producing in excess of 20x the useful research. Silly to some, to me it's fantastic.

 

FAH SMP Affinity Changer

I started to run FAH SMP Affinity Changer utilities on my Q6600 and E6600 computer. According to FahMon, my PPD raised as much as 900+ PPD on the Quad Core and 400+ PPD on the Core Duo 2.

Jeannie is right about this utility. This utility do not work well with AMD Processor.

If you are running Intel Processor and using SMP client, this utility will increase your PPD output. You will need to run 2 instances of SMP client on your computer. Configure the SMP client with the proper setting, i.e. different machine id. Last, let the utility to do the magic.

 

That affinity changer utility is pretty slick. Frames are down to just a touch over 10min which is in line with what others have observed on the C2D chips.

 

Alright, I must admit that I haven't been folding. Instead I have been crunching for Rosetta through the BOINC client. The reason for the switch was that I ran into all kinds of problems uploading finished work to the Stanford servers...I think they need more bandwidth or something. It would try to upload, then gag, then try to upload again, then gag. In some cases the work got back too late to be of any use. Not worth the watts, not worth my own aggravation trying every possible option to fix it.

So far BOINC has turned out to be a really excellent client. No trouble downloading, no trouble crunching, no trouble uploading, and the Rosetta project has the same kind of value that F@H has. My machine is only working for the one project right now, but there's a number of projects to which you can donate your idle time.

BOINC

It's a shame Stanford doesn't use BOINC. The user-friendliness of it might get them a few more CPUs. It sounds like they considered developing for it but lost interest for whatever reason.

 

How do they calculate the ranking? She has "only" 755 units (which is still a helluva lot, hence the scare quotes), yet there are a half dozen folks with more (including over 1000) that rank lower. Wth?

 

Maybe I'm reading the posts wrong but this seems very hard for a geek illiterate like myself. I went to the FAH homepage and just don't get it. Should I just install and let it go without worrying if I'm "performing" correctly. Plus, I turn off the computer at night when I go to bed then it's not on again until I log back on at night. We have 3 HP Pavilion users in this family. We also have spyware and anti-virus loaded. Will this affect the "performance"?

 

Thanks for the congrats, Wildkow, but it may be premature.

As to ranking, it's based on points, not completed work units. I have 3 clients folding with multi-core processors (SMP), and those tend to earn a lot of points per work unit (example: WU 2653 is worth 1760 points) where my other 3 clients on folding with single-processors, and usually only get 200 or so points for a work unit.

As to starting to fold, Sandi, just download an 'appropriate' client, and go. I assume you're running Windows, and the easiest FAH 'client' to start with is what they used to call the GUI client, but they now call the Graphical client.

If you're not running your computer 24/7, I'd start with one of the single-core clients, even if you have a dual or quad core computer. Feel free to ask questions if you need help getting started!

You can also refer to articles in Wikipedia for help: Main Page - FaHWiki

 

thank you, i'll try tomorrow.

 

Here is my lame excuse. My FAH will be in shutdown mode until further notice. The extra spending on electricity and a new born baby cause me to cutback.

Wildkow and Jeannie, time to catch/claim up the No. 1 spot.

 

LOL! Wildkow congratulated me on reaching second place, but hes going to pass me by in a couple of weeks.

We'll miss your folding contributions, but congrats on the new baby! (My 'baby' is 30, and his older brother will soon be 38, so I can afford to run my folding rigs 24/7)

 

good lord. I haven't really been paying attention to folding or PC for about 6 months to a year, I've dropped to 9th place. Time to get my PS3 cranking again...

 

we need to get something going, we have stagnated. we are basically hovering in the same place... we will never crack 200 if someone doesnt do something