I recently started folding again, and I got a question about an old pc I have. Are there any special tips for ancient PCs? It takes a week to complete a single WU. Is there anyway to request smaller WUs or to optimize FAH on that PC to increase my output?
The best speed improvement is to add a new video card that supports folding. Both NVidia and ATI have excellent cards that will fold very fast, for not much money.
You need to know if you have an AGP slot or a PCI slot to add the video card. I would also check to see how big your power supply is.
Take a look at this chart as a reference tool. Just be sure that you choose the slot type correctly, and that you don't get a card that pulls too much power.
I would go for a 3850 if you could find one on sale. IMO you need at least 120 shaders and DDR3 memory to get decent speed, and therefore points. Your old system should work fine, but stay away from cards that need additional power.
If you can't get a good video card then lets do this.
Completely uninstall your existing F@H. Use Add/remove from the Control Panel.
Download the new CPU console version 6.20 (not the GUI version).
During installation select all the normal stuff - your name, team 36120, run as a service Yes.
You will have a choice of work unit sizes. Depending on the memory installed you will choose “small” or “normal”. Under 368 MB then choose “small”. 512 MB to 1 GB choose “normal”. With slow processors I don't use big even if it runs.
When you see “change advanced setting” then select Yes. Under advanced settings:
Core Priority is Low
Checkpoint is 30 minutes
and just leave the rest as is. The guide for installing the console F@H is here, about halfway down:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/cgi-bin/edit/English/WinUNIGuide
Please ping us if we can help.