FR Folding@Home Project Update -- The Need for Speed (#56 - 19,000,000 Points)

Stanford University Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project ^ | 02/02/2007 | Stanford University

[texas booster]

OK, new thread for the next week, celebrating 100,000 Work Units!

First, a big shout out to the SETI and BOINC members who have added CPUs to the effort. Remember, its Team 36120, NOT Team 0.

Next, congrats to all for bumping our team up to 1040 processors and 420 user names.

We now have 29 members who have contributed at least 100,000 points each. Woo-Hoo!

Even more impressive, our team now boasts 342 members who have folded at least 1,000 points. That is more than the entire number of folders for our erstwhile left-wing environazi competitors!

Free Republic Folding@Home Stats Page

On the global front, Free Republic Folders is now listed at # 56. We will be in the Top 50 within 6 months!

Thanks again to all that are helping us advance science and promote the peaceful use of computers.

[texas booster]

This thread will focus on our desire to each BE NUMBER 1! How can we each earn more points from the computers we already have?

We have watched Egon flying like an eagle, soaring all the way to over 2,000 points per day. Alas, his Ferrari has been returned to the rental shop and he must now obey posted speed limits. (He borrowed his brothers dual core Mac and folded with the SMP client for a week). Way cool.

JosephW has installed a new ATI X1950 Pro video card and has seen a terrific jump in points. A fairly straight forward upgrade that is really paying off.

HKMk23 rebuilt a system that was overheating in a fancy computer desk so that it could fold at 100% and not endure Early Unit Ends.

Texas Booster started folding on an old AMD system and nearly burned it up trying to coax an extra bit of speed.

Please post your questions on faster folding, and FReepers will try to help speed up your systems, without watching your computer catch on fire!

[texas booster]

Folding@Home FAQ for new users:

What is Folding@Home? A Stanford University project to find out how proteins fold.

Why it's important: Proteins folding wrong causes all kinds of diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and forms of cancer. Folding@Home uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. Through Folding@home, scientists now have the horsepower to study the mechanics of protein folding. With its ability to share the workload among hundred of thousands of computers economically, Folding@home can help scientists understand how proteins snap, or don't, into their predestined shapes - and may help to explain the origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's and apparently unrelated diseases. We're fueling research that could end all that.

How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.

Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.

How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired username.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.

How can my computer help? Even if they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.

There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.

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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!

Another Folding Clip

Folding@home Client Download

FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats

Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic

Another Stats Page

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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos

Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12

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Other Useful Stuff - Links

How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits

Stat Image Generator

Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software

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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30

[texas booster]

End of week folding ping!

[texas booster]

End of week folding ping!

Post questions here so you can get the most out of folding.

[texas booster]

End of week folding ping!

Post questions here so you can get the most out of folding.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[A.Hun]

Hey texas! Thanks for the regular updates.

[texas booster]

Let us know if we can help you speed up your system, have a bake sale to buy a new dual core system or help you borg neighbor's computers!

How long ago did you start folding with us?

[A.Hun]

I started when ya'll first called for Folding....I left SETI. I've got two business computers folding, plus my wifes laptop and my home computer.

If I ever get time, I've got three more older systems I'm going to devote to folding, plus I'll be upgrading mine to something very hot.

I don't mind using my slack processing to advance medical science. It is a very easy way to help!

[Egon]

My shameless self-promotion for this thread:

If you're interested in tracking your folding machine(s) over the web, please Freepmail me.

Available features include:

• Timely snapshot of each machine's progress on it's current project
• Point values for project
• Estimated completion dates/times
• Warning indicators for machines that appear to have stopped communicating or folding
• Warnings for machines that won't make their deadline
• Team ranking status box (courtesy of EOC)
• Machine stats like PPD (points per day)
• Project comparison stats: PPD, average time taken to completion, etc.
• It's free-- and always will be
• ...other features as time permits, and people request

[prophetic]

Well now I've gone and done it!

I've ordered a SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB from the Eggmasters and I'm awaiting delivery next week. Maybe this will add approx 600 Points Per Day (PPD) on top of my production.

FYI my main cpu is a Opteron dual core 170 at 2.70 GHZ with 2 FAH sessions running. When I get the new video card I'll just run one FAH client and the GPU session.

[texas booster]

That's some serious hardware!

Kepe an eye on the 256 MB version of the X1950. Some folks on folding forums think that you need 512 MB of video RAM ...

[texas booster]

Run one GPU at 90%, dedicate a core to that GPU and let 'er rip. Add in the second CPU once the GPU is set up and optimized.

Check out these threads for more info:

http://forum.folding-community.org/forum54,windows-gpu-client-core-issues.html

[GoldCountryRedneck]

A techie question....

Setting the priority to 'High' via the Windows Task Manager has no, or little, effect all.

I've read that the tasking priority can be set manually - but that post didn't say how.

Anybody know exactly the run parameters? And is rebooting the only way to reset it?

Thanks in advance....

p.s. Been at #92 for months. :)

[texas booster]

The priority is set when you install F@H. However, if you are running the GUI version (little red flower in the bottom right corner) you can open F@H, click on Configure and look at the Advanced tab.

The only two priorities allowed are Lowest Possible and Slightly higher. F@H is, after all, a specialized screen saver.

From experience:

Set the CPU usage to as high as the system can tolerate

Turn off the screen saver

Set the monitor to blank after 15 minutes if someone is worried about screen burn-in

Make sure that the power saving mode is set up Off - do not let the system go to Stand By or Hibernate.

F@H will take all unused CPU cycles automatically, and give them back when needed. I keep several systems that are used frequently, so they are not available for 100% folding. F@H co-exists with everything that I throw at it.

The next post will cover the console.

[GoldCountryRedneck]

The priority is set when you... click on Configure and look at the Advanced tab.

Thanks; have had it 'at the top' from the beginning.

Guess I'll have to save my lunch money for one of them fancy new GPU cards.

[stylin19a]

foldin 'em over here, boss !

my wife just picked up a nice little sony notebook
told her I have to *Ahem* upgrade it.

working on it now...

hope to have another CPU in the pipeline by tonight

[Drango]

All systems (3) foldin' away bump.

[texas booster]

Remember that on notebooks you want to watch the heat issues.

If she always keeps it pluged in then you can unclick "Pause folding on battery power".

[stylin19a]

thanks for the tip..