If you chooses to leave a PC running, then I suggest keeping the CPU working.
Visit the Folding@Home Project and download one of the applications.
The application will work at the lowest priority. This means should any other application need CPU resources, the folding process will yield to what you are doing. The default is 100%, meaning when other activities don't have demands on the CPU, Folding will do its thing at the rate you decide.
Hold down Cont-ALT-Delete and bring up the TaskManager, Click on the Performance Tab and observe if your computer is really working. Go back to the processes tab, look for the CPU column and see what is working now. My experience is allowing Folding@home to work at 100% keeps the PC working to capacity. Another question is whether you want Folding@Home to work as a service. Electing this will automatically, load and run the app each time your PC comes on. You also want to join a team, so enter 36120
Turning up the speed - and join the team -
The following is a portion of a post from 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 user-name.
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."
So if you decide to leave your computer on, now you have extra justification for your choice.
Is he still doing updates?
Have you taken over the F@H list from texasbooster?
I once kept up to 10 machines running 24/7 on United Devices cancer research wich I ran for a few years before it finished up.
There was no wear or adverse effect to the processors themselves and the only ‘problems’ I encountered were the cooling fans breaking and excess power consumption.
Once the project ended, my electric bill went down a lot.
The micro processors do enter a lower power state automatically when they idle and they do cool down if not active. Once a load is placed on them, they do heat up a lot.
A side effect of keeping the computers running 24/7 is the heat that they generate. In colder climates up north, that usually isn’t a negative, especially during the winter, but down here in Florida, it does effect the electric bill a lot.