The need for a dummy plus is a problem, but being in the business I have a garage full of ... last year's equipment. I never even paid it any attention.
The low ppd on the ASUS is probably due to not having a CPU core that will keep it fed. Being a motherboard chip, it may not hit the higher numbers of a dedicated GPU card, but it should be better than that.
I like your idea to reinstall as a service and keep running SMP. If you are going to get a better GPU card it will cost $100+, for a decent folding card.
I rebooted now and GPU folding started and shut back down in about 2 min. I tried to restart the service manually, which started the client, but no folding??? I am having to run it manually.
As far as keeping the GPU fed, the processor is running about 26% without SMP running. It look like 1 core would be about right or run SMP at 75%. I can’t tell if it is running better this way, from past experience, I think not.
I have a couple of old monitors in the basement, I just can’t bring myself to cut the plug off while they still work.
I eventually want to get a new video card, but I probably need to get some better cooling first. When I put that ASUS card in, the fan started making a lot of noise trying to keep up. This PC is for my home theater, so noise is a bother.
Thanks for the help.