F@H - Friday, August 12

[Thump553]

A quick F@H question. I added a computer recently that will be doing little but folding for the next month or so. It's a Pentium 4 3.0 nonoverclocked with Win XP. Right now I'm running one instance of F@H on it (as a service). Does it make sense to run more than one at a time on it, and if so, how many should I be running?

 

[kb3edk]

Originally posted by: Thump553
A quick F@H question. I added a computer recently that will be doing little but folding for the next month or so. It's a Pentium 4 3.0 nonoverclocked with Win XP. Right now I'm running one instance of F@H on it (as a service). Does it make sense to run more than one at a time on it, and if so, how many should I be running?

Does that P4 have Hyperthreading? If so then running two clients will definitely help your ppd... from what I hear (not having a HT proc myself) it's anywhere from 5% to 15% extra ppd depending on the WU.

If you don't have Hyperthreading, you can still run two instances of it at a time, the extra ppd increase will be very small (<1% extra ppd) but will still be there. This mostly comes from the fact that by running two instances, while any particular WU is being sent/received the CPU will still be running full throttle on the other WU. Whereas if you only run one instance, the CPU idles while WUs are sent/received.

 

[Gravity]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: Insidious
Do you even need a furnace in the winter time? 😎

Great to see you giving F@H a look kensai

:thumbsup:

-Sid

I can't wait to get home now... 🙁
I *need* to steal the #1 spot for WU per day... 😉

First, welcome to the team!! 2nd.....we take challenges very seriously here (well...somewhat).

I've been #1 for over a year now...let's see what you got!!

Gravity

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Gravity

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: Insidious
Do you even need a furnace in the winter time? 😎

Great to see you giving F@H a look kensai

:thumbsup:

-Sid

I can't wait to get home now... 🙁
I *need* to steal the #1 spot for WU per day... 😉

First, welcome to the team!! 2nd.....we take challenges very seriously here (well...somewhat).

I've been #1 for over a year now...let's see what you got!!

Gravity

Give me a month.. Gotta get home and install it on all my systems. I've also got to set up new systems. 🙂

 

[imported_Kensai]

Okay.. Started it on a temp system.. 🙂

 

[rise]

now we can officially welcome you 😉

i just hit 10k after 4 weeks, lol. i can only imagiine how quickly you'll crush that milestone.

 

[JeffCos]

Originally posted by: Kensai


Give me a month.. Gotta get home and install it on all my systems. I've also got to set up new systems. 🙂

This is going to be fun to watch

 

[GLeeM]

This deserves a new thread but here goes:
MechEng, welcome to the 100K Club 🙂
MechEng, welcome to the Top 50 :thumbsup:
___________________________________________

Originally posted by: Thump553
A quick F@H question. I added a computer recently that will be doing little but folding for the next month or so. It's a Pentium 4 3.0 nonoverclocked with Win XP. Right now I'm running one instance of F@H on it (as a service). Does it make sense to run more than one at a time on it, and if so, how many should I be running?

If it has 512 MB or more ram you qualify for QMD bonus WUs.

If you run QMD WUs, only run one instance; running two QMDs does not help. The upload/download size is small, the bonus is because it uses lots of resources mainly memory bandwidth. This way there is the other HT proc to do the other stuff quickly.
🙂

 

[dawks]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Okay.. Started it on a temp system.. 🙂

Just note that theres actually a real world benefit to running F@H too. Its not just about the competition and fun.. 😀



I have two questions for the crew myself.. When someone configures the client, and you get to the point where it asks for machine ID, whats this actually mean. Why does it say 1-8? What if someone has more then 8 systems?

And the checkpoint interval, means when the client writes its progress to the disc? Whats the benfit of using 30 minutes over 3? just fewer disc accesses? does it improve performance?
I've noticed with a heavily tweaked XP system, even while logged off, my harddrive never stays off for more then 5-10 minutes, even though I have a 30 minute checkpoint configured in F@H. Im guessing the paged memory of F@H is hitting the swapfile.

 

[Insidious]

The machine ID is only for that particular machine. ie: each instance installed on a given machine needs a unique machine ID. You can have several machines all with machine ID = 1 (or whatever)

The checkpoint interval is only for how often checkpoints are recorded/reported. It won't affect your HD usage afaik.

The HD usage is F@H using little temporary files. I don't think it is swapfile usage though.

-Sid

 

[Gravity]

Here's a question..

If I'm running the current service client...5.03 I think, then how would I best install the beta client?

Just curious,

Gravity

 

[JeffCos]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Okay.. Started it on a temp system.. 🙂

What did you use for a username because there's already a Kensai on the Maximum PC magazine team. Don't forget we are team 198.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: JeffCos

Originally posted by: Kensai
Okay.. Started it on a temp system.. 🙂

What did you use for a username because there's already a Kensai on the Maximum PC magazine team. Don't forget we are team 198.

Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: dawks
And the checkpoint interval, means when the client writes its progress to the disc? Whats the benfit of using 30 minutes over 3? just fewer disc accesses? does it improve performance?
I've noticed with a heavily tweaked XP system, even while logged off, my harddrive never stays off for more then 5-10 minutes, even though I have a 30 minute checkpoint configured in F@H. Im guessing the paged memory of F@H is hitting the swapfile.

If the client starts and stops very often, like a screen saver or runs when rig is idle by Scheduled Tasks, a shorter checkpoint interval will help because if the client were stopped just before a 15 minute checkpoint you would lose 14 minutes of crunching.
If the client normally runs without interruption, having it checkpoint too often will slow down crunching a little.

If the WU you are working on finishes a frame sooner than the checkpoint interval you will see drive access to record the frame and checkpoint. Tinkers don't use the checkpoint interval.

Originally posted by: Gravity
If I'm running the current service client...5.03 I think, then how would I best install the beta client?

If I were doing one computer I would copy the new client into the directory. Stop the service. (Do you have to run -configonly to remove the service? Maybe I should not be answering your question, where is Josh when you need him? 🙂 ) Then run -configonly on the new client choosing the appropriate new options.

I do know that the new client will continue the WU in progress without problem.

 

[JeffCos]

Originally posted by: Kensai


Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

 

[rise]

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

yeah, poops can bring it. i'm new but when i saw his 8k updates i was :Q

Just note that theres actually a real world benefit to running F@H too. Its not just about the competition and fun..

definitely but i ran UD for a couple years and didn't know there were forums like these with some friendly competition and comradery. this is much more fun 🙂

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: JeffCos

Originally posted by: Kensai


Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

Time to build a cluster. 😛

 

[Gravity]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: JeffCos

Originally posted by: Kensai


Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

Time to build a cluster. 😛

Get to it man!! I've got about 45 pc's folding right now!!! If I ever figure out how to get the new beta ported to my lap I might just take off myself!!!

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Gravity

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: JeffCos

Originally posted by: Kensai


Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

Time to build a cluster. 😛

Get to it man!! I've got about 45 pc's folding right now!!! If I ever figure out how to get the new beta ported to my lap I might just take off myself!!!

On vacation right now. What are the specs of those systems? (Just wondering what I would need to compete 😛)

 

[Slider76]

congrats to the mm's.

a special congrats to mecheng on his entry to the top 50 and the 100k milestone. well done champ.

 

[Gravity]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: Gravity

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: JeffCos

Originally posted by: Kensai


Kensai again. I'm both of them. 🙂
I used to fold for the Maximum PC team but I gave up. So boring, no gloating. 😛
Now I can brag and gloat when I get it running all over. 🙂

Well you're going to need atleast 40,000 points to get on the first page (that'll probably take you about 2 weeks) and if Poopflingers ever decides to throw it into high gear again they're capable of 25,000ppd. So you've got your work cut out for you.

Time to build a cluster. 😛

Get to it man!! I've got about 45 pc's folding right now!!! If I ever figure out how to get the new beta ported to my lap I might just take off myself!!!

On vacation right now. What are the specs of those systems? (Just wondering what I would need to compete 😛)

Mostly Dells that are P4's with a gig'o ram and 3. somthing processors. Others are built by us, for us and resemble business rigs with AMD's. I have a few servers in the mix but it makes my IT guy nervous to have them crunching so I rarely put all the procs on folding.

That's about it. I'm sure you can hang!!

Come on!!!

 

[JeffCos]

bump because I don't like to have to scroll down to find the F@H page. Oh yeah, and I rock too!