just started folding

[m1ldslide1]

I've been wanting to start folding for several months now, but hadn't gotten around to it. I just got F@H going on both cores of one of my desktops this morning, and I'm pretty excited. I used MDE's setup guide and installed the CLI version, and it went off without a hitch. So far it seems like you just install, run, and wait. I assume there aren't any other components to be conscious of?

So if I'm successful with this over the next couple of days, I'll start spreading it around to the other computers I 'own'.

Currently running:
AM2 4000+ @ 2.1Ghz (dual-core, running two instances)

Will hopefully add:
opteron 175 @ 2.6ghz
C2D @ 2.2Ghz
3200+ @ 2.0ghz

For a total of 7 cores. Is F@H at all dependent on GPU or memory capacity? I have 1GB in two of those machines, 2GB in the other two, and a variety of GPU's. I get the impression that it's mostly dependent on CPU, but I wanted to verify.

So yeah. I'm stoked. :thumbsup:

 

[scottv67]

I think I'm going to get addicted.

Get back to me when your natural gas bill starts going down (due to the heat from your Folding farm).
*Then* you're starting down the road to addiction...

-s :beer:

 

[MadMurph]

And while you're at it, why don't you bring some of those F@H wu points over to the TAS team, and the Holicay Race.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: MadMurph
And while you're at it, why don't you bring some of those F@H wu points over to the TAS team, and the Holicay Race.

You know I read some about that race, and it wasn't very clear to me:

Is the TAS team all of AT racing against someone else, or did AT DC split into two warring factions for a holiday race?

I went ahead and installed it on the C2D rig too, so all four of my cores are crunching for team 198. Do I just reinstall the CLI thing when I want to change my team?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1

Originally posted by: MadMurph
And while you're at it, why don't you bring some of those F@H wu points over to the TAS team, and the Holicay Race.

You know I read some about that race, and it wasn't very clear to me:

Is the TAS team all of AT racing against someone else, or did AT DC split into two warring factions for a holiday race?

I went ahead and installed it on the C2D rig too, so all four of my cores are crunching for team 198. Do I just reinstall the CLI thing when I want to change my team?

TAS normally crunches a different project every month--we are currently racing the Folders, who essentially crunch just Folding@Home. We are all crunching under team #198, Team Anandtech. I believe. Someone else will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure. I just try to keep up with the rest of them, and not choke on too much dust. :laugh:

 

[Philippart]

In case you run the C2D 24/7, you should install the smp version (very short deadlines!!).
It gives you more points and the science has more short term results, since the smp client is part of the "high performance" client range.

The client doesn't depend on the GPU at all. There's a GPU client for ATI's last generation too. 1GB RAM on a dualcore box is MORE than enough!

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1

Originally posted by: MadMurph
And while you're at it, why don't you bring some of those F@H wu points over to the TAS team, and the Holicay Race.

You know I read some about that race, and it wasn't very clear to me:

Is the TAS team all of AT racing against someone else, or did AT DC split into two warring factions for a holiday race?

Fullmetal pretty much nailed it. TAS is a group of Anandtech crunchers who move from project to project giving them a boost. It helps raise awareness and fosters some competition. Plus we have our own competitions, but those are secret!

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Philippart
In case you run the C2D 24/7, you should install the smp version (very short deadlines!!).
It gives you more points and the science has more short term results, since the smp client is part of the "high performance" client range.

The client doesn't depend on the GPU at all. There's a GPU client for ATI's last generation too. 1GB RAM on a dualcore box is MORE than enough!

OK so I just downloaded the SMP client for the C2D rig. It's actually my work laptop, but 3 weeks out of the month it sits on my desk, plugged into the wall. I'm going to try to figure out how to tell it to stop once it finishes it's current job, and then install the SMP version.


Edit: Actually, I'm kind of confused about the SMP version. Does that mean that I only run one instance of SMP F@H and automagically realize the benefits of dual-core, or does it mean that I still run two instances and somehow it makes better use of both cores, even though both cores are already pegged at 100% utilization?

 

[Insidious]

First of all.... WELCOME to TeAm AnandTech Folding@Home!

yeah, the SMP will figure out your cores by itself. On a dual core machine, you want to only run one client.

The TeAm AnandTech Folding@Home folks are hosting a race (actually instigated... with eveyone's total approval by Petrusbroder (aka Peter) of TAS.

Yeah, we war like mad, but we are all dedicated to TeAm AnandTech.

If you'd like to have Peter add your production to one of the racing teams, I don't think it is too late. Just send a PM to Petrusbroder and let him know what team you want to crunch with.

you can either join up with the Heros of Folding@Home whose legendary deeds and heroic machines are helping to save the world... one protien at a time.

OR

You can join with the evil hords of TAS and spend your afternoons explaining why in the world you aren't crunching for the GOOD GUYS!



:beer:

-Sid

(edit: /me ducks :shocked: )

 

[GenHoth]

Join us and together we can rule the GALAXY!

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Insidious
First of all.... WELCOME to TeAm AnandTech Folding@Home!

yeah, the SMP will figure out your cores by itself. On a dual core machine, you want to only run one client.

The TeAm AnandTech Folding@Home folks are hosting a race (actually instigated... with eveyone's total approval by Petrusbroder (aka Peter) of TAS.

Yeah, we war like mad, but we are all dedicated to TeAm AnandTech.

If you'd like to have Peter add your production to one of the racing teams, I don't think it is too late. Just send a PM to Petrusbroder and let him know what team you want to crunch with.

you can either join up with the Heros of Folding@Home whose legendary deeds and heroic machines are helping to save the world... one protien at a time.

OR

You can join with the evil hords of TAS and spend your afternoons explaining why in the world you aren't crunching for the GOOD GUYS!



:beer:

-Sid

(edit: /me ducks :shocked: )

Thanks for the welcome Sid!

So I have a couple of questions still:

So is team 198 Team Anandtech F@H in general, and not part of the race? It sounds like Petrusbroder will provide me with the team numbers for the race if I message him and ask him for them, if I'm understanding.

Should I be running the SMP version on all dual-core boxes, or just the C2D and faster? From Philippart's post it kind of sounded like maybe the AMD dual-cores aren't high-performance grade.

Thanks again.

 

[Insidious]

We're all team 198 (TeAm AnandTech). Peter just sorts out the scores of our racers and makes those great stats postings you have seen. (the race is purely an internal thing here at TA)

I am running SMP on my X2 systems (2.5GHz and 2.6GHz). They do well but less than a C2D machine because X2s have a smaller L2 cache. My machines average ~1000 points per day (each) which is VERY good output compared to running two regular clients instead of SMP. I do that on one of my X2 machines and it gets ~300 points per day.

So basically, in terms of maxing out your points, you want to run SMP on any machine that will do them.

-Sid

I do want to caution you that running your CPUs at 100% all the time makes them hotter. Generally, this is not an issue, but with laptop computers you need to keep an eye on it to see if it is overheating. It is so easy to set them down in a way that blocks the air ducts, etc. I think you'll hear lots of opinions, but I have chosen not to do distributed computing on laptops because I think it might be too much for their cooling systems.

 

[GenHoth]

198 is the only team we have going. Petrus just takes the time to sort through and pull our numbers (thanks pete!) F@H is a pretty time intensive program, I'd recommend the SMP client for all your boxes. But I'm new to F@H so hopefully one of the more knowledgeable folders will give you a technical explanation of the SMP WUs and GUI WUs.

 

[m1ldslide1]

One thing I thought was interesting:

4000+ dual-core @ 2.1GHz:
Completing 2500 steps every 45-47 minutes

C2D @ 2.2GHz:
Completing 2500 steps every 23-25 minutes (plus neffing on AT, which sucks a couple of extra cycles)

So this C2D is approximately twice as fast clock for clock at F@H. Now THAT is a performance delta.

 

[Insidious]

The difference IS significant. I just started using a Core2 machine and it is producing better than an AMD core can.

But heck... we're pretty addicted around here. We'd crunch with pencils if we could figure out how! :roll:

 

[m1ldslide1]

And thanks for the replies Sid and GenHoth - it all makes much sense now.

I'm not sure if I'll continue folding on this laptop. It doesn't really move around and it has quite a bit of room to exhaust air, plus I could probably get one of those 'laptop coolers' for cheap to stick under it. I'll try to find a utility to monitor temperature and decide soon.

 

[Insidious]

I've been using CoreTemp to monitor my core temperatures (overclocking)

You can read about it and d/l it here

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
And thanks for the replies Sid and GenHoth - it all makes much sense now.

Heh, no problem. Its a choice between neffing on anandtech, drinking, or drinking AND neffing on anandtech. But I like to save that last option for late at night

 

[m1ldslide1]

Issues with SMP:

I stopped the fah services on the C2D, and disabled them in administrative tools. I restarted, and the services didn't start again. I then extracted/installed the SMP CLI, which appeared to have installed successfully. I selected the same options as I did before, with the exception that I didn't install it as a service. So anyway, it tries to start up, and I'm getting the following errors over and over, eventually resulting in 'sleep mode':

[22:24:51] + 789667 bytes downloaded
[22:24:51] Verifying core Core_a1.fah...
[22:24:51] Signature is VALID
[22:24:51]
[22:24:51] Trying to unzip core FahCore_a1.exe
[22:24:51] Decompressed FahCore_a1.exe (2035712 bytes) successfully
[22:24:51] + Core successfully engaged
[22:24:56]
[22:24:56] + Processing work unit
[22:24:56] Core required: FahCore_a1.exe
[22:24:56] Core found.
[22:24:56] Working on Unit 01 [December 12 22:24:56]
[22:24:56] + Working ...
[22:25:04] CoreStatus = 63 (99)
[22:25:04] + Error starting Folding@Home core.



Anybody know what this error is off the top of their head? I can pursue it on the stanford site if need be.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Insidious
I've been using CoreTemp to monitor my core temperatures (overclocking)

You can read about it and d/l it here

I have this running on both machines now, and it's kind of interesting. The C2D laptop idles at 52/55, and under continuous load got up to 67/69. The air coming out under load was quite noticeably hotter than what is coming out now at idle.

The AMD though, is idling at 7/11 and got up to 20/23 under load. I didn't realize that Dell included sub-ambient cooling in their mATX builds free of charge!

 

[MadMurph]

A couple of things to check:

1st - your account must be set up with a password

2) After installing the client, you must run install.bat FIRST. I input "no" to everything except "yes" to work units larger than 5mb.

3) Then run fah.exe input your user name and team #

Should be off and running.

 

[Insidious]

:laugh:

I want one of those Dells!

-Sid

(Is the processor in the Dell on the supported CPU list at their website?

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: MadMurph
A couple of things to check:

1st - your account must be set up with a password

2) After installing the client, you must run install.bat FIRST. I input "no" to everything except "yes" to work units larger than 5mb.

3) Then run fah.exe input your user name and team #

Should be off and running.

Thanks for the help - I ran the install.bat and entered in the password, and it appeared to work. I went ahead and ran fah.exe again and it appears to be working, even though it didn't download anything new:

[22:47:31] Project: 2653 (Run 16, Clone 98, Gen 23)
[22:47:31]
[22:47:32] Entering M.D.
[22:47:38] Rejecting checkpoint
[22:47:39] Protein: Protein in POPC
[22:47:39] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Extra SSE boost OK.
[22:47:41] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Completed 0 out of 500000 steps (0 percent)

Kind of looks like I'm in business - my machine is definitely loading.

 

[MadMurph]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1

Originally posted by: MadMurph
A couple of things to check:

1st - your account must be set up with a password

2) After installing the client, you must run install.bat FIRST. I input "no" to everything except "yes" to work units larger than 5mb.

3) Then run fah.exe input your user name and team #

Should be off and running.

Thanks for the help - I ran the install.bat and entered in the password, and it appeared to work. I went ahead and ran fah.exe again and it appears to be working, even though it didn't download anything new:

[22:47:31] Project: 2653 (Run 16, Clone 98, Gen 23)
[22:47:31]
[22:47:32] Entering M.D.
[22:47:38] Rejecting checkpoint
[22:47:39] Protein: Protein in POPC
[22:47:39] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Extra SSE boost OK.
[22:47:41] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Completed 0 out of 500000 steps (0 percent)

Kind of looks like I'm in business - my machine is definitely loading.

You're in biz! Now, just keep track of how long it takes to crunch the first step, and since there are a hundred of them, you'll then know about how long it will take for the project. Cheers, MM



edit: Oh yeah, and now you can join TAS in the Holiday Race.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: MadMurph

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1

Originally posted by: MadMurph
A couple of things to check:

1st - your account must be set up with a password

2) After installing the client, you must run install.bat FIRST. I input "no" to everything except "yes" to work units larger than 5mb.

3) Then run fah.exe input your user name and team #

Should be off and running.

Thanks for the help - I ran the install.bat and entered in the password, and it appeared to work. I went ahead and ran fah.exe again and it appears to be working, even though it didn't download anything new:

[22:47:31] Project: 2653 (Run 16, Clone 98, Gen 23)
[22:47:31]
[22:47:32] Entering M.D.
[22:47:38] Rejecting checkpoint
[22:47:39] Protein: Protein in POPC
[22:47:39] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Extra SSE boost OK.
[22:47:41] Writing local files
[22:47:41] Completed 0 out of 500000 steps (0 percent)

Kind of looks like I'm in business - my machine is definitely loading.

You're in biz! Now, just keep track of how long it takes to crunch the first step, and since there are a hundred of them, you'll then know about how long it will take for the project. Cheers, MM



edit: Oh yeah, and now you can join TAS in the Holiday Race.

C2D: 20 minutes for the first 1%, so therefore I'm looking at approx 33 hours for the project.

AM2: 32 minutes for the first 1%, so 53 hours.

Does this mean that I have to wait until tomorrow night to get my first score???

As far as the race, I feel inclined to join whoever asks me last! I went ahead and messaged Petrusbroder and asked him to assign me to whichever team might be lagging behind, since I don't really know anybody yet or have those personal alliances.

I'll be adding the 3200+ single core when I get home, and potentially the 2.6ghz opteron. I kind of want to get a more efficient PSU for the latter before I start stressing it 24/7.