What's the best protein folding client?

Ythan

Member
Jun 5, 2001
68
0
0

kadajawi

Senior member
Dec 29, 2000
549
0
0
Folding@Home and Genome@Home. Folding@Home had some scientific (?) publications lately, that should make it the first project to show scientific relevance. Running Genome@Home too on my other system as it is to slow for Folding@Home. But the Genome@Home points get accounted to my Folding@Home stats (and our team stats). And they seem to work on some publications too :)
 

kadajawi

Senior member
Dec 29, 2000
549
0
0
sorry, can't find the edit button... ne(f)er mind, eh, well, our team needs some support. We're dropping down in the stats... a week ago we were on 17... now we are on 19 and still going down (soon to be 20).
 

Insidious

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 2001
7,649
0
0
I'm biased, because I am presently folding in the Distributed Folding project.

While I really don't have any experience with the others, I can tell you that DF does a GREAT job of staying out of the way of my other programs.

I don't turn it off when I game and see NO reduction in frame rates or AI speed.
I even run my 3DMark2001 benchies (to test results of my tweaking) with DF running.

DF has lots of installation options.

1. ScreenSaver (slowest, but very cool to watch)
2. Text client with normal memory usage (~25MB)
3. Text client with extra memory usage (~150MB) Crunches nearly TWICE as fast
4. May be installed as a Windows Service (If you are using 2000/NT/XP) Fastest crunches, invisible operation, automatically starts when you start Windows

The 'readme1st.txt' file included with the download does a great job of explaining installation and configuration.

There is also a great GUI you can use to monitor DF progress (and do benchmarks!) called dfGUI it is very easy to use

And if all this isn't enough..... Check out the upcomming White Elephant Race


Good luck with whichever you choose.... they're all for a good cause and every TeAm is full of great people

-Sid
 

bfour

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
724
0
0
IMHO go for DistributedFolding, the client runs pretty much by itself, has had very few problems, and life sSid mentioned the upcoming Race!
 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
16,979
0
76
Another vote for the Distributed Folding client as a service under NT/2K/XP. It's pretty much set it and forget it and doesn't interfere with anything. Also, it's hidden and since it's a service it runs when the user is logged off.

I use a proggie called KDFold (can find a link if you need it) to monitor my other clients on the network. The only downside is if you want to use the extra RAM option you should have 256MB installed as it normally eats up a lot. I think the current protein is using around 100MB.
 

FoBoT

No Lifer
Apr 30, 2001
63,084
15
81
fobot.com
since you asked about the best "client" and not the best "project" i take that as meaning you are looking for specific features of the software vs the science of the projects and such

tell us what type of setup you have to help determine what the best "client" would be

dialup? or broadband? or no internet at all?
work or home or both?
slow cpu or fast?
large group of pc's or just one/a few ?
OS? or OS's?
do the stats play into your fun? or are you a "for the science" type guy?

these are the type of factors i consider when i select a DC client for a specific boxen
 

Ythan

Member
Jun 5, 2001
68
0
0
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies! I'm glad I posted this message since I barely even knew about Distributed Folding and now it's looking like it might be the best cause.

since you asked about the best "client" and not the best "project" i take that as meaning you are looking for specific features of the software vs the science of the projects and such

Sorry, kind of an ambiguous query on my part. Everyone wants to run a client which has a 0% impact on their system along with a 100% rate of discovery. :) I'm concerned about both aspects, if a client is always getting in my way I'm less likely to keep running it, but if it doesn't generate some valid scientific results I won't bother running it at all. I know all the projects are good causes, so it boils down to which client is superior and which project is doing the best work and needs help the most. I'll be running this at home where I have broadband and 5 computers with an average CPU speed of about 1GHz. They all run 2000 or XP. If any of these clients can run on slow *nix, I've got a million P166s which I'd dust off to help with the cause. As far as I can tell though, Seti is the only one with a Linux client. (Edit: Just saw DF has all sorts of clients. Sweet.) Not too concerned about stats, mostly I just want to know I'm doing what I can to cure cancer as I enjoy the rich, smooth flavor of a Camel. ;)

Again, thanks for the feedback!

Peace,

-Y
 

muttley

Senior member
Jun 2, 2001
760
0
0
As I recall the results of a previous submission by different groups for a certain protein was done and the winning results will be released in december but that is all I remember.

I'm doing DF

muttley