New to Folding and got some questions...

[fearless]

Hey all. I installed the client early this morning. I have the following questions:
1.) Is it normal for applications to run slower? I try to keep the number to a minimum and it's not that big of a deal but just wondering.
2.) Would running Folding be a good stress test for an overclcok and/or be good for a burn in of a new comp? I have my P3 800 running at 903 at 38* full load and thinking about trying for more.
3.) Is there any way to increase the speed? I started my first w/u at 0300hrs and when I got up at 1700hrs it was only 70% finished. I know this takes a while to do but is this normal or can I do something to my machine?
4.) Would the info be lost if my comp was shut down or would the work done be saved and be able to continue from where it left off? I've told my parents to leave the modem on as well as my comp but...

Sorry about this. I'm sort of new to this whole computer stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ploaf]

Howdy Fearless
Welcome to the team. Hope we can sort out these issues.
1- Your applications should not run slower since the priority for the client is ultra low. I suppose some of it could depend on how much RAM you have, although the client should not use all that much memory.
2- Folding is a good way to burn in and it will stress test an OC. We've had several people who had trouble running the client and discovered that the processor was OC'd too far or voltage needed to be increased or temps needed to decrease or all three even when most other programs seemed to work.
3- The only way to really increase the speed of the client is to increase the speed of your processor. Marginal decreases in time have been noted with faster RAM/BIOS tweaks, etc but we are only talking at most 15 minutes for 100 frames for some of it.
4- The info should not be lost if you shut down the computer. There have been issues with this recently but the latest version of the client appears to have been fixed and the problem resolved.