Wanna start folding

[gigabit]

I have two old Desktop Gateway's PC's one with a P4 1.8ghz 2x256mb ram and Fx5200 and a second one with a P4 2.2ghz + 2x1gb of ram and onboard graphic's.I also have a much better rig im working on besides my Main rig.Its gonna be in a CM 690 with my old MSI X58 Platinum SLI mobo and 3x1gbs of ram and two 160gb WD HD's in Raid 0 and a Corsair 850TX psu.Now my main problem is getting a i7 920 and a decent video card.Ill probablly just slap one of my GTX 260's in it til i find a cheap 8800GT or something.But the cpu I just dont have the cash atm(GF is out of work so i cant spend the $200+ right now)

Would it be worth it to start with these two old PC's i already have? Or should i just wait til i can get the main folding rig together.I dont want to use my main rig in my sig because im always changing it and that just adds one more thing id have to change when i reformat etc.

But I just figure these two crappy PC's with with one decent PC would do alright and help out the folding comminity. So i think ill hold off till i can save for a i7 920 and 8800GT/GS 9600GT etc.

[Outback_Jon]

If the computer is in use anyway, definitely. If not, you'll have to decide if it is worth the electricity cost.

I run Folding (Uniprocessor client) on some older PCs. My wife's AMD 2500+ is good for a couple hundred points per day. (It's running 24/7) I usually have two other computers running that the kid's use for internet/light gaming but they're down at the moment. (Not sure why, but I think I've killed a couple of power supplies, and I don't have a known good one without taking apart one of the other computers to check) When they're up, one is an 850 MHz Thunderbird (overclocked, of course, to 950~1000) and the other is an AMD 1800+. They all make their small contributions, and I am happy to let them run. Especially since the kids usually would leave the things on when they walk away from them anyhow. :D

['Cuda340]

Would it be worth it to start with these two old PC's i already have?

If you got the rigs already, and don't have another use for them......I say fold on :attn:

Add your main rig when you can.

BTW, :welcome: to T32. :beer:

[gigabit]

Thanks cuda.Im hoping i can get a cheap i7 920 some where soon.8800GTS and the like are cheap and everyone is selling them so i shouldnt have a problem getting my hands on one or two of them to fold with

Hopefully i can upgrade the Gateways soon to

[gigabit]

Ok i made a deal for my MSI X58 and the DDR3.I have a 775mobo / 775 cpu and 2x2gb of DDR2 coming .So i should be up and folding in a bout 2 weeks thanks to Nebulous

['Cuda340]

Wow, that was fast :thup:

Good luck :beer:

[gigabit]

Dumb question but what do i do about monitors.Ill have 3 machines folding

[harlam357]

Hey... Hey... I know this guy. :D Nice to see you in the Folding Team forum gigabit. :)

As far as monitors go... once you get the rigs setup you don't need a monitor. You can use Remote Desktop or something like VNC to remote into them as needed. If you're GPU Folding don't use Remote Desktop as it interferes with GPU Folding... but you're still good using VNC.

We have a Mentor program here if you'd like someone to help you get setup and advise you on the best way to achieve your Folding objectives. Let me know if that interests you.

[gigabit]

Thanks Harlem:santa:

As soon as i have everything i will get back to you.The mentor program will help me a lot since i didnt know that there was GPU folding and CPU folding.Im total noob at this.I should be ready to go in about two weeks.I have to make the space for the two Gateways and i still have a few more parts coming in..

Also my work is updating PC's atm.Im gonna see what i can pull from those machines also if any of them still work.Ive seen a few complete rigs(if they work)with celerons and amd sempron's and some P4 units.Im sure they will let me have 1 or 2 of them if they are any good.


Ive been wanting to get into folding but i was always worried it would cost to much.Plus i thought i needed top notch equipment.But if i can help out with what i have count me in.I will be slowing upgrading these to make them into decent folders.

[harlam357]

I'll get a PM out to our Mentor group to see who has the time to coach you right now. If no one else does... then I'll be happy to do so myself, or if you would just like to stick with me (as we have some history) that's fine with me... just say so. :)

Well, as far as the cost goes... it's a catch 22. You might have seen some folks say, "If you want to burn the power", regarding the older hardware. Single core machines of yesteryear don't produce much in terms of points/power ratio. Thus a lot of we overly addicted Folders won't run older hardware because the return on the power burned is not very high vs. what one can do with newer multi-core CPUs and GPUs. Please don't read that wrong... I'm talking about points, not science, the standard/single core client still does a lot of valuable science for the project, it's just doesn't produce as many points.

If any of those donated boards supports PCI-E... then a single 8800GT or better will produce much more than the single core cpu could ever hope for. Stay clear of any NV cards that have less than 112 shaders if they are to be used for Folding... lesser cards have had a much higher failure rate. To date I've been Folding on GPUs for ~1 year (since GPU2 debuted) and I haven't burned out a GPU yet.

[deadlysyn]

I'll get a PM out to our Mentor group to see who has the time to coach you right now. If no one else does... then I'll be happy to do so myself, or if you would just like to stick with me (as we have some history) that's fine with me... just say so. :)

I may have some time to get to this one, h. Things are starting to slow down a little bit, and I can be reached more than one way. Prefer Yahoo! Or BlackBerry messengers, but am open to emails and PM as well.

[gigabit]

(this post was posted hours ago but in the wrong thread..lol im a moron)



How about i stick with you if you dont mind:cool:.

I will be updating these systems for sure .Im only using these because its all i have atm.But i will be upgrading them very soon as money allows.Hopefully 775 systems with 8800GTs or better.But atm my GF is out of work so money is tight and CC are pretty much maxed out.But once she is back to work ill get some better equipment .Hopefully 3 or 4 good running PC's just for this .I love the classifieds.

Is anything wrong with using ATI/AMD Video cards for folding?How about AMD cpu's?

Also how about Xbox 360.I think i read somewhere about folding on the 360


I may have some time to get to this one, h. Things are starting to slow down a little bit, and I can be reached more than one way. Prefer Yahoo! Or BlackBerry messengers, but am open to emails and PM as well.

Thanks deadlysyn ill be in touch with you also.Im in need of as much coaching as possible.Thanks Guys

[deadlysyn]

No problem gigabit. If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know.

[harlam357]

How about i stick with you if you dont mind:cool:.

I will be updating these systems for sure .Im only using these because its all i have atm.But i will be upgrading them very soon as money allows.Hopefully 775 systems with 8800GTs or better.But atm my GF is out of work so money is tight and CC are pretty much maxed out.But once she is back to work ill get some better equipment .Hopefully 3 or 4 good running PC's just for this .I love the classifieds.

Is anything wrong with using ATI/AMD Video cards for folding?How about AMD cpu's?

Also how about Xbox 360.I think i read somewhere about folding on the 360

Ok, my Mentored Folder you are... :)

Nothing wrong with ATI cards for Folding... they just don't produce as much as NV cards... and they need a little more tuning to get them Folding while using the least amount of cpu resources. In contrast, NV cards Folding under XP (32 or 64) use almost 0 cpu resources without requiring any tweaking. Vista and Win7 still use a bigger slice of the cpu... and to my knowledge there's no way around that... but there is a trick to help "balance" the load, allowing one to Fold on the cpu and gpu with minimal impact to either client's production.

Nothing wrong with AMD cpus either... Intel has just been the cpu king of Folding since the debut of C2D... so there is just a larger group of Intel heads here. Hey, I used to be an AMD fanboi... waited for Phenom, it sucked, so I had to make the switch. IMO, AMD as a company has just gone downhill in general. I like the underdog... always have, but Hector & Dirk have really driven them in the ground. Anyway... enough of my personal feelings.

Phenom II tri/quad seems to do pretty well vs. a similarly clocked C2Q. I don't have any hard numbers to share since I don't own one, but from the numbers I recall people posting, there isn't too much difference between them... so again, nothing wrong with an AMD based system either.

Xbox360... no Folding client for it. This has been asked before as you might imagine. Those things are already so flakey (and HOT), imagine how many would RROD if they were put under 100% load 24/7. Only Folding client for gaming consoles is the PS3 client... and a PS3 on average does about 900ppd if I remember correctly... a single 8800GT would do 4x~5x that production on average.

[Rpkole]

give you a idea on my amd 940 puts up about 4000ppd and i also have a Q6600 and it also puts up 4000ppd

[gigabit]

The reason i asked is AMD is cheaper to build with and Ill be able to build a few cheap AMD folders sooner.How many folding PC's do must of you all run.I figure can do 3.That will be about as many as i can do(running 24/7) with my eleltric bills and all that

Ok, my Mentored Folder you are... :)

Thanks harlam