Does like every Mhz count?

I was considering building a folding 'farm' out of all my AT computers in my room. The best is at 166Mhz, but most are 75 and under and I have a 486 or two and even some that pre-date the 486. I have avout 5 or 6 of them. At those specs would it actually help much to have them folding? And at what point is it probly not worth my trouble? Would the pre-486s or even the 486s be worth setting up to fold?

Thx for the help. It'd be a while (a few months) before I could set this up but I figured I'd gather the info I need now instead of later, hehe.

i dont think folding works in beowulf cluster type of thing..

max

ok, I'm kinda new to all of this (saw the inside of a computer for the first time 3 months ago) so I'm still learning.
Whats a beowulf cluster and what does folding not working in that type of thing mean to me? lol, sorry

I think that 166Mhz OK. I don't think anything below that will be adequate for folding, but others may be able to tell you the bare minimum in speed.

You can view the time deadlines here: http://folding.stanford.edu/psummary.html

I do know that my pentium pro 200's would make deadlines, but sometimes not by much.

Beowolf is where several computers are combined...like a super computer sort of. Not easy to do.

BTW, we are very happy to have you folding on the team, and appreciate the extra effort. Stanford has set some limits, however, that don't let us use some of the slower computers.

If you do genome work, there is no time limit. So you can use any rig you have. And the points will count here.

I have G@H working on my Mother's computer, and she doesn't leave it on. I just D/L whenever I'm there.

steve

skou said:

If you do genome work, there is no time limit. So you can use any rig you have. And the points will count here.

I have G@H working on my Mother's computer, and she doesn't leave it on. I just D/L whenever I'm there.

steve

Click to expand...

Yeah, GAH is the way to go on the machines slower than 200MHz.

G@H is Genome@Home, not Gromac@Home. If you choice to use G@H on your preference your doing work for a completely seperate project stanford is conducting. You'll get pts for it but you are not conducting protein folding simulation, you are conducting genome research.

Gromacs are the core that F@H uses along with the tinker core. Their both F@H and shouldnt be confused for G@H

So I could set my 166Mhz up for folding and all the others up for G@H?
Where is the information for G@H?
And that way it should work for the deadlines and such? I'm glad there's SOMETHING I can do with all those older computers, hehe.

I think 166 is too slow to turn in most wus on time, my K6-2-400 is on 24/7 and there's one or two units around that get scary and complete the day they are due to expire. I'd say if you can put a monster hsf on it and oc it's socks off. like 3.5x83, then you might get it to turn in some f@h units on time. Also with genomes, the 486es, well I wouldn't consider it worthwhile to run any that are slower than 100Mhz (think AMD 5x86 P75-133 oc'ed 160). I mean, you'll have to put win 95 on them and keeping win 95 running for 2 weeks at a time can be a challenge. Unless you want to sit watching each machine for a while each day to see when it just finishes a section so you can reboot it without losing a long period of work. Don't know if you'd even get a point a month out of something like a dx2/66. Probably might be an idea to see if you can eBay off your junk and use the proceeds to a faster folding system. Say you had 4 or 5 486 boards and got 5 each for them, with cpu and RAM on, then you might find a 300Mhz celeron for 20-25 that would do about 5 points a week.

well that's my 0.02

Road Warrior

Hmmm, my fastest comp right now is that 166Mhz besides the one I'm on now (and it's the family computer, mom won't let me fold on it).
The ebay idea isn't a bad idea though.

I have one question though, in theory which would be more effective, two 300 Mhz comps or one 600 Mhz comp? Like which would get more points maybe? Just curious.

Well presuming that the 300 and 600Mhz processors are the same architecture, which I don't think can happen, unless the 600 is overclocked (PIIs went to 450 AIR, K6-2s and 3s went to 550, there weren't 300Mhz PIIIs, and celerons changed to PIII class architecture at 533 I think) The 600 would be marginally faster folding, because there would only be one OS and client overhead instead of two. I think that would only matter by about 5% However with the likelihood that the 600Mhz CPU will be a more advanced architecture than the 300, the difference may well be 20% or more in favour of the 600.

Also If you're thinking of oc'ing, many people have had success getting 900Mhz out of 600Mhz Durons (I have heard it said it's "guaranteed" as long as you have a big enough hsf) , your chances of getting 300 celerons or PIIs to 450 seem a little less and the "right" chips seem rarer than the durons, 300Mhz AMDs are generally bad overclockers, so from that point of view you'd get a lot more overclock with a 600 duron for example.

Also because your are living with your parents, you are far less likely to have any arguments to running one extra computer than you are 2. Several guys on the forums here have run up against that obstacle, due to the high cost of electricity in some areas and their parents desire to economise.

regards,

Road Warrior

Well as long as I keep my A's in school (I'm 15, almost 16) and stuff then they'll let me do most of whatever I want within reason. And soon I'll have a seperate computer room in the basement so it's not like they'd even notice or care much. I asked the 300mhz vs. 600mhz question just to see if it would be better to go for 2 lower-ended ones or one higher ended one
The 600Mhz duron sounds like a good idea, and as the current family comp is only 1 GHZ (haven't built my own first comp yet) it isn't much slower than what I'm used to (if I OC it) and could be used as a second comp and my test platform for learning to OC. I think I'll look into that.
Any suggestions on the cheapest way to acquire a 600 duron and mobo for it? Obviously a mobo that allows overclocking of the duron and then a good HSF. And I'll need an ATX PSU too cause all I have is AT. Maybe a cheap (or onboard) vid card, but sound, keyboard, mouse, monitor, cd-rom, and floppy I have. Would the speed of the HDD effect the folding rate? I'm assuming yes, in which case I'd need a faster HDD (all I have is old HDD less than 1 GB so they can't be very fast).
Should I look for a bare-bones system on Ebay or piece one together from Newegg or somewhere like that?
Thx for all the help.

Hard drive speed does not matter much with folding. RAM speed does not really matter. The MHz is the bigest factor that affects folding. The faster you can get the better. I'm in the process of building a dual Athlon system for college next year and to fold on . Just search the web for the best price on the parts you want, be sure to shop around. I myself would try to get at least a 1GHz or faster system. It all depends on how much you are willing to spend. Oh yea, glad to have you folding with us. You will become addicted like many of us.

Axle

I don't have much to spend at all
I'll look around but it might end up that I can't even afford to get a low-end system thats enough high-end to fold, hehe... Like I said I'm 16 and am also saving to make myself my first computer (it'll fold of course).

Yea I know how the money goes. I'm 17 and without a job (I need one) but I have money saved in the bank from my summer job (past 3 years). Just try to do the best that you can . How much are you willing to spend?

Axle

I don't have a deffinate amount yet. But at this point, more than $100 even could be a problem. I might wait until after I build my computer and then see what I have left over...
I don't have any money saved expect for a few hundred $ from my christmas job, and it's earmarked for my computer.

There are things to be said in both instances. A 600's advanced architecture makes it the better choice; however if for some reason it fails you lose all production. Two systems and you lose only part of the work. it's not an easy question to answer.

Go with building your new computer. It will be able to fold more than some old computer(s).

Axle

Yeah, also, is it actually 100% true that folding is actually better for your CPU then normal use (where it would heat and then cool and then heat againa nd then cool again). Is that just a 'ploy' or is it 100% true that folding might actually lengthen the life of your CPU and stuff?

I'm not sure if it is true that folding lengthens the CPU's life but I don't think it shortens it. I do know that keeping the computer on is better then turning it off and on because the CPU expands when heated (on) and contracts when cooled (off). The repeated expanding and contracting could break the chip (I have never seen it happen). Chips are designed to last 10 years at full load but no one ever uses a ten year old chip. Overclocking can shorten the life of a chip but then again 10 years on one chip is a long time. It would be dreadfully slow in 10 years. I run chips hard and have never fried one, just be carefull when you OC.

Axle