anyone have problems running HT / dual clients?

hey guys, i am about to build 2 hyperthreading p4's...

i heard that there was a problem with the clients.... it wasn't acting nice when running 2 clients on a single hyperthreading cpu.... can anyone confirm this? thanx

Umm, you can run 2 clients no problem. There is little benefit to doing so though. I run 1 client on my HT machines, not because of any problem but because they fold very fast with just 1. There is an issue with certain benchmark proggies with folding running and HT, you get low scores but if you are not benching all the time, no worries.

I think more of the issues is with the amount of time it takes for 2 concurrently running WU's to finish. It takes almost double the time but you're doing 2 WU's and when one is changing frames or finishing a WU, the other instance will use up the unused cpu cycles so it's a bit faster than running just one instance.

-Bobby
Folding as Ninjak

I have a dual xeon running 4 instances when I'm not using it and it seems to run ok. I had a friend install it for me on a few of his work 4way boxes and he complained that FAH was getting too aggressive with cpu useage and he had to remove it from some of the dully boxes. Single PC's seem ok. I'm not sure how this is.

Running two clients is not an issue as long as you do the following:

Create two different directories (folders) for the clients to live in.
On the second instance, when you are filling in your username etc at the first run, set the machine id to 2.

So long as you do the above, you will not have any problems, but I tend to agree with the sentiment that there is not really much to be gained by running two clients on a HT boxen.

My rule of thumb is 1 client per cpu = good foldage.

Good luck with it

Edit:
I have now done some thorough testing on this, and have found that a HT boxen running two clients will out-produce the same box with one client by about 20%.

Goes to show that you should not go with subjective observation, but check the numbers first.