Interested in folding, which PC to use?

I have been considering folding for some time, but have never really had extra PCs sitting around that I could dedicate to it. Now I have a couple of older ones, and would like to start if possible. For starters what I have:

Dual PIII 500MHZ server with 768MB or so RAM (I forget offhand), Windows 2003 Server
PIII 1GHZ with 768MB of RAM and Windows XP Pro

Now 99% of the time I am not using these machines. They are what I am using to prep for the MCSE. So every so often I will need to use them to practice or do some settings changes with. I doubt I would need to be rebooting or turning them off much. Hopefully that wouldn't be a problem (using them for other stuff occasionally).

Anyway the thing is that I am thinking I can only have one running at any given time. Biggest problem being heat, these are in my room and I already have a ton of equipment in here running and making it way hot. I might be able to live with them both, but that remains to be seen. So if I have to choose only one, which one would be a better folder? Is the speed important, or would the SMP be of more help?

Also I could relocate them to the basement where I already have a server. Now that would mean I would need to use remote desktop to check in on things every so often, and to do my studies. Would that have any effect on folding?

If you have to pick one, I would go with the 1ghz p3 and then borg everything else you have(including the dually)! You'll see resutls faster from the 1ghz rig because it'll turn in a wu in less time. Then the addiction will take hold of you and you won't be able to stop yourself from running fah on everything you can find. If you run fah as a service you'll forget it's there half the time anyway.

Borg it all!

The 1ghz instance will probably fold about the same as 2 instances on the duallie, but the duallie will generate more heat. If you are worried about heat, use the 1ghz. Otherwise, borg them all.

Borg them all, and for those that you may have to shut down for the night(or day) then you could set them for Timeless Tinkers. Those TTs have no real expiration time to be finished by, and should be good for a few surprise points every once in a while

Hmm, so what do you think about running it on my production servers? Well if you can call them that, basically the two servers in my home network? Both are similiar dual PIII 1GB RAM, Win 20003 for AD, file/print server. Would running F@H have any ill effect on these? I mean they run 24/7/365 unless an update requires a reboot, or power goes out.

What my concern with running the client on them was before was that it might screw them up or make things slow down for the users.

ErikD said:

Hmm, so what do you think about running it on my production servers? Well if you can call them that, basically the two servers in my home network? Both are similiar dual PIII 1GB RAM, Win 20003 for AD, file/print server. Would running F@H have any ill effect on these? I mean they run 24/7/365 unless an update requires a reboot, or power goes out.

What my concern with running the client on them was before was that it might screw them up or make things slow down for the users.

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Install the console as a service. You could set it for either timeless units, or non bigpackets, and then it wont use much ram. Either way, the console will back off on the cpu if something else is trying to run. It shouldnt slow it down any.

Well for now I have decided to limit myself to the two spare machines I had.

The PIII is folding in my room as it is the cooler running of the two. I then moved the server downstairs to the workshop and set it up there with two instances of F@H running on it. I can just use remote desktop to check in on that one every so often, and play with the server OS for my studies as needed.

I guess at this point I will just let them run for a few days and see if it does any work, I get any points, etc. One question though, all of the PCs have machine ID 1. Would I need to make any different settings because I have multiple PCs running? Or dual CPUs?

ErikD said:

Well for now I have decided to limit myself to the two spare machines I had.

The PIII is folding in my room as it is the cooler running of the two. I then moved the server downstairs to the workshop and set it up there with two instances of F@H running on it. I can just use remote desktop to check in on that one every so often, and play with the server OS for my studies as needed.

I guess at this point I will just let them run for a few days and see if it does any work, I get any points, etc. One question though, all of the PCs have machine ID 1. Would I need to make any different settings because I have multiple PCs running? Or dual CPUs?

Click to expand...

machine ID doesn't matter unless you're running dual instances (such as on dual cpu's and/or hyperthreading)...

So on your dual PII system you'll want to change one of them to machineid=2 asap otherwise they're working on the same wu and it causes problems.

ErikD said:

I guess at this point I will just let them run for a few days and see if it does any work, I get any points, etc.

Click to expand...

You know what they say, A watched PC never finishes a WU.

Just turn them on and let it run and forget about it. Once you check them and look at your stats you will be hooked and be a folding-junkie. So just let it run and forget about them - focus on your studies - you will need it for those tests.

Ok, I stopped both instances of F@H on the dual P3 rig. I then used the one click install for dual rigs to reinstall everything.

Now I have just been watching the log get filled with timered checkpoint triggered messages. Granted I haven't been running it that long (maybe an hour), but on my other rig I am getting some frames done slowly. Is this message something I should be concerned about? Or should I just leave it longer and see if anything gets done overnight or longer?

Basically I am looking to know at what point should I say that something isn't working right with the dual CPU dual instances of F@H setup?

Leave it for a night, check points are @ 15 or 30 minutes.

If you used the one click, Hopefully you uninstalled the previous version of FaH? otherwise the checkpoints may be because of 4 instances fighting for control.

No I stopped the old services, unistalled the original installations, ans then did the one click. So it might just be doing regular checkpoints because the processors are slower?

I will leave it for a day and see if it does anything. If still no results then I will start to worry. Unless there are any known issues with Windows Server 2003?