:) Folding Wha?

[Timmybighands]

Yello...

I'm reading and reading your posts, and I've read all about folding@home but I cant seem to understand all the hype about it.

I guess I understand that it's supposed to help us all, but why are we all so gung-hoe about this? Help me figure it out, and maybe recruit a new guy

TimmyBigHands

 

[Arkaine23]

Aside form the good cause, its useful as a non-stop stability test. And as many computer hardware enthusiasts go nuts about performance, distributed computing programs give them another way to compete with each other. They may not admit it, but a lot of them are in it for the points and competitive aspect.

 

[Timmybighands]

I thought so. Any other comments guys? I'm sitting here bored tonight, and I thought I'd get a ZILLION pms from team32 asking me to join. Nothing so far. Sounds like this could take up some more bored time for me, so I may go download it.

 

[anvil82]

It's fun to borg as many comps as you can get your hands on.

If there was no stats I probably would have never bothered doing it

At least I'm honest

 

[Timmybighands]

someone send me some team32 joining info

 

[anvil82]

http://folding.octeams.com/

 

[Tismedt]

Well its a very complicated thing to explain. You've been reading so by now you know FAH could and probably will cure many ailments. Its a worth while cause that will make you feel very good the day they announce a cure for a major illness. What makes it so attractive to Overclockers (besides the cause) is the challenge of getting the most out of your system and seeing the benifit in the form of points. The faster your rig the quicker it finishes a work unit. (WU) The points you earn develope a compitetion among yourself and fellow team mates as well as with other teams. At one point I had 9 rigs running in a farm that has now dwindled to 5 due to selling rigs and helping my sis out with another. I'm currently in 61st place and hoping to someday get into the top 50 but it will be tough. Lots a heavy borging going on.

Its an addiction so be careful timmy. You may find yourself seated at your desk with several computers folding at home. All those extra parts get ressurected and the OCing begins anew. Its queit a challenge and a lot of fun.

Download the latest Beta and give it a whirl. To join team 32 all you have to do is download the client and it will ask you what team during the config proccess.

 

[Timmybighands]

Thanks tismedt. THAT's the kind of info I was looking for.

 

[CrashOveride]

Well besides the obvious helping part here are the some of the reasons I have found:
What else are you gonna do with your extra CPU cycles?
It brings people together (for fun and crazness)
It's the OC forum team and you have to Fold for [OC]FoldingNinjas
!!! lol

 

[Timmybighands]

Haha, I found your folding ninjas thing

I cant make this run right, can anybody help? My AIM is mrpeterdjones

 

[Fast420A]

I'll AIM you tonight when I get home from work if you haven't figured it out yet.

Welcome to the FOLD....and the addiction!!!!


and with this as your farm starting point... that't a great start!

Current setups:
1. 2.4c/ic7/xms3200/raptors (sig)
2. xp1800/MSI kt333/generic2100/20gb
3. xp2600333/soyo kt400/xms2700/80gb
4. xp1800/gigabyte nf2/generic2100
5. duron900/soltek kt266/generic2100

 

[Tismedt]

Welcome to fold Timmy. Hope you enjoy your new addiction. I'll be looking for you on the first page in about two months. Just don't pass ME

 

[Timmybighands]

Great guys. This is pretty cool. I've downloaded the WinClient Display and have been running this now for about a half hour on my main rig.

It says it's working on p689_L939_K12M_...... And I've only got 1/400 progress at 0%. Is that normal?

 

[Fast420A]

You've got a tinker going there, they are kinda slow compared to gromacs which have 3dNow and SSE optimizations available.

 

[Tismedt]

If you set the flags -advmethods -forceasm your chances of getting the tinker core WU (protiens) will be less. The tinkers are slower and dont rack up as many points. I don't know how far your knowlege has progressed so I'll explain a bit.

There are 3 diff cores available and they are selected by the server your rigs log on to according to what protien you get. Each core has several diffrent protiens assigned to them. There are some hacks I've read about that will get you only gromacs but I don't use them. It seems like cheating to me. After your rig runs the client for a few days you should have at least two of the three cores. Gromacs and tinker. As the server assigns the WU the client downloads the appropriate core. Once its downloaded it will be stored in your FAH directory for future use. The gromacs core is the latest and fastest core available. The tinker core is a decent speed core but not as fast as the gromac. Some tinker protiens will get you 70 points but it will take 20 to 30 hours to complete where a gromac will get you between 30 and 60 points but does the work in 10 to 20 hrs. The other core (forget its name every time) is the oldest core and is only advised for very slow computer (pre PII)s. My 2800 crunches gromacs frames in about ten minutes. A tinker frame takes about 22 min.

If you decide you want to dump the tinker core just delete everything in the FAH directory then restatr the client and reconfigure. If the flags are set you should get a gromac protien and your off to the race to the top. I let every WU run no matter what core or value of the WU. It seems to me Stanford needs the WU done or it would'nt be sent out. The FAQ sticky has tons of info and it can be hard to find what you are looking for. Just ask and the team will help you find the answers.

 

[Xymurgy]

You'll probably want 2 instances running, as well. For this you need two seperate directories/folders with the FAH files in them. Then you can run two clients. I had to put the -local flag in order for mine to work.