Optimizing a stand-alone box exclusively for Folding

[donny_paycheck]

This is what I do because I feel it offers best performance for running the FAH client. You guys probably do things differently a bit, so add your methods to this thread. My idea is to develop a loose set of guidelines for BIOS tweaks and overclocks that will put folding performance above all others.

For optimizing a system for folding, I place clock speed above everything else. FAH relies on processor floating point unit performance above everything else, so the common rule of thumb about FSB speed and memory timings being critical does not hold true for decreasing WU times. Whether I hit a high clock speed by upping the FSB or the multiplier does not matter. I go for the highest speed through any means.

This often requires relaxing memory timings as well, but I do this as much as necessary because I don't believe it has as much bearing on WU times as CPU clock speed does.

Does this sound right? How do you guys overclock your folding boxes? Hopefully we can develop a standard for getting the most out of our systems so we can put our money where (some of) our mouths have been with the recent smack talking and ramp up our production!

 

[Malakai]

sounds right. p4's are sucky folders, even with high mamory bandwidth. i would keep upping the multi and than fine tune the cpu clock by changing the fsb. i wouldn't even be trying to o/c the fsb, just keep max timings for reduced latency
-Malakai

 

[portorock]

...high mamory bandwidth...-Malakai

You said it, "Mammary" bandwidth j/k