Team CFC: Folding@Home project

[IglooDame]

Yeah, I was only keeping it warm for you. Now my paltry four core SMP Mac can sit back and relax while all these upstart GPUs take the strain

Hey, it's been cranking along pretty good for a while, no worries.

And my foldgarden's FahMon app apparently crashed on Saturday taking some huge amount of memory utilization with it and dropping the box to 4000 PPD, it's back up to par now.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Hey, it's been cranking along pretty good for a while, no worries.

And my foldgarden's FahMon app apparently crashed on Saturday taking some huge amount of memory utilization with it and dropping the box to 4000 PPD, it's back up to par now.

I was wondering why you dropped in ppd. Why dont you keep FahMon on a different computer on the network?

 

[LucyDuke]

It finally works on this computer. Sheesh, it wouldn't run for like a year but I just tried installing it again and now I've got it going.

That'll be the better part of 1.8GHz for about eight hours a day, which'll at least double what my laptop's doing. Nothing on what y'all leaders are doing, but it's my part. I'll get it installed in the other office boxes here soon, too, I hope.

 

[IglooDame]

I was wondering why you dropped in ppd. Why dont you keep FahMon on a different computer on the network?

Office rules - I need to keep the foldgarden as isolated as possible from the corporate network.

It finally works on this computer. Sheesh, it wouldn't run for like a year but I just tried installing it again and now I've got it going.

That'll be the better part of 1.8GHz for about eight hours a day, which'll at least double what my laptop's doing. Nothing on what y'all leaders are doing, but it's my part. I'll get it installed in the other office boxes here soon, too, I hope.

Yeah, that's kinda what happened to me - couldn't get the newer version running worth a damn, and then corporate IT policy changes made it a moot point. Anyway, yay! Spreading it out to the office computers is really the way to go - just ask Sahkuhnder.

 

[plarq]

Using office computer to fold?

 

[Quintillus]

Okay, I'm on board now and about 3% through my first unit. Running the GPU client on my 8600M GT. Seems to slow down the desktop graphics a bit, though - scrolling in CFC isn't very smooth when it's not paused, for example. But I can run it most of the time at least. Might pause it when I play games, though.

For the CPU side I'll have to decide whether to keep with World Community Grid or to run both as F@H. Tried to install F@H CPU sometime last month and didn't have any luck, so I may just leave that as WCG.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Okay, I'm on board now and about 3% through my first unit. Running the GPU client on my 8600M GT. Seems to slow down the desktop graphics a bit, though - scrolling in CFC isn't very smooth when it's not paused, for example. But I can run it most of the time at least. Might pause it when I play games, though.

For the CPU side I'll have to decide whether to keep with World Community Grid or to run both as F@H. Tried to install F@H CPU sometime last month and didn't have any luck, so I may just leave that as WCG.

Run the SMP client. If you're not doing CPU intensive games ( such as civ where you dont need the cpu to snap to in a split second) then you dont even need to pause it.
For the GPU, my own personal experience is that big WU's use less shaders and therefore run a little cooler/less core usage.

If you run either though, you really dont want to do part-time. You may not finish before the deadlines.

Unrelated: IglooDude, I hate you. You and your 16000ppd.

 

[Quintillus]

Run the SMP client. If you're not doing CPU intensive games ( such as civ where you dont need the cpu to snap to in a split second) then you dont even need to pause it.
For the GPU, my own personal experience is that big WU's use less shaders and therefore run a little cooler/less core usage.

If you run either though, you really dont want to do part-time. You may not finish before the deadlines.

Unrelated: IglooDude, I hate you. You and your 16000ppd.

I got the single-core CPU client set up since my last post. I may look into the SMP one as well - I think that's what I tried to set up last time. Still not sure if the single core one is working. It was doing work for 5 minutes or so but just now decided to get a different work packet instead.

As for Civ... my Civ3 games would take forever with limited CPU power (gigantic maps). It will depend on how good the SMP client is at powering down. Although it looks like temperatures may be an issue first.

The GPU is estimated at 611 PPD by FahMon. Does this sound reasonable for an 8600M GT? I've got other drivers downloading to try if it's unusually low.

edit: 97ºC on the CPU. That's a bit too high for me. Don't think I want to leave the CPU one on overnight quite yet if it's running that hot with just the single-threaded one and not much else taxing the CPU. Might have to go just GPU. It maxed at 77ºС by itself, which is acceptable.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I got the single-core CPU client set up since my last post. I may look into the SMP one as well - I think that's what I tried to set up last time. Still not sure if the single core one is working. It was doing work for 5 minutes or so but just now decided to get a different work packet instead.

As for Civ... my Civ3 games would take forever with limited CPU power (gigantic maps). It will depend on how good the SMP client is at powering down. Although it looks like temperatures may be an issue first.

The GPU is estimated at 611 PPD by FahMon. Does this sound reasonable for an 8600M GT? I've got other drivers downloading to try if it's unusually low.

edit: 97ºC on the CPU. That's a bit too high for me. Don't think I want to leave the CPU one on overnight quite yet if it's running that hot with just the single-threaded one and not much else taxing the CPU. Might have to go just GPU. It maxed at 77ºС by itself, which is acceptable.

Oh, whoah whoah whoah. Kill the GPU client now.
Do NOT do folding on a mobile GPU. The cooling solutions on all but a select few laptops will not be able to handle it. The GPU is 77C now, but you're gonna be pumping a lot of heat into that small shell. Id stil with two default CPU clients instead.

97C for CPU -- I hope you got a good chip, cus temps like that mean death. Above 75 is unacceptable for anything but linpack. 97C should have killed it. I have my desktop set to shut down if my CPU or GPU hit 80.

 

[Fifty]

How much $$$ will running F@H on a Q6600 cost me per year?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Depends on how much electricity is per KwH where you live. Its like 16.5c for me on average, so this rig is sucking down nearly 60$ a month. Mind you, Im running the GPU client which is power hungry. Im gonna go somewhere in the ballpark of 200-300$/year, YMMV.

 

[IglooDame]

Unrelated: IglooDude, I hate you. You and your 16000ppd.

Don't hate me for my folding, hate me because I'm beautiful.

How much $$$ will running F@H on a Q6600 cost me per year?

Aside from GB's question about electricity rates, would you be running it 24/7 anyway? If so it'd just be the difference between the CPU running at a 2% average or a 100% average. If you wouldn't be running it all the time then you'd have to factor in the cost of running the whole PC during the hours when you'd otherwise have it powered off.

 

[Theige]

I'm officially on the board with my first WU done (Username Chronic)

It won't let me change my username for some reason... but oh well

 

[Izipo]

Welcome on board Theige, we've reached the 200 users mark thanks to you

 

[LucyDuke]

Using office computer to fold?

Why not? Whatever electricity use difference there could be, for me, is less than a drop in our bucket.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Just wanted to stop by and say hi.

It looks like we have some serious new hardware folding now and the team is starting to climb again. Nice to see some old names that I know and hello to everyone I haven't met.

I got the single-core CPU client set up since my last post. I may look into the SMP one as well

If you have more than one core SMP is a bit more complex to initially set up but produces vastly more points.

As for Civ... my Civ3 games would take forever with limited CPU power (gigantic maps). It will depend on how good the SMP client is at powering down.

You can turn the F@H client on or off without hurting anything. If you are running something like Civ you will want to shut down F@H first. Just remember to restart the F@H client when you are done playing so that the WU gets finished before the deadline.

The GPU is estimated at 611 PPD by FahMon. Does this sound reasonable for an 8600M GT?

Yes. A 8600M GS we have normally gets about 500-700 PPD, but can be as low as 350 PPD depending on which WU.


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Oh, whoah whoah whoah. Kill the GPU client now.
Do NOT do folding on a mobile GPU. The cooling solutions on all but a select few laptops will not be able to handle it. The GPU is 77C now, but you're gonna be pumping a lot of heat into that small shell. Id stil with two default CPU clients instead.

97C for CPU -- I hope you got a good chip, cus temps like that mean death. Above 75 is unacceptable for anything but linpack. 97C should have killed it. I have my desktop set to shut down if my CPU or GPU hit 80.

Bold by me.

This really depends on the specific laptop so I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying folding with their particular model. I put F@H on a couple of different model HP laptops with Nvidia mobile cards and they both run just fine. Core Temp shows the SMP cpu client runs about 55-65C and RivaTuner shows the gpu client temp at about 65-70C. Both of these temps are within the safe range and the users haven't reported any problems like frozen screens or crashes that would be a symptom of running too hot.

You are right though that 97C is waaaay too hot.


====================

How much $$$ will running F@H on a Q6600 cost me per year?

It depends on your electric rate but the SMP client shouldn't be too bad. Your Q6600 running at full speed should be around 150 watts or so and maybe $10 per month. Like Genocidicbunny said, it's "the GPU client which is power hungry".

I've seen your name on the team. If you are curious give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[fezzic181]

As far as folding goes on laptops I definatley agree its all model dependent. You don't want to do it unless you've got the software running to read temps of cpu/gpu/HD.
My old lappy would fold along just fine. What I didn't know was due to the case design the HD was really close to the CPU. The cpu temps were fine while folding but it cooked the HD.

When you see a temp like 97C stop. Now what you need to find out is the heatsink incorrectly installed? Is a fan dead? Or is the temp software you have misreading the temp? Because that temp is well above what any component is will work at. If its still running along with that temp listed then you've most likely got a reporting issue.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

As far as folding goes on laptops I definatley agree its all model dependent. You don't want to do it unless you've got the software running to read temps of cpu/gpu/HD.

You are right and I would hate for anyone to burn up their laptop because they didn't know how hot it was running. I linked to the temperature monitor software for those who may not know their system temps. Strongly recommended for everyone - running F@H or not.

When you see a temp like 97C stop. Now what you need to find out is the heatsink incorrectly installed? Is a fan dead? Or is the temp software you have misreading the temp? Because that temp is well above what any component is will work at. If its still running along with that temp listed then you've most likely got a reporting issue.

97C seems like a problem other than just running F@H. No system should ever get that hot. I would have it serviced to make sure as you said the heatsink is installed correctly and the fan works. A good cleaning of the crud that accumulates inside can do wonders for airflow and temperature too. If that doesn't work then I would question the accuracy of the sensor. Something is wrong.

 

[Theige]

Welcome on board Theige, we've reached the 200 users mark thanks to you

Thanks Izipo!

This talk about laptops, I'm using a macbook but it doesn't seem to run very hot at all... I should be in the clear no?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If it doesnt run too hot, then no, you should be fine. Its also a macbook which is probably a bit better designed.

And now team, lets get to 50 active users at least. 200 users is great, but we've only got 39 that are actually contributing anything.