Folding@Home

LiamC

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Windows XP on one, probably 2 notFred clients (Linux) in VM's under XP on another, and probably Kubuntu 64-bit on the Phenom. Not sure yet about that one, may go Windows 7. Anybody know how the X4/X6s perform? Similar to Core2?
 

LiamC

Storage Is My Life
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Windows XP on one, probably 2 notFred clients (Linux) in VM's under XP on another, and probably Kubuntu 64-bit on the Phenom. Not sure yet about that one, may go Windows 7. Anybody know how the X4/X6s perform? Similar to Core2?
 

CougTek

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Well, the heatsink AMD provides with the Phenom 945 isn't enough for running the Folding SMP client. That tiny thing is complaining loudly and I wouldn't dare to let it scream like this for more than a day. I started a unit half an hour ago and I'll post the time it takes to complete its unit tomorrow (assuming I don't sell the system before).

If you plan to fold on your Phenom X6, be sure to install a third party heatsink.
 

LiamC

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Too late. :) The heatpipe unit that ships with the X6 is actually very good. I fired up the Phenom with the stock all aluminium unit that shipped with the single & dual core Athlon 64's, and after everything was installed, fired up a single instance of F@H. After about 15 minutes, the temp was 50 degrees and still climbing. Shut it down, installed the heatpipe unit and it's been folding for about 4 hours and the temp hasn't broken 30 degrees yet. These X6 run very cool.

FWIW, a 2.83GHz C2Q is getting about 1 000ppd as measured by Fahmon. A 2.8GHz Phenom X6 is getting about 1 500ppd. But I know these C2Q's go to 3.6GHz @ stock voltage. Be interested to see how well the Phenom o/cs. I've got a spare GeminiII S cooler and Zalman 9500. Might try 3 SMP's on the Phenom...
 

CougTek

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FWIW, a 2.83GHz C2Q is getting about 1 000ppd as measured by Fahmon. A 2.8GHz Phenom X6 is getting about 1 500ppd.
Trust me, you can do a LOT better than that. Roughly five times better.

Might try 3 SMP's on the Phenom...
Read this thread. Don't run three SMP units. Run only one and complete it on time. If you configured the client with your passkey, the huge bonus will make any plan to run three simultaneous clients irrelevant.
 

CougTek

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The Phenom X4 945 takes ~10 hours and 3 minutes to complete a unit for projects 6023 and 6069. My Core 2 Quad 9450 operating at stock frequency (2.67GHz) needs 9 hours 41 minutes to complete a similar project (6024). The really bad part for the Phenom is that my C2Q 9450 is more than two years old and still beat it.
 

CougTek

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25000 points in one day ; you beat my expectations. Now you're not only a threat to Fushigi and P5_133XL, but to me too. I'll have to react.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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Is Fushigi still around? I also though Mark was long gone after one of Santilli's outbursts about 6 months ago.
 

LiamC

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25000 points in one day ; you beat my expectations. Now you're not only a threat to Fushigi and P5_133XL, but to me too. I'll have to react.

Closer to 30 500 :mrgrn:

But I tried folding on a Core Duo (original, not a Core 2 Duo), but it took 2 days to do a single 481 point unit. Having said that, everything is at stock clocks, so that needs to change :cool:
 

CougTek

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Stats, stats, stats...

We are currently the 146th team by our daily output. However, since many of the teams we out-produce are so far in front of us (many years before we overtake them), our current production is only good enough to maintain our ranking (our overall ranking by total production is 187th, soon 186th).

A look at our rooster and we don't have that many options to improve our position. Among the top producers by total points, excluding those currently running the client, only Handruin (up to last March) and Ddrueding (last October) have bothered making an effort for the cause. I assume all the others that are no onger running the client have given up for good. So we're left with the members who are already contributing to increase the team production.

Mark did his best month ever last month, but he's now back to his former normal beat. Which is ok ; we can't expect someone to constantly outdo himself. Especially since he's no longer participating in the forum. And even if he did, since there are no immediate threat to his ranking within the team (I'm 1.4 years away to overtake him), he's in no rush to upgrade his folding farm.

I suspect summer and heat are the main reasons behind Fushigi's recent production decrease. Computers produce heat so he must have shut down a few until Falls arrives.

Liam just resumed his contribution (Winter as just arrived down there) and it's a huge help. Can't ask for more.

So that leaves me, possibly Handruin and on a more remote possibility : Ddrueding. I know I might add another i7 to the cause in about a month or so if things go the way I plan (not sure). I have no idea for the other two possible condidates. All in all, we need 3 or 4 additional i7 running the big units to break in the top 100 teams by daily production. One will probably be coming from me. If it's going to happen, someone else has to do something.

I forgot to mention the other three contributing members. I know Pradeep once mentioned he felt peer preasure (now would be a good time). I assume Dan Shearer doesn't have a significant folding farm and I doubt he'll add more punch. Your help is greatly appreciated. I won't push our luck by asking for more. And Tannin has been (an expression he must be getting used to ;-) ) folding on the same computer for years : I doubt it'll change.

Oh and Miksmi used to contribute to the team and I know he still visits from time to time. Him and his friend Gary (unless I'm mistaken). I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 

CougTek

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Oh yeah, there's Santilli too. I don't mind if there's a SCSI drive in your system. And you could run the client in background instead of wasting the CPU cycles between the ATTO runs. That would be a great way to show off how powerful that overclocked i7 really is.
 

ddrueding

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I have a few spare machines, but setting it up for maximum production was considerable effort last time I tried.

I have quite a few spare cores (8? 64-bit, ~2Ghz) in the VMWare farm, is there a decent VM image I could throw on there?

My workstation could be assigned to the purpose, but how complex is getting it running on Win7? Would the 5870s be of some use?
 

CougTek

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8 cores operating at 2GHz isn't enough to complete a -bigadv unit on time (you would need to clock them above 2.5GHz), so you would have to run the regular smp client. It gives good results ; that's what LiamC is using and he's matching my production (although he has three systems while I only have two). I think the Linux client still has an advantage over the Windows client. You can install any Linux flavor you want and then install the Linux client on it. Configuration depends on the Linux distribution you use. The latest Fedora and Ubuntu releases require a bit more work. CentOS 5.4 works well and it's simpler to setup the client on it. Just tell me what distribution you'll use and I'll tell you how to configure it.

I'm using the Windows smp client on the computer I'm typing this from. It is quite easy to configure. If it isn't clear, I can try to give you a step-by-step guide.

It is also important that you obtain a passkey as there is a huge bonus assosciated with it.
 

CougTek

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I'm no VMWare guru. I can try to setup an image with the client already installed, but I would need your passkey to complete the configuration. I have no idea if I'll be able to do this correctly though. Just obtain your passkey and send me a pm with it. I'll see what I can do.

What size does it have to fit in (the whole image)?
 

CougTek

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I would not bother with the Radeon HD 5870. Points reward for ATI GPU client is not spectacular. IMO, it is spending a lot of Watts for a so-so folding production. And the stability in games when the client is running isn't all that great.

Not worth the trouble.
 

LiamC

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dd,

Core A3 Windows is (according to bruce and/or kasson from the project) better than the Linux A2 core.
If you have Win32 boxes, run the SMP Deino client with passkey.
If you have Win64 boxes, you must run the SMP MPICH client (with passkey)--it's a little flakey when you lose your IP, but installing the Microsoft Loopback adapter with a dummy IP fixes that issue.

If you want Linux VM client already rolled, look up the "notFred" image. You will have to go into a browser and set the Team # manually, otherwise you'll be folding for TechReport :(
 

LiamC

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Oh yeah, what Coug said about ATi. You get good points, but not as good as NVIDIA, and the points/watt are horrendous
 

LiamC

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A final note: Phenom X6 isn't a bad folder. It's not bad clock for clock compared to Core 2 Quad, but will lose out in power, but it's not a really hungry beast. On some projects though--6014??, it really smashes the Core 2 Quads...
 

CougTek

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Did VMWare Server changed radically recently? I installed it last evening and it isn't at all what I remember it was. Or maybe I used VMWare workstation back then. Whatever. It is not doing what I want it to do, or at least not the way I thought I could do it.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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He's been gone from SF for over three months according to the Statistics page. Have you tried e-mail?
 

CougTek

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I've only been folding on one computer for the last two weeks. This computer has a two-years-old Xeon X3350 and it produces 35500 points per week. I upgraded the client to the newer 6.30 version half-an-hour ago.

I stopped my most productive system (core i7 860) two weeks ago and did not bother restarting it before today. I replaced the Linux OS by Windows 7, since it has been a while since I received a bigadv unit and there wasn't any advantage left in running Linux over Windows. Especially since LiamC wrote that the newer Windows client out-produces the Linux client.

All in all, while it won't help me reach LiamC's level, I should more than double and maybe even triple my production from the last two weeks. About time because it was pathetic compared to what I did during the previous five months.

Lastly, I won't be able to add my mini-ITX Core i7 to my folding farm. At least not before I find a decent cooler for the CPU. The retail one barely keeps up and the idle temperature is overing 55 Celsius. I won't try pusing all four cores at 100% with such a tiny whiner failing to cold it adequately.
 
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