Folding@Home

[P5-133XL]

Incase someone hasn't noticed our individual and team production just sky-rocketed. I suspect the cause is from the fact that yesterday Stanford changed the reference machine to a 2.8Ghz P4 from their previous 500Mhz Celeron. This is a very signifigent change! They are not changing any point values retroactively.

SSE (Not SSE2 or 3dNow) will now be considered in the point values for projects which makes Tinkers more much more valuable than before. To optimize your performance under the new rules use the -advmethod flag if you have a P4/Athlon64/Opteron (you will get more Gromacs that use SSE2) and don't use that flag for Athlons. Also for Athlons, continue using the -forceSSE flag to ensure that SSE is being used whenever possible.

 

[P5-133XL]

Just to show how big a difference this makes.

My old 70.9 point tinkers are now getting 249 points each.

It is a shame that this is not retroactive considering the amount of these I've folded my score would probably double.

 

[Fushigi]

To optimize your performance under the new rules use the -advmethod flag if you have a P4/Athlon64/Opteron (you will get more Gromacs that use SSE2) and don't use that flag for Athlons.

What about Xeons? Specifically newer ones like the Dell PowerEdge 2650s ?

 

[P5-133XL]

Xeons have SSE2 so go into the P4/Athlon64/Opteron category.

 

[CougTek]

It is a shame that this is not retroactive considering the amount of these I've folded my score would probably double.

Considering the amount of units that I and Cliptin did before you, Fushigi and Jake_the_dog increased your production, tell yourself you're not the only one who's been screwed with Stanford's stats changes over the years.

 

[Pradeep]

-advmethods is the flag. Thank god tinkers will get more. Thanks.

 

[ddrueding]

Looking into getting involved here...I do have a fair number of machines. But I need assurances that the client is completely stable and won't negatively impact the active application.

I have 20 of Athlon64 3000+ machines that run 24/7 off a T-1. Would this be a significant contribution?

 

[Handruin]

:mrgrn: I think you know dang well, that's a significant contribution. wneddnce: I play UT2004 all the time with F@H running in the BG. My machine is on almost 24/7 with reboots every 10-20 days.

 

[CougTek]

I have 20 of Athlon64 3000+ machines that run 24/7 off a T-1. Would this be a significant contribution?

Shit, so another one is going to pass me in the stats, sigh...

 

[Mercutio]

Before my co-workers started whining about the processor utilization graph in "task manager" , I ran a F@H on couple dozen machines in my classrooms with absolutely no ill effect (except my co-workers' eventual whining).

 

[P5-133XL]

Yes that is a signifigent contrabution and yes the program appears to be totally stable. I run 24x7 and haven't have had a reboot attributable to F@H since the v4 of the console client. I do note that the program does work the CPU enough that it is a excellent detector of excessive overclocking: the only association I have had with instability which I solved by eliminating the OC'ing on that one machine.

You may choose to install the F@H program as a service (I use Fire Daemon to convert it to a service) so that it won't be noticable to any users and so that they can't convienantly interfere with it. The only noticable effect is that the CPU usage that pegs-out at 100%.

 

[ddrueding]

Alright guys, I'm in :mrgrn:

Not that I'm a threat to any of you, starting so late in the game.

Could you guys help me out the setup?

I plan on putting it on the "master" system then ghosting it out to the rest. What is the best way to do this? Can I do the complete config on the master, or will I need to do some work on every system after the copy? I'll read up on the install process now.

 

[P5-133XL]

How do you want it: As a service; a screen saver, or a console application and yes I'm assuming a Windows XP/NT/W2k/W2k3 OS with the following instructions?

Yes, you should be able to ghost a configuration to everyone.

My suggestion is to run as a service. for that you need to DL Fire Daemon - Free/Lite version will work fine for single processors, and the Folding@home console version

You need to create a directory to put The F@H program (FAH4Console.exe) seperate from everything else (I use c:\Program files\FAH) and then place it there. Then it run cmd to get a command prompt; type cd "\Program files\FAH\" to get to the directory; type "FAH4Console.exe -configonly" to run the F@H program just to configure it. Then answer the following questions:

User name [Anonomous]? <username>
Team Number[0]? 10047 - Storage Forums Team number
Ask before sending/receiving work [No]? No
Use internet Explorer Settings (No/Yes)? Yes - Typically yes but It depends on how you connect to the internet.
Change Advanced options (Yes/No)? no

Folding at home is now properly configured. Next is to install Fire Daemon. Run the Fire Daemon installer and use all the default selections. That will install it into c:\Program files\fire Daemon. and place a shortcut to it on the desktop. Run the shortcut.

You now need to create a service click on the first button on the left. Creat a Short name and a display name (I use FAH for both). checkmark Console application. Give the working directory of FAH (c:\Program files\FAH). Give the application name (FAH4Console.exe). Give it the correct parameters: -service -local -forceSSE -advmethods. Goto the advanced tab and make the priority = idle. then click install. You may now leave fire Daemon. Everything is now up and running.

However, that is not what you want because you are going to ghost it. You need to stop the service (Run the fire Daemon shortcut). click on the FAH service and go to the menu service->stop. Since the FAH program has now run it has DL'ed a work unit and started working on it. You need to delete that work unit because you don't want to ghost it to all the other machines. You need to goto the c:/Program Files/FAH directory and delete the Work folder/directory.

The system is now Ghostable. Once Ghosted to another machine FAH will automaticly startup running as a service during bootup.

If you install more stuff on the original source machine and want to ghost everything to the destination machines then don't forget to stop the service and delete the c:\Program files\FAH\Work folder so that all the destination machines don't end up trying to fold the same identical WU.

I hope my directions are clear, detailed, and accurate enough that everything works as expected the first time. I can give you further instructions if you are not interested in running FAH as a service.

 

[P5-133XL]

With 20 Athlon64 3000's you are a threat to everyone: even starting this late. You will be producing aprox 3x the highest producer here. My best approximation is that it will take aprox 3 months for you to get into 1st place.

 

[Pradeep]

IIRC there is a program/reg hack that disables the Task Mangler screen from coming up, I've noticed it on severely locked down machines. That way no one can bitch about cpu util graphs

 

[ddrueding]

Wow Mark, thaqnks for the detailed how-to. I actually already have a registered copy of firedaemon runnon on my game server, so I can see how it would be useful in this application.

From (briefly) reading a (very few) posts here, mentioning "clusters", "farms", and entire offices, I honestly wasn't sure that 20 systems would make that much of a dent.

I'll get my home system and one at the shop running now, and set up the rest when I get the stupid PXE/ghost thing working :evil:

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry for the typos, this is consecutive hour number 30 of work...and no alchohol!

Just a follow up question...my system at home gets shut down every night I'm there, how much work is lost each time I shutdown/restart?

 

[P5-133XL]

By default the program creates a checkpoint every 15 minutes. If you go into advanced options you can make it more or less. Further it will create a checkpoint everytime it finishes a frame, but that varies depending upon the WU and the processing power of the computer.

 

[ddrueding]

IIRC there is a program/reg hack that disables the Task Mangler screen from coming up, I've noticed it on severely locked down machines. That way no one can bitch about cpu util graphs

These systems are already more severely locked down than that. They don't have a taskbar, or desktop, much less a windows key of any sort or access to "Alt-Ctrl-Del"

 

[blakerwry]

i wonder if you could simply rename the taskmgr.exe to taskmglr.exe (task mangler)?


you could also capture ctrl-alt-del the keystroke I would think...

 

[ddrueding]

Is there a place where I can get more granular statistics? Such as WU/day, or better yet Avg. time/WU?

 

[Pradeep]

Don't forget Ctrl+Shift+Esc

 

[P5-133XL]

Is there a place where I can get more granular statistics? Such as WU/day, or better yet Avg. time/WU?

Try:

Electron Microscope
Currently works fine but is limited to 13 machines and since you have more than that in the long run, it may not be the best for you.


Logstats v.71
Logstats currently does not give correct point values since Stanfords revaluing of all their WU's. I expect a new version shortly to correct that. It however, does work well showing the stats for a network of computers.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks Mark, I'll check those out.

So far I've run one of the systems for 3 days. It averages out to ~1WU a day (~65 Points).

This would be about 1300pts per day for all 20. Meaning that even if you guys stopped today, I wouldn't be in the lead for another 92 days. You guys have nothing to worry about

 

[P5-133XL]

I have 7 systems and I'm one of the (if not the) top producer here; you have 20 and they are all Athlon64's. In the long run, you'll win any race.

Does this matter to me - Not in the slightest.


Go! Go! Go! Go!

 

[Fushigi]

I've got 14 systems crunching. Not all are up 24x7, though, and they range from a lowly P2/333 to an Athlon XP 2800 (1700 OCed). Eight are 1GHz PIIIs (1/2 of a dual-CPU server). If they had a unix PowerPC version I could run it on my 400s. That'd bring 6 decent CPUs to bear.

As far as passing the rest of us, DD, go for it! While the competitive side of me would like to stay towards the top, the humanitarian side of me says the more the better and it's all for a good cause.

Maybe I'll upgrade the wife's Athlon Classic 800MHz sometime this year; it's been used & abused so much the keyboard & mouse connectors are starting to flake out once in a while. If I do, I'd replace it with something quite a bit faster. Maybe give her my 2800 and get an A64 for myself.

 

[The JoJo]

With David's help this team will start kicking some a** again!


Now, where to find some more machines...otherwise he'll fly right past me during the next few months....

 

[The JoJo]

Only 7 systems Mark??!
Could you give the specs for them?

I think I'm running the following now:
Barton 3000
Barton 2800
XP 1700
1.6 Mobile in laptop (T40)
Celeron 500
and probably 5 more at a friends place (not sure how many computers he installed FAH on).

 

[P5-133XL]

one 3.2GHz HT P4
one Dual 1900MP Athlon
two 2500+ Bartons
three 2500+ Bartons overclocked to 3200+

Do you want more details?

 

[The JoJo]

Thanks! No, I reckon the most important details were there

 

[CougTek]

Mark,

Is the Pentium 4 more prolific than the overclocked Barton now that the new FAH core gives more points to SSE2-optimized processors?

If yes, I'm pissed. I've just assembled a Barton-based system last week.

 

[Mercutio]

If it's a big deal, it'd cost about US$150 to put together a HIGHLY overclockable P4 2.4A (that's the 533MHz Prescott) + motherboard. I understand those chips reliably hit 3.3Ghz with a few tweaks to core frequency.

It should be easy enough to get rid of a brand new Barton + board combo.

 

[P5-133XL]

Mark,

Is the Pentium 4 more prolific than the overclocked Barton now that the new FAH core gives more points to SSE2-optimized processors?

If yes, I'm pissed. I've just assembled a Barton-based system last week.

Yes -- Piss away. SSE2 only apples for the newest beta WU's (Dromacs) and then there appears to be a slight ~10% gain for SSE2 over SSE. If you run your P4's in HT mode with dual WU's then the P4's do even better: You gain aprox 25-30% (additive to the previous 10%). Neither of these capabilites are incorporated into the current point system and both give P4's an advantage to Intel over AMD.

 

[CougTek]

Yes -- Piss away.

My speakers aren't plugged, but that should be pretty close.

 

[ddrueding]

Wow, there are some cool stat pages out there:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=10047

http://statsman.ww-testsites.co.uk/folding2stats/html/10047.html

 

[CougTek]

Statsman was our previous "default" stats page (the one linked on the front page). The other is our current linked stats engine.

I'm glad you've found the link on our front page.

 

[ddrueding]

Statsman was our previous "default" stats page (the one linked on the front page). The other is our current linked stats engine.

I'm glad you've found the link on our front page.

Actually, I've never looked at the front page of SF...

I just googled for my username and came up with those.

 

[ddrueding]

Unfortuatly, my system image has been delayed due to the destruction of my activation-free copy of XP Pro....once I get another I'll be able to deply this beast. In the meantime I'm still running one machine 24/7...

 

[ddrueding]

The image is completed and has been deployed for 2 days now. More than enough time for a WU to complete per machine. But my stats are still only 2 active CPUs? Am I missing something?

 

[P5-133XL]

You are just plain gonna have to check a machine to find out what is going on.