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There was a note on the Folding Forum that the Mac SMP beta had a new version since the current one dies on July 2nd. I had an opportunity to replace one of my running Folding clients tonight and I'll swap out the other one some time tomorrow. Of course, the one I replace had Zombied after finishing, so it sat idle for three hours until I checked up on it. I hope the new SMP Client is a little better about that, but I doubt it. I think all they did was change the expiration date.

To do a burn-in test on the HP I repaired, I have been Folding on the Athlon XP PC since yesterday by running the KNOPPIX CD for an OS and running the Linux Console client from the RAM disk (no HDD). The current P2621 WU (292 pts) is folding at approximately 1% every 22 minutes. That works out to a little over 190 ppd, or almost 8 pph (about 8% of the Mac Pro's production rate). I'm hoping that after it finishes, it downloads a juicier WU since I added a gigabyte of RAM to the machine and maybe that will help it get a better assignment.

I'm not too sure exactly how old this PC is, but it lived a hard life in a high-temperature environment. I didn't know that I needed to replace the case and P/S fans, too. I was able to get at the bearings on the two fans and use WD40 & teflon lube to get them spinning smoothly again. If I had known that I needed new fans, I could have added them to the parts order and that would have easily gotten the minimum dollar amount to avoid the minimum handling charge. It's a lot quieter now, except the P/S fan does make a little "scritchy" sound every now and then, but no worse than a modern disk drive seeking.

I'll let it Fold for as long as I can, but I need to find it a new home. It's getting too warm in here!
 
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I have a question about folding@home. I have set it up on two computers. My desktop and my laptop. My question, is why do some frames take longer to complete then others. Whatever my desktop computer is working on, is taking 1m 20 for each frame, compared to much less the last thing it was working on. Also how are the points given out. Is it based just on each WU that is finished, or the size of the WU.

Just curious.
 
We have another member of the 100K Club! jgantert now has 100,665 points!
 
We have another member of the 100K Club! jgantert now has 100,665 points!

You can thank the PS3 for that. :) And some of the computer under the stairs. Haha (I'll try to post pics sometime when I get a chance). Folding is lucky there are no good PS3 games, otherwise it might not have got as much time.

Still looking at upgrading my computer system to maybe a Gateway 8020 (Core 2 Quad, ATI 1950 crossfire), but I haven't pulled the trigger on that one yet.

-John
 
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Well, just got a new system (Core 2 Quad Q6600 with ATI 1650 (pro?) PCIe graphics).

What's the best way to maximize the performance on this box? I have the GPU client running already, and it hardly uses any CPU time. So should I run the SMP client or 4 regular clients?

-John
 
I'd go with the SMP client since you have other boxes Folding. The Windows SMP console won't run as a service so you'll have to manually start it up after rebooting. You may find that even with the SMP client running that you have idle time remaining, though, but the SMP WUs tend to be worth 1,440, 1,536, or 1,760 points.
 
Wow, that dual core really gets the points. I gave up on the 1650 card. Each time I exited the GPU core and restarted, I got bad end of unit. Oh well.

-John
 
jg, is the gpu client working still for you? Mine expired and I have been on a trip so I cannot get the client they just released (supposedly only for 1900/1950 cards).

This trip is costing alot of folding work. Work laptop is off alot and then I realized that my GPU client stopped working Saturday night due to expiration date and the new client was not released until after the expiration date.

Edit: nevermind, I see you stopped using it.
 
John,
SatinKzo seems to have had pretty good success with the GPU client. Maybe he can give you a few pointers. Speaking of GPU problems, there was some guy who was running the wrong version of the Catalyst drivers for his X1900 card. His GPU client was terminating with the EUE over and over again. He racked up over 2,000 WUs or so before he fixed it. For some reason Stanford records the EUE as being a 0-point WU, so every time the GPU client dies, you get another WU added to your stats.

I was pricing out a C2D 6600 PC the other day and found that one could be configured for around $1,000 from Dell or $1,400 from HP. Depending on your points per WU, it sounds like you're getting 1½ WU/day. If you're getting 1,440-point WUs, that's 2,160 points per day!

*Edt* Satin posted while I was taking my time typing. Oh, well...
 
jg, yeah, if you want some help with GPU client, let me know. Other than the client expiring, I have not had a single EUE or any other error except Remote control programs and such that cause it to ab-end, but a work around is easy for that.
 
jg, yeah, if you want some help with GPU client, let me know. Other than the client expiring, I have not had a single EUE or any other error except Remote control programs and such that cause it to ab-end, but a work around is easy for that.
Ok, here's my setup:

Vista Home Premium, Radeon x1650 256MB PCIx 16:mad:Driver version 8.383.0.0, I think this is the latest driver). Catalyst version 07.6.

When I run, everything is ok. Even exiting, it seems ok. But when I restart, I get an error, it submits the incomplete results and fetches a new work unit.

I am running the SMP client as well. Both in different directories, and the SMP client is ID #2.

Any thoughts?
-John
 
By the way, JG, the system you got wasn't the Gateway special from BB by any chance, was it? One of my coworkers picked that up this weekend. He was going to build out his own and had more money in it from Tiger than he spent for the system, monitor, & scanner/printer from BB. Looks like one heck of a deal!

Well, I think I'm about to give up on this KNOPPIX box. I don't have enough room with my setup to keep it nearby the monitor, but I find that I need to keep a close eye on it. I'm not sure if it is related to its previous life or not, but I've come to find the machine unresponsive, with a black screen. The last time I rebooted it and started Folding again, it completed one percent, then hung/went away. I started Samba so I can keep an eye on it remotely, but I think if it is hung, the share will be gone and I'll have my proof that it's not a long-term box.

Also, it's rather depressing to look at the stats from InCrease on the Athlon compared to the Mac Pro: 1.158 points per hour for the Linux Client compared to 45 pph x2 for the SMP clients.
 
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