Best card purely for folding at the mo?

[Fuzz]

Some bits should arrive in the next day or so to get my folding box back up and running but I was thinking maybe I should get a graphics card in there too instead of just running the CPU.
So what is the best card to use for that purpose and that purpose alone (it's just going to be bunged in the attic and forgotten )

How much am I likely to be looking to fork out, new / second hand

Ta

Andy

 

[sir-les-mp]

if its one you are just going to forget about once its running then you may want to look into a passive cooled card like an 8600gt or something similar

 

[ACESHIGH]

8800GS and the 9600GSO (must be G92 and 192 bit; not the new G94 and 48 bit cards) offered some of the best bang per buck in folding recently. Or the PNY 8800 GT 256MB card. Not good for gaming but for folding they would do nicely.

 

[kerrgreg]

the current best card i believe is the gtx280 doing 6000 units per day i believe

 

[Strife212]

9800GX2 is the best folding card.

 

[Gilbretto]

excuse my ignorance, but what is a folding card/box?

 

[YorkshirePadd26]

Some kind of daft program that people run on there PCs that does calculations related to how atoms or proteins work. These can be run purely off the CPU or the advanced GPU on a graphics card.

They then upload how many calculations their Pc has done to leaderboards.

Slightly sadder than benchmark freaks, but these guys and girls should really get out more.

Proper geek stuff that has no fun involved what so ever.

A folding box would be just a dedicated computer used only for this purpose, bit like a download box but with no porn/copied dvd and no fun.

I'd imagine the people who do this, are very pale who lack social skills and may have slight compulsive disorder issues.
Propably still live at home and are cost their parents loads in electricity with there number crunchig boxes running at 24/7 non stop.

excuse my ignorance, but what is a folding card/box?

 

[Gilbretto]

Some kind of daft program that people run on there PCs that does calculations related to how atoms or proteins work. These can be run purely off the CPU or the advanced GPU on a graphics card.

They then upload how many calculations their Pc has done to leaderboards.

Slightly sadder than benchmark freaks, but these guys and girls should really get out more.

Proper geek stuff that has no fun involved what so ever.

Cheers for the answer, sounds like a fun way to spend your time.

 

[steve258]

GX2 is good that you can fold 2 instances at the same time but in vista you'll need to connect both DVI ports to a monitor/vga box/vga dummy for it to recognise both. Not sure if it's still the case though.

GTX280 remains the most powerful single core folding GFX.

Some kind of daft program that people run on there PCs that does calculations related to how atoms or proteins work. These can be run purely off the CPU or the advanced GPU on a graphics card.

They then upload how many calculations their Pc has done to leaderboards.

Slightly sadder than benchmark freaks, but these guys and girls should really get out more.

Proper geek stuff that has no fun involved what so ever.

you're not serious right?

 

[Helios1234]

Some kind of daft program that people run on there PCs that does calculations related to how atoms or proteins work. These can be run purely off the CPU or the advanced GPU on a graphics card.

They then upload how many calculations their Pc has done to leaderboards.

Slightly sadder than benchmark freaks, but these guys and girls should really get out more.

Proper geek stuff that has no fun involved what so ever.

They're hardly sitting there watching the computer doing the calculations are they?

A lot of people have their computer on even if they're out so they might as well be making use of it instead of leaving it on idle.

 

[Gilbretto]

I think YorkshirePadd26 touched a nerve.

Seems like a waste of time to me too. But everyone is different i guess and enjoys different things.

 

[Rex-Kramer]

If you are folding another great thing to do is sit in the garage and watch the electricity meter spin round. Its like being on a reverse merry go round.

 

[Fuzz]

it'll be bunged in the attic, out of sight, out of mind, so quite how that makes my social skills inept and my skin pale and lifeless I don't know.

However I do live at home sponging all the leccy off the parents


I'm doing it for "the greater good" and out of my own pocket (except the aforementioned leccy of course).

How many things do you do that do not involve personal gain?

 

[TheMeekon]

I have never understood why people do this. I donate to charities, help my partner with voluntary work (blah blah blah) but building a machine to put in the loft and never look at again, baffling.

Conspiracy of the Electricity giants!

 

[MumboJumbo]

it'll be bunged in the attic, out of sight, out of mind, so quite how that makes my social skills inept and my skin pale and lifeless I don't know.

However I do live at home sponging all the leccy off the parents


I'm doing it for "the greater good" and out of my own pocket (except the aforementioned leccy of course).

How many things do you do that do not involve personal gain?

Your doing it so you can get higher on a leader board. The fact its for the greater good just makes a good cover up story.

While i do find it quite sad people are prepared to spend their own money just to compete on leader boards on something which requires no input from them, it is helping science at least so if they wana be sad and do it then its up to them.

 

[shadowscotland]

8800gs
8800gt 256
9600gso

Are the cards to get - all below 50w at load folding and around the 5k mark

there a thread on it here

 

[Fuzz]

Your doing it so you can get higher on a leader board. The fact its for the greater good just makes a good cover up story.

While i do find it quite sad people are prepared to spend their own money just to compete on leader boards on something which requires no input from them, it is helping science at least so if they wana be sad and do it then its up to them.

I'm doing it so I can take the heat off my main rig in the lounge and shut the dam fans up and get back to using it for what I built it for.... Games.
I'm folding for science, not (just) to get to the top of some leader board.
I'm never going to get there with the kit I have got and I'm not about to spend a fortune trying to do so. THAT would be seriously sad!

 

[Fuzz]

I have never understood why people do this. I donate to charities, help my partner with voluntary work (blah blah blah) but building a machine to put in the loft and never look at again, baffling.

Conspiracy of the Electricity giants!

You donate to charites and never see the money again..
I donate a bit of processor power and spend a bit of leccy..
What's the difference?

If a bit of CPU / GPU power can help some lab boffin find what causes "atoms and proteins" turn into cancer and the such like, I'm going to let them have it.
I have a box full of spare PC bits that wouldn't sell for anything decent, so I may as well put them to good use...
It's only the fact one bit failed a month or so a go I've even thought about it..

It's rather baffling that some of you find it sad that I might want to further mankinds understanding of the universe

 

[PESolution]

There are a lot of people with their heads stuck up their own arse these days. If it's what he enjoys doing then let him. I personally do not see the fun in it but if he does then good on him

 

[Blackbadger]

@ YorkshirePadd26

The folding at home project use's peoples spare cpu/gpu time to better understand the development of many diseases:

Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, mad cow disease, cancer, Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis to name a few.

The computational power needed to find out how it all happens is immense. Hence the distributed computer networks. Similar to the SETI project, however F@H has a actual use.

Please don't insult those assisting to end these terrible afflictions to mankind.

Plenty more info is available http://folding.stanford.edu/