Folding@Home News - Attention Single-Machine Crunchers

rich99million · 7 Apr 2006 at 19:34

GT3 said:
In future would it be possible to have a top list of only those using a single machine? Like the old seti stats?

Just a thought.

I'm all for this - I'm sure there are plenty of you out there only able to run folding on the one machine and would like to see how you're doing against each other rather than being stuck at the bottom of a list of power-borgers/insane lunatics with far too much hardware for their own good

Please post in here to register your name as a single-machine cruncher so I can start to work out how it will work for the news next week - also feel free to post your views on it as any feedback would be great
edit: Please post your folding name if it differs from your name here at all - thanks

The single cruncher stats will appear in the same post as the rest of the news - probably just under another title, it will probably also just be just for the points dumped in that week rather than the number of places stomped - i will see how it's looking for next week

I will maintain a current list of all those registered as single machine crunchers at the bottom of the news post each week - registration and de-registration can be done by posting in the weekly news post rather than starting a new thread after this one has drifted off into obscurity

rich99million · 7 Apr 2006 at 20:14

(BoG) Napalm said:
I need to double check my linux box isn't crunching any more, but put me down for a single-PC list.

no probs - if you're Napalm then you're only showing one client in the last 7 days anyway

rich99million · 8 Apr 2006 at 09:05

hehe - nice try

edit: ooops didn't mean you - that was meant for Ricko

sure I'll put you on the list - welcome to the team

rich99million · 8 Apr 2006 at 13:02

Mikey1280 said:
I dont think I'm on the list as I have not completed a WU yet, is this correct?

yes that's spot on - I'll add you to my list ready for the news next friday

rich99million · 8 Apr 2006 at 14:10

all added

all this talk of single crunchers - we'll get a reputation as some sort of DC dating service

rich99million · 9 Apr 2006 at 18:48

BillytheImpaler said:
I suppose at the moment I'm a single machine cruncher but that is by no means the norm. My total DC fleet is more than 80 machines so I don't think I qualify.

yeah I was surprised to see only one active CPU in the last week - I'm not going to add you anyway as you're a single-machine cruncher for the team by choice, don't want to give you an excuse to slack

nah just kidding - I'll add you if you like, up to you

Concorde_Rules has asked me to add him, that'll open the floodgates for the X2/Opteron owners anyway :eek:

rich99million · 9 Apr 2006 at 22:37

sr4470 said:
I'm running a single machine.

shame you had to sell the others

what have you been left with? A64?

I'll stick you on the list

rich99million · 10 Apr 2006 at 00:02

hehe you have to get up pretty early to get one over on Billy

well i'm not totally sure about it - Concorde has a similar thing with his dual cpu mac dropping the very occasional WU when it's actually on (not much these days

)

guess I'll have to see how it goes, if it doesn't really make any difference to output then people may not mind :confused:

edit: maybe I could colour code those with X2's and several really slow machines

there might be more hiding out there :eek:

rich99million · 10 Apr 2006 at 00:18

sr4470 said:
Argh I think I just burned a CPU

please say it's a Slot jobbie and not the X2 :eek:

edit - i thought those old things were near indestructable

rich99million · 10 Apr 2006 at 18:38

Ok I've added both sr4470 and nellystew, sr4470 if you're having to use only one core of the X2 at the moment then I don't suppose anyone will really mind the junky machines - if output gets a boost I think it'd only be fair to put you with the main group of stats really

the single-cruncher stats are aimed at those who are stuck down at the bottom of the list or get left out by the 1000-point cut off, we'll see how it goes this week and work on it from there

Isotope said:
Im in, Isotope2006 is the name!

welcome - only problem is I can't find you

are you new and not completed a WU yet?
I will gladly add you ready for the news on friday if that's the case

rich99million · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:05

have a look at your log file and see if you can see

[17:25:05] Project: 2500 (Run 364, Clone 10, Gen 0)
[17:25:05]
[17:25:05] Assembly optimizations on if available.
[17:25:05] Entering M.D.
[17:25:11] Protein: p2500_BBA5_pfold
[17:25:11]
[17:25:11] Writing local files
[17:25:11] GB activated
[17:25:11] Extra SSE boost OK.
[17:25:12] Writing local files

my guess is that the SSE hasn't kicked in - either that or you're running the Graphical version and it's just doing a really poor job of providing an estimate and will come down once it's been running again for a while

if it's the SSE stop the client and then restart it and it should come back on - you can add the -forceasm switch (see the sticky) to stop it getting disabled by mistake

rich99million · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:44

Tell us what project it's working on - some can take quite a long time between frames and with the default level of reporting it will look like it's doing nothing

it will only report in the log when it's done 1% of the WU - in your case that's every 1250000 steps - so the fact it doesn't look like it's doing anything isn't something to worry about

The WUs in folding@home more often than not last days rather than hours, they used to be a lot shorter but then you had to contact the servers a lot more often (and waste good crunching time)

As Mattus says just make sure the program is using the CPU rather than something else - it's the core rather than the client that uses the CPU so just look for FahCore_xx.exe (xx being numbers/letters depending on the sort of work you have) using up to 99% of the CPU and you should be fine

rich99million · 11 Apr 2006 at 00:01

BillytheImpaler said:
Well how's it doing, Iso? Have you diagnosed it as normal or have you given up?

think we scared him off with our desperate need for new victims... err i mean crunchers

well if SSE is on and the core is taking 99% then it's working - even in the rare event that the log stops recording the progress WUs have been known to carry on quite happily until complete

it's a shame they don't release a few of the old 0.6 point WUs these days as you could watch that thing fold right before your eyes with the power/optimisations available these days :cool:

with WUs that take up to an hour and more per frame on a pretty decent machine it's easy to see how someone could think that it's not doing anything - at least he should have landed a whopper first time out!!

rich99million · 11 Apr 2006 at 00:40

Mattus said:
I run two rigs, but at least 90% of my points come from the one. I'm tempted to stick my second one on a separate account so I can sign this one up for the single-cruncher stats. If that's allowed?

err that wasn't really the idea - but yes I guess as long as it's a single machine that'd be alright

starting to wonder if this was such a good idea

ah well i guess it'll promote a bit more competition on a more level playing field - that can only be a good thing

rich99million · 11 Apr 2006 at 01:01

at the moment that's still undecided - given the right work an uber-clocked X2 could give out about as many points as my whole mini-farm :eek:

basically it's up to each person to decide if it's really fair on everyone else, if someone games a fair bit or cannot sleep with their machine on then an X2 wouldn't really make everyone else's contributions look too bad

however the whole thing has given me a good idea for a short race - most points in a week from a single logical core, not sure if we'd have to set up seperate accounts or if we could just get people to list what WUs that core has done - from the reaction so far from those with powerful machines it could be worth thinking about as a little competition for everyone
we could even have different classes for different types of CPU

rich99million · 11 Apr 2006 at 01:16

BillytheImpaler said:
The question is who would go out and buy an FX-57 just so they could win the single-box award.

why are you looking at me?

hides credit-card behind back

rich99million · 11 Apr 2006 at 18:38

divine_madness said:
Put me down as a single box folder, even though I wont be actually be folding anything again until the 25th.

ok no worries - see you in 2 weeks

rich99million · 12 Apr 2006 at 23:19

Welcome back Zirax

I've added both of you to the single-cruncher list - roll on friday!!! :cool:

rich99million · 13 Apr 2006 at 00:03

I think I'm gonna have to exclude Concorde_Rules from the single machine stakes this week

Not only is he showing as having 3 active CPUs (presumably his X2 and a rogue mac) but his 24hr average is actually 1 point higher than mine with 5 machines running 24/7 :eek:

So Conc - congratulations on an insanely high output mainly from one machine but I'm afraid you'll have to be measured along with the power borgers and insane IT admin folk

It's not final yet - I'll see how out of place it looks first but I really don't think it's fair on everyone else, cheques are to be made payable to rich99million's personal bribing account of course

rich99million · 14 Apr 2006 at 17:15

Right then - any more for any more?
Once this hour's stats update has finished I'll grab them and get cracking with the news.

The current single-crunchers list stands at:
Concorde_Rules
divine_madness
GT3
Napalm
nellystew
OcUKIsotope
pmbuzz
Rincin
RobOC
slamma06
sr4470
TinkerBell

But it's not too late to be added to this week's news so get your names down if you are folding on just one machine and want to be included in the list

edit: oh and anyone getting over 1,000 points will be listed as having dumped "1,000+" rather than the actual score - you'll still be included in the top dumpers list anyway so it'll have to do you X2-boys