New to DC.. How can I help?

Admiral Huddy · 9 Jan 2006 at 20:15

Hi guys, thought it was about time I contributed to the team.

I have just acquired a dual processor PC from work (free

) and I'm going to set this up as my DC machine 24/7.

Reading through the FAQs etc.. all seem straight forward..

However, i have noticed, and correc me if i'm wrong, but the attention seems to have been directed away from folding to BOINC ? :confused:

I was quite surprised to see OCuK ranked around 54.

I'm not particulary interested in SETI, because i don't believe but want to put the processor power into something worth while like medical research..

Any pointers and tips would be helpfull.

Thanks

Huddy

Pumpkinstew · 9 Jan 2006 at 20:28

Raithmir's project list in the sticky is full of useful information.

On the medical side Boinc has Predictor@home and Rosetta@home whilst someone else will be along to pimp for Folding@home any moment now.

I prefer Boinc is it allows me to run several projects and means I'll not be out of work if a project server goes down.

Mattus · 9 Jan 2006 at 20:39

Mr Huddy said:
However, i have noticed, and correc me if i'm wrong, but the attention seems to have been directed away from folding to BOINC ? I was quite surprised to see OCuK ranked around 54.

Believe it or not, interest in the Folding team is probably higher than it's ever been, as is our output over the last few months. We were kinda late starters at Folding so 54 is the highest rank the team has been at... still gaining of course!

But we can do it faster with your help

Click here for a guide written by our inimitable Rich, and ask if you have any questions

rich99million · 9 Jan 2006 at 20:41

welcome to the world of DC

well my project of choice is folding, however there are some perfectly good medical projects on Boinc (there weren't when i started this malarky)

I like folding as there is a real variety of work available - many other projects don't give you as good an idea of what it's actually doing

as for running out of work - in over 3 years of doing folding i could probably count on one hand the number of times i've actually run out of work, due to the redundancy of servers there is almost always a backup system where you can get work

as long as you're doing something for one of the projects that's what really matters

Mattus · 9 Jan 2006 at 22:45

rich99million said:
as for running out of work - in over 3 years of doing folding i could probably count on one hand the number of times i've actually run out of work, due to the redundancy of servers there is almost always a backup system where you can get work

It's true. The BOINC projects seem to have one scheduler and one source of work data - if it goes down you're stuffed. But F@H has two assignment servers (foldy-speak for scheduler) and dozens of different work servers for redundancy.

Like Rich said though, it is your choice

Admiral Huddy · 10 Jan 2006 at 08:55

quite a difficult choice to make. think I'll start off with F@H, see how it goes. I assume that having a dual CPU machine I would need the console version of the client as there is no gui version?

sparemips · 10 Jan 2006 at 09:15

Mr Huddy said:
quite a difficult choice to make. think I'll start off with F@H, see how it goes. I assume that having a dual CPU machine I would need the console version of the client as there is no gui version?

Running gui versions is frowned upon around here.

Admiral Huddy · 10 Jan 2006 at 09:21

why's that then?

I could also run another set of client from my main rig which is a dual core 4400+ but since it's my gaming rig i'd rather keep all the resources. Is there not a desktop icon or application to start the F@H, rather than on startup?

don't want my main rig on for long periods of time..

I intend to run the dual cpu machine 24/7 only running the client software.

KE1HA · 10 Jan 2006 at 09:41

As far as Im aware, there's nothing wrong with running the GUI version, I dont run it because allot of my machines are in server racks and I don't always have easy access to them < I manage them remotely >, so i used the no-frills service installaiton.

By the way, Welcome to the Fold !! Nice Signature Image !!
.

BillytheImpaler · 10 Jan 2006 at 13:19

In order to use both CPUs you'll have to install 2 of the CLI clients. The easiest way to do that is outlined in the FAH sticky by Mr. 99Million. I like to leave two batch files on my desktop, one called start.bat one called stop.bat. I use them to turn on and off the FAH service as needed.

(BoG) Napalm · 10 Jan 2006 at 13:37

You can run F@H on a gaming machine, just make it the console version, and either run it at startup and forget about it (you don't notice when you're gaming) or have an icon on your desktop to start it, and when you want to stop it just press "Ctrl+C" in the console window.

My main machine is an Opteron 2.5GHz, and I have the the console client running all the time. I never notice it while I'm playing BF2, mainly because F@H's priority is set to IDLE, and BF2/games will use the whole processor (I think?).

Trick · 10 Jan 2006 at 14:19

(BoG) Napalm said:
My main machine is an Opteron 2.5GHz, and I have the the console client running all the time. I never notice it while I'm playing BF2, mainly because F@H's priority is set to IDLE, and BF2/games will use the whole processor (I think?).

Correct. I too have my main rig (an Opteron @ 3ghz) setup for games, movies and webbrowsing with Folding running in the background at IDLE. There's no problems whatsoever doing this and Folding doesn't seem to interfere with anything else I'm trying to do on the machine.

BillytheImpaler · 10 Jan 2006 at 14:57

The idle/low setting controls CPU scheduling. Most OSes, including Windows, are very good at processor scheduling. Becasue of thgis when another app wants the cycles, FAH gives them up, no questions asked. The problem with FAH and games lies in RAM useage. Windows is not good about ceding RAM to higher priority applications becasue it goes against the nature of RAM. If FAH wants 100 MiB RAM and there's only 75 available, you'll definitely be hitting the Paging file pretty hard. This is where games can take a performance hit. If you've got a gig or more I wouldn't be concerned. However, if you're working with less you'll definitely want to turn off FAH while gaming. run your stop.bat when gaming. When you're done, run start.bat. Easy.

Mattus · 10 Jan 2006 at 16:09

Mr Huddy said:
why's that then?

Whether you run the GUI or console doesn't actually matter from a performance standpoint. A lot of the hatred of the GUI is a hangover from the SETI Classic era, when the GUI really was to be avoided like the plague!

However if you want to play games then the GUI is best avoided, because it sometimes interferes with games, causing them to minimise to the desktop and other funny stuff.

I run F@H on my system whilst gaming and it doesn't affect performance at all.

Admiral Huddy · 10 Jan 2006 at 16:11

basd on that i'll give it a bash...

Fillado · 10 Jan 2006 at 16:46

How about Folding@Home on BOINC?

Join Folding@Home BOINC Beta Test

Thanks for your interest! New registration is currently closed. Final issues are being resolved regarding compatibility with the latest BOINC release. A public beta will begin after that is finished, expected in mid January, at which time account creation will open.

BillytheImpaler · 10 Jan 2006 at 18:09

that would be very nice. In the mysterious future the beta might actaully come out (again) on time

NickK · 10 Jan 2006 at 21:08

www.climateprediction.net

hardcore DCing..

Admiral Huddy · 11 Jan 2006 at 19:21

ok done.. i've only done one console for now ..

Now looking at the processes in task manager, i can see FAH502-Console.exe.. and there is quite a bit of CPU activity..

Now for a few questions:

1.. How do i know what it's doing and how far in it got?

2.. What happens if it's half way through something and i turn off the machine.

3.. How do i stop.close it when i want to run games etc.. The CPU usage i've noticed is quite high all of a sudden.

Thanks

User name on F@H is Huddy

EDIT - ok i've spotted FahMon 2.0.3.. and ran this.. hmm - nothing??

Do i have to click on the console .exe again? Not much seems to be happening ??

I've noticed now that 2 x fahCore_78 are running taking 50% CPU each..??

Help please.

Cheers

BillytheImpaler · 11 Jan 2006 at 19:42

1. Use FahMon. It's the best

EDIT: Have you set up the client by right clicking in the upper left frame. This has to be done so FahMon knows where the fahlog.txt file lives.

2. If it's installed as a service it'll start right where it left of when the system boots. Else you'll have to manually start it. Either eway it should start from where it was. If the system crashes it's possible that the WU could be trashed, in which case the console would dial in to Stanford for more work.

3. CPU usage should be at 100% all the time unless you've told it otherwise. To stop it go to start, the Run. Type services.msc. Hit enter then scroll down the menu looking for the one called FAH@... click on it and click on stop. You can automate this by making a batch file that does it for you. Here's how:

Create two new text files, I like to put them on the desktop. Call one start and the other stop. Change the .txt extension to .bat. Open up services.msc and find *** entry for FAH. Click on properties then copy the fill name of the service. It should be pretty long becasue it contains the full path to the console. Open up each batch file and type the following lines of code into each respective file. Make one that says

Code:

CALL NET START "FAH"

and another that says

Code:

CALL NET STOP "FAH"

Paste the name of the service where I've written FAH.

Mine looks like this on this machine (dual xeon)

Code:

call net stop "FAH@C:+Fold+1+FAH502-Console.exe"
call net stop "FAH@C:+Fold+2+FAH502-Console.exe"
call net stop "FAH@C:+Fold+3+FAH502-Console.exe"
call net stop "FAH@C:+Fold+4+FAH502-Console.exe"

New to DC.. How can I help?

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