Folding on Macs?

MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
edited October 2004 in Folding@Home
My school is giving Mac laptops to all the students this year. I think we're supposed to be getting them some time in the next few weeks. So a few questions... BTW they are G4's, iBooks if I'm not mistaken...

How fast do macs fold? :)
Do macs have any optimizations like Intel and AMD? (Eg SSE, SSE2, 3DNow!)
How long could one expect the batteries to last while folding? (This is a school computer not a dedicated folding rig) Though I think the batteries won't be much of a problem...
Are folding clients for macs at all similar to their PC counterparts?

I wish they used PC notebooks instead of mac... I've never really used any OSX mac before. Think it will be too... "user-friendly" for me? :rolleyes:

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    OS:X is awesome. You'll love it.

    Macs fold like demons. Check out mondi's score to see what a few macs can do for you. He had access to a few G5s for a while and he skyrocketed through the ranks.

    Battery life? While folding? It will be total crap - under an hour.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2004
    Folding on laptops is generally a bad idea.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Bah. Don't listen to geeky. My laptop has been folding 24/7 for almost two years. When I'm on battery, I shut it off. Simple.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2004
    Your laptop is a special case. Mac lets their laptops run much hotter than your P-M does. Folding on them wouldn't be a good idea.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited September 2004
    I've been folding on two personal laptops with no probs whatsoever. When vers 5 came out I felt confident enough to install it on our "office's" laptops. So far I've installed it on about 15 or so laptops with nary a problem. The feature where it won't eat up the battery when the a/c gets disconnected is a true boon to laptop folding. Add the ease with installing it as a service and you take nearly all the compelling arguments for not folding with a laptop away. Laptops are a closed proprietary design that are built to dissipate heat even under full load. I haven't had a single problem yet and plan on installing it on even more laptops when I get my grubby little hands on them.

    KingFish
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2004
    Laptops are a closed proprietary design that are built to dissipate heat even under full load.

    Yes and no; leave them running for a couple of months with no cleaning, which is what the majority of them will be run like, and with the fans running most of the time from f@h, and you'll get issues like what MCWC was having. The hsf will get clogged with dust, and the laptop will overheat. Laptop cooling systems have very little extra capacity for dust and dirt as a general rule.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited September 2004
    That is an element that cannot be controlled. Even under normal operating circumstances the fan will be running from time to time. Yes, the fan will be running more but not so much more that it will cause too much more of a buildup than normal operation. Even during normal operation the owner should be aware of the buildup around the fans and use a can of air to blow it out from time to time. The same can be said of desktop computers although you do have a point that the tolerance isn't as high. IMO the benefits far outweigh what little additional risks are taken with laptops.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    The mac folding client has no such luxury as v5 for windows' ability to go idle when on battery power. You will have to shut it off manually when you unplug.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited September 2004
    Macs have a different version of optimizations called Altivec I believe. So it too could benefit from Gromacs.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited September 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    The mac folding client has no such luxury as v5 for windows' ability to go idle when on battery power. You will have to shut it off manually when you unplug.

    Scratch that then. I was saying that on the assumption that there was the battery feature available for macs. I still would install it on my own laptop but not on others' laptops.
  • mondimondi Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    I also had F@H on a g4 powerbook that I briefly owned, not the worlds greatest point producer but worth it none the less, I use the command line version which works exactly the same on all the platforms.

    be warned though, Geeky is right, they get very hot..

    m
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    Sounds good. Thanks for the input, everyone! I should be getting mine tomorrow, if all goes well. (They say you must have a school I.D. to recieve a laptop, but I never recieved my i.d.)

    I would have replied much sooner, but bellsouth went just a little too long without getting paid, hehe. :-/
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    Got the laptop yesterday. They said we wouldn't be able to have internet at our homes because they can't have isp services set up on all these machines. ...not that we need any software the way our network is set up. So here I am, on the internet with this laptop. They say we can't download and install programs... So much for that. Getting this thing working on our network was easier than I thought it would be. I was able to dump nearly 5 gigs of mp3's on it within 20 minutes os plugging it in. Pretty cool. The one thing I can't get over is the stupid touchpad... We don't have any spare USB mice laying around so I'm stuck with it for now. I keep hitting it with my thumbs while I type. :banghead:

    I still need to see how this thing folds though, I'll need more time for that. And yes it is using AltiVec optimizations for this gromacs wu. (p724) Thanks again everyone. If there's anything else I should know, please post! :)

    I think this will be a great learning experience for me, since I've never used a Mac before, or a notebook computer for that matter. Should be fun! :)
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited October 2004
    Is there a button to turn it off while you type? Like just above or below the touchpad. It might be more of a pain turning it on and off all the time since you dont have a mouse but when you do get one...
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    mmonnin wrote:
    Is there a button to turn it off while you type? Like just above or below the touchpad. It might be more of a pain turning it on and off all the time since you dont have a mouse but when you do get one...
    Nope, just above the pad is the spacebar, and below is the clicker, and then the little hatch thingy that keeps the lid closed.

    Speaking of the lid... Lid closed=sleep mode right? If I leave it closed will it still fold? I don't think it will... I guess it's a good thing the screen shuts off after a few minutes, it does a good job of lighting up a dark room. Doesn't matter, I don't think this thing should be a 24/7 folder. Outside of school that is, it can't be on the charger all the time.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    You can change lid behavior in the system preferences panel under "power"

    Mac OS X is a great OS. Learn it and enjoy it. I wish it ran on x86 hardware because I'd switch to OS X over windows in a second.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    I'd switch to OS X over windows in a second.

    Benedict Arnold. :p

    http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    I meant natively.... I KNEW as soon as I posted that, some smartass would come in with a pearPC link ;D
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    You can change lid behavior in the system preferences panel under "power"

    Mac OS X is a great OS. Learn it and enjoy it. I wish it ran on x86 hardware because I'd switch to OS X over windows in a second.
    I don't see a power panel in here... Possibly because this crappy thing is locked down so tight I can barely operate it. :mean: I wish I knew the admin password so I could give my account more power.

    There is an "energy saver" but I can't even change how long it takes before the screen dims/goes blank, or the time until it sleeps. This sucks!

    Any suggestions? :D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2004
    Yeah, get a copy of OSX and reinstall it.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    Wow you can do that on a mac? :D

    ...but wouldn't that cost money? I'm not sure my school would like that much. :)
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited October 2004
    TheGr81 wrote:
    I don't see a power panel in here... Possibly because this crappy thing is locked down so tight I can barely operate it. :mean: I wish I knew the admin password so I could give my account more power.

    There is an "energy saver" but I can't even change how long it takes before the screen dims/goes blank, or the time until it sleeps. This sucks!

    Any suggestions? :D

    I had no trouble getting around the admin password on my Mac at work. I won't say anything specific, but you ought to be able to do it
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited October 2004
    :banghead:

    Could you umm.... point me in the right direction? :D

    hehe
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