A few questions

RWB

I am gonna get back onto the folding team, I have enough spare parts to build _some_ of a new machine, I don't have a spare CD-ROM, or HDD, or... well RAM now that I think about it, but I MIGHT be able to get ahold of some, and a CD-ROM, or HDD depending on price, I am indeed VERY poor ATM. My living expences have ended long ago and I still have 2 months of school left before I can have the time to get a job again, till then I (hate to say) mooch off my parents, ugh.

But just a couple questions, is it TRUE PC's don't cost more than like $10 a month to have up and running 24/7? I know some tend to believe it, and think their bills show it, but that's not enough for me, lots of things can effect a bill. My own bills jump around from $70 to $300.

Also, how much of an effect does it have on your systems? When I last used it, my games were somewhat sluggish, though I have upgraded since then and even run XP now instead of 2000. I dont think that's a difference though. Plus I sure wouldn't be happy if it takes a toll on my digital media work, 3D rendering and even photoshop type stuff. I remember my systems resources taking up over 200MB after startup with this program running, nor did I ever understand the flags and which ones I needed. I did read the Everything about Folding thread too.

Anyways this thread got longer than I had originally planned

RWB

Opps forgot to add the question about the extra PC, I would probably get a CD-ROM for it, but not a HDD... so with that said, I know there are Live CD's for Linux, but I am unsure if there are any with F@H on it. I don't know much about linux either.

Thrax

I know nothing regarding the price increase on a PC.

I've never had it effect my games (ever), so I can't comment on that either. I've never had it effect 3D rendering, video rendering, or photoshop times. My computer uses 100mb of RAM at boot, WITH folding going. So I don't know where your resources were going.

As for flags, I use -local -service -forceasm -advmethods -verbosity 3

KingFish

Electricity runs about $6/mo for each pc you have running 24/7, give or take.

witenoiz

I have figured my electric bill each time I add a folding rig and as KingFish said - $6.00 per month. I am in KS - if you are in CA I think it will be higher. Most of my stuff is mounted on little pegs and they do not have CD's or key boards or mice or monitors- and I run mostly Win 2K. Some of these have not been touched or looked at in 6 months! I don't understand flags at all and I have never used them. Jack

RWB

You see check this out, I just reinstalled windows yesterday, I haven't even installed my AV yet, or other things... Some claim they use less than 100MB WITH F@H, yet I am here using more than 200MB. Mind you, I did take both screenshots right after the other. Dunno why there is a 38MB difference, except I had MS Paint open during the taking of the shot with CPU and memory showing.

Straight_Man

Um, on the Task Manager Applications Tab, look and see if applications are taking up the remaining 38 MB-- between storage for screenshot, apps running in background, etc, that is quite possibly part of issue. BUT, buffering a WU can take lots of RAM as WU works. The 11 MB might NOT include temporary WU work buffer space in big WUs, if extra space is needed. Instead, the 11 MB includes a base work buffer for the Tinker Core as well as the space the Core itself needs to occupy to run. I would expect the Core and Client to flux a bit in RAM usage, actually. They do here.

RWB

Straight_Man wrote:

Um, on the Task Manager Applications Tab, look and see if applications are taking up the remaining 38 MB-- between storage for screenshot, apps running in background, etc, that is quite possibly part of issue. BUT, buffering a WU can take lots of RAM as WU works. The 11 MB might NOT include temporary WU work buffer space in big WUs, if extra space is needed. Instead, the 11 MB includes a base work buffer for the Tinker Core as well as the space the Core itself needs to occupy to run. I would expect the Core and Client to flux a bit in RAM usage, actually. They do here.

In English? I have consistently checked it,and it is always above 200MB, even with nothing running like FireFox. Some say they use less than 100MB, how are they any different than me?

Thrax

I don't use Windows XP. That's a big start.

You also have a lot of programs loaded into resident memory clogging up your system tray, more than likely. I have four icons.

I have 23 services running full time, and can pare it down to 19 when necessary. But also realize programs are designed to expand somewhat into the memory they're given. An install might use 300mb of memory with 1GB installed whereas they'd only use 150mb with 512 installed.

//EDIT:

Ageek: Translated by Thrax wrote:

Open the task manager and take a look at the applications tab. See if any non-essential tasks are taking some of your memory space. However, with folding, workunits can take a fair bit of RAM to work with. The 11mb for the F@H core might not include any memory usage for WU operations. Instead, the 11mb is the basic RAM requirement for the WU and the core to work in. The core + client may fluctuate in the amount of RAM used, as it usually does on my computer.

Even translated, it made no sense.

Straight_Man

Thrax wrote:

Even translated, it made no sense.

Amber Core, Core_82, can eat lots of RAM progressively. Double Gros can eat RAM between completion point write cycles. So can Gros. When completion point get written, RAM use can drop-- thus a low to higher to low to higher fluxing, or changing in a cycle.

Enough said. Flux is not only for soldering use, nor only in core of some solder. Nor does it mean out of control changes. AND Task Manager does not refresh continuously, it refreshes continually, so you might miss peaks in cycle even if they are shown. I also see this in Linux. Core can also grab RAM based on the WU, not on its base initial allocation. Thus Vijay's warning in the folding forums about Amber possibly taking lots of RAM from time to time or progressively.

Because Folding is a compliant process, very much so, and because WUs can have larger frame sizes while a frame is being calced (thus a slop or work buffer is needed in excess of what the cofre needs to function and task manager might or might not even show work buffers for data), Vijay and the devs knew that RAM use could cycle. I've watched it happen, on two OS platforms, on of which refreshed actual RAM per process and child process in use every second the way I had it set. THERE, I saw it clear as day.

Makes no sense to a non-programmer or non-low-level tech, maybe. I'm used to both arenas, especially Windows Low-Level and Low-Level to high level interactions....

mmonnin

Yeah I have done the calculations already before and it came out to be less than $10 a month for electricity not including the monitor.

I am not a gamer but I have never seen it effect a game except for the newest Star Wars game that just came out. For some reason it took a long while for it to load, after that it was ok. Dont know why it was that game. But I know others that game with it on. When it went to the Lan I had it on and it was fine.

I can boot into XP with just over 100mb right now. That is w/o FAH running because I allow Stanford to use my computer and the 1GB of RAM I have. So often it uses like 150mb, that is a controllable settting tho and doesnt have to happen. I often run with 300-400mb of RAM used up all the time with ABC and FAH running.