Question about work units

SMGSMG
edited February 2005 in Folding@Home
I just started folding tonight for the first time. I have an Apple i-Mac w/ 1.25gz G4 w/ 1 Gig RAM. I believe I started the very first unit on the "BIG" unit setting. So far it is going good and my due date isn't until May 4th. However I will be able to probably have it finished in 2-3 days. My question is this:

Is this too slow or should I only work with small units? If I only get 1 large unit done instead of 3 smaller units does it even matter?

Comments

  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    Certainly it depends on which wu you're folding but probably more important is the type of wu you're folding. Also ...I don't know enough about that processor but do you know if it features SSE? If it does then it doesn't matter which wu you fold because all wu's are relative in points more or less.

    But to answer your question ...if you check off the proper config setting that enables timeless wu's then you can take all the time you need to fold those.

    Does this help or are you confused now? :scratch:

    csimon
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2005
    The May due date is just the point at which Stanford deems your computer too slow and abandons the WU. If you expect it to be finished in a couple of days you certainly don't fall into that category. :thumbsup:

    Let Folding run for a couple of weeks and see what your weekly average is. For my (PC) computers in that GHz range I get about 600 ppw out of them.

    Asking for "Big" WU's means only that - you can ask, but there's no guarantee you'll get them. Usually Stanford starts you off with a smaller one to get a benchmark for how your system performs. Current WU's range in point value from under 100 points to a top end of 600 points. If you post the WU name here I'll be glad to look up the value of the WU you're currently crunching.

    The only reason not to Fold the "Big" WU's is if your system is not up to snuff and you keep losing them, can't meet deadlines, or if your system memory is low. I still have an Athlon 850 w/ 256MB of RAM Folding merrily away and doing a decent job with the 600-pointers, though it takes over a week to finish one. All that machine does is Fold, though. If I were using it for other things it would not have enough memory to both Fold and do whatever else I was doing on it.

    A few hours after your first WU is completed your name will show up here and you can watch your progress through our team's ranks. One of the nice things about just starting out is that you'll likely be passing folks like crazy. :D

    We also honor our teammates in the Notable Milestones Forum. You'll get special mention at 1,000 point intervals up to 5,000 points, after which they spread out a little.

    Thanks for joining The Team! :respect::fold:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    Just for reference, csimon: The G4 does not have SSE. It's an entirely different architecture. It DOES support AltiVec, which helps folding a bit.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    so how do tinkers perform as opposed to gromacs or vice versa ...isn't there more benefit to tinkers?
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