Kwitko Is The Man!

profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
edited May 2005 in Folding@Home
The SMx Project recently received an awesome donation from our teammate Kwitko. It seems his father was upgrading his computer and had a few parts he no longer needed. A "few parts" in this case adds up to the makings of a pretty burly Folding rig:
1 - 3.0GHz P4 HT CPU
2 - 256MB sticks (512MB Total) Infineon RAM PC3200 Dual-Channel
1 - Intel/Gateway motherboard w/865G Chipset and onboard everything
1 - 300W PSU
With the signup period for SM26 underway, it's nice to know that we have yet another rig in the pipeline.

Thanks for the terrific donation, Kwitko. Papa K deserves a big pat on the back from everyone on Team 93 for making it possible.

Folks, if you can make a parts donation (or drop a few coins in the SMx Fund hat) it would be greatly appreciated. Just send me a PM for details. :)

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    That is going to be a serious monster folder. :eek2:
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    does having dual channel ram have any effect on folding speed, or would it just be better to split the ram between 2 SMx Rigs?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Having 512 in a folding rig is a good thing because of the new big WUs.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited May 2005
    primesuspect wrote:
    Having 512 in a folding rig is a good thing because of the new big WUs.
    Exactly. Even more so in this case, since with HT enabled it can crunch two WU's simultaneously.

    This is what it looks like with a pair of 600-Pointers going:

    (SM27 is the name during testing)
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Is 512 enough for two big WUs?

    And will a single big WU folding on 512 mb of ram finish before 2 smaller WUs on 2 machines, and be worth more points?

    Awesome donation, Kwitko! :thumbsup:
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Thank you Papa Kwitko!!!! SM27 or 28 will be a powerhouse, no doubt. :thumbsup:
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Don't thank me, thank Papa K. Had he not decided to buy a new rig, we wouldn't have such an amazing donation. I think it's safe to say that Papa K is :leet:!
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited May 2005
    I keep meaning to ask this, but if he was upgrading from a 3GHz machine, what did he upgrade to? His new computer must be fantastic. :eek:
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    He went parallel. Still a 3GHz. Problem was the first mobo failed, then the HD. He decided the machine was a lemon and dumped it.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    wow very generous there papa k! :smokin:
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    can i throw my name in the hat for SM27-1/SM27-2 now...that sucker will push the WU's like crazy. :D

    big thanks to papa K and seth for the outstanding donation :thumbsup:

    :smokin:
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited May 2005
    Wow that's awesome. Papa K is definitely a cool papa :).
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited May 2005
    Fantastic! :smokin:

    That will smoke some WUs thats for sure :D
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2005
    Awesome donation :D


    That thing will be awesome :D
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    HT @3Ghz. Not bad, not bad at all. This will be the beefiest SMx machine we've put together. Way to go, Seth!
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited May 2005
    Great addition that Pappa K has added to the SMx project, Kwitko. :thumbsup:

    For setting it up though, I would advise that you only run 1 instance with BP's enabled. If it happens to draw 2 QMD wu's at the same time, both are liable to stall out as there still seems to be some issues on this, last I heard.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Couldn't we just disable HT in the BIOS and run one WU at a time, at full speed? Seems like that'd be less taxing on RAM.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    With HT enabled you're running 2 cores at 50%. It's not like a true dual core or SMP setup. Remember, with HT, you're running virtual processors- you're splitting 3GHz into 2 1.5GHz processors, which still isn't too shabby.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2005
    HT and folding is like folding on 2x 2GHz P4s. It not quite like splitting 3GHz in half since fah cant keep the pipe full it benefits from more than one client.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Marc summed it up well above. HT processing two Folding instances significantly outperforms the same CPU concentrating on Folding process. I am sure that 512K DRAM would be completely adequate for two instances running simultaneously, with memory left to spare.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Is there proof to back up this claim? I can't see how the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. :scratch:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    The 1.5/2GHz thing is complete non-issue, as it's not close to the truth.

    HT exists to help the P4 fill its massive pipeline. The p4 doesn't <i>act</i> its clockspeed because few apps ever <b>can</b> fill the pipeline. Adding two clients, however, does in fact fill the pipeline and makes the P4 act closer to its frequency, instead of some disappointing percentage thereof.

    It's not 1.5GHz/1.5GHz, or 2GHz/2GHz.. But 3GHz, instead of "3GHz."
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Sum greater than its parts? I won't pretend to understand the architecture and engineering of CPUs as well some other members in the forums. With that said, in the past, my Intel 2.8C in HT mode processing two instances of Folding would wipe the table with my AMD XP 2800 XP (Barton) running only one instance. As for newer AMD CPUs versus Intel, I have no experience. (This is not an Intel push, BTW - I generally prefer AMD.)

    (just wish I could cool my laptop well enough to take advantage of its Pentium M. damn thing buzzes like a chainsaw with the CPU cooler full on when Folding :mad: )
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2005
    OK try this: Turn off HT and run one instance of FAH. See how that compares to running HT and 2 clients. The one client will complete faster than either of the 2 clients but it will not complete 2 WUs before the 2 clients on HT complete 1 WU each.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited May 2005
    Harry S. Truman was once ambushed by a trick question at a campaign rally. It seems that there were those who wanted to call his education into question by asking him "Should we say that a hen lays eggs, or that she lies eggs?"

    Harry gave them a big grin and answered: "Back in Missouri, we lift her up to see."

    So I switched her over to no HT and a single instance of the Folding client. I can tell you that the ppw average is a good third better doing it double-style. Maybe even more, including the variation between different WU's.

    As for the memory concerns, I've set the bios to allow the bare minumum of 16MB for the onboard video. (A "gamer", she is not, at least under the current configuration.) But she is more than game for some bulky WU's, and does indeed use more than half of her remaining allotment of 496MB of ram for both WU's combined. When she was pushing a couple of 600-Point jobs she made good use of it all.

    Whoever gets this baby is going to be one proud Host. :D
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    So I switched her over to no HT and a single instance of the Folding client. I can tell you that the ppw average is a good third better doing it double-style.
    That's my experience as well. Keep in mind though, that my comparison was AMD Barton vs. Intel P4C. No experience with newer AMD or Intel.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    profdlp wrote:
    Whoever gets this baby is going to be one proud Host. :D

    That's all that matters!:D
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