Newbie...Folding question.

dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
edited January 2004 in Folding@Home
G'Day folks......Only learned about folding when i came across this great site.

Loaded the program onto our old HP Pavilion 9722, 850 Athlon, 128M ram.
This is now running 24/7. As the HP is not really being used for anything else except during a emergency, it is now a dedicated folding machine.

Question: How can i set it up to do more than just fold 1 at the time. I have gone through all the links to FAQ,s etc, but since i do not understand what any of it means, i'm a bit confused.
Is it possible to do more? If it is possible, in non-technical terms how do i do it.

I have also set it up on my PIV 2.4g 512M ram notebook. This is even slower to get it done as it is the machine i use during my waking hours. Now when i don't need to use it it just folds away quite merrily. Should the above question be answered positively, (meaning more folding power), i can do the same to this one.

Question re: Notebook. Does it matter that at home i'm on ADSL and on the minesite i'm on dial-up in my room?
I'll gladly leave it running in my room at the mine-site, folding to it's haert content. It means the puter can't go online till i get back to my room to dial-up.

Both puters were set up identical, with same user name and using #93 as group.

Hopefully, when the Handbrakes puter is finished being messed around with in the next few weeks, i can set it up as well. Though her life revolves around putering as she cannot do anything else due to a severe back problem, it just means it won't spend as much time folding as the other 2.

Sorry for the long post, just thought i'd explain our circumstances.

Jon

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2004
    dragonV8 wrote:
    ...Question: How can i set it up to do more than just fold 1 at the time...
    Can't do it unless you have a dual-processor system, or a Pentium-4 with Hyperthreading. (Hyperthreading allows a single cpu to fake it as a dualie, with varying success depending on the task(s) it is performing.)

    On a single-processor system, Folding uses idle computer cycles. If you're browsing the web, reading email, or some other simple task, your computer may only be using 10% of its overall capacity, Folding would then use the other 90%. When completely idle, Folding will grab all 100% available. Even if you could run two proteins at a time, it really wouldn't pay off. You'd max out with each protein using 50% of the available cpu cycles, thereby taking twice as long for each.


    ...Question re: Notebook. Does it matter that at home i'm on ADSL and on the minesite i'm on dial-up in my room?...
    If your notebook is setup to automatically use whichever connection is available, just go into Folding's Configure=>Connection section and tick the "Use Internet Explorer Connection Settings".

    Some of our team members travel, and are away from an Internet connection for weeks at a time. They will download a bunch of Work Units to crunch while they're away, then turn them all in when they get home. They still only do one at a time; the advantage of downloading extra WU's is that their computer won't finish it's current WU, then be idle because they can't connect to Stanford and get another one.

    Glad to see you joining up! :woowoo: :fold:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    No worries about your handbrake's computer either... She can still use it as much as she wants and the idle processor cycles will be used for folding, in the background. That's the true elegance and beauty of distributed computing - Everyday, mundane computer tasks actually use very little of the CPU. For example, web surfing, listening to music, having MS Word open, etc, you'll be using maybe 15% of the processor. The other 75% is wasted. With folding running, that 75% is used to do protein research :D What a great thing....
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Bascily, on the HP you COULD run two folding processes, BUT the results will not be much good as both will be sharing the same virtual and real CPU. You would need hyperthreading or multiple real CPUs to really fold two or more WUs at once very well.

    One thing I HAVE done is literally make one older client (console) take over a Windows XP box, but then the box would be basicly useless for anything else. YOU can run a 3.24 or 3.25 client and run older WUs, install as a service, then give the SERVICE a high enough priority that it runs as the dominant service on an XP box. However, expect to do nothing else, and even making the service take a lower priority is hard-- it took me half an hour of real time to get the process priority lowered again, as the command console window was updating VERY slowly. The newest cores and clients are safetied to use only a certain part of a box's spare cycle resources at maximum to prevent that.

    John.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited January 2004
    I've read in other forums where people would install F@H twice in two separate directories to crunch two work units at a time. It would take twice as long to do the units, however, and if you have a marginal machine that is turning in work units barely on time you may not want to go that route. I see that there is ten or so queues for work units. How do you get F@H to download more than one work unit and place it in queue rather than doing one at a time?

    KingFish
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2004
    You cant get FAH to download more than one WU at a time. There is a another type of proteins called genomes which go towards the Genome@Home Project that you can download several WUs for a non-networked/internet machine. Genomes are a different project run by stanford but the points can still go towards Team 93. They are usually small WUs and dont have a deadline so its best to have those for slower machines that cant complete WUs in time.

    I run a second client services in the background that works on genomes. IF I ever cant get a WU because of the servers or for some other reason, the genome will kick in and keep my CPU busy. It also takes the cycles when uploading/downloading new WUs.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2004
    KingFish wrote:
    I've read in other forums where people would install F@H twice in two separate directories to crunch two work units at a time. It would take twice as long to do the units, however, and if you have a marginal machine that is turning in work units barely on time you may not want to go that route.
    That is correct. There is no speed advantage to running multiple instances on a single CPU system (non HT). Some people setup multiple instances of F@H if they are on dial-up and want' to make sure their system is not idle in between connections to the net.
    KingFish wrote:
    I see that there is ten or so queues for work units. How do you get F@H to download more than one work unit and place it in queue rather than doing one at a time?
    The only way to do this is to setup F@H in multiple directories (console version is required for more than one instance).
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    No worries about your handbrake's computer either...

    Psssssst- hey, I think it's considered bad form for anyone but the spouse to use pet and or lovingly derogatory names

    Nothing to see here, resume Folding discussion please ;D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    dragonV8, one other thing... being the cooling forum mod, I'm just a bit paranoid about CPU temperatures ;D Personally, I would not run folding @ home on a laptop, without some additional cooling beyond what the laptop came with. I use a ~7" Comair-Rotron 24v DC 235cfm fan @ 12v :D, but that's kind of overkill (the CPU on my P4-2.4 laptop runs at <38*C under full load with that fan pulling air through the heatsink). What laptop you have is going to impact what the best way of cooling it would be, but I would consider doing something to it...
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited January 2004
    keto wrote:
    Psssssst- hey, I think it's considered bad form for anyone but the spouse to use pet and or lovingly derogatory names

    Nothing to see here, resume Folding discussion please ;D

    No problems about calling her by that name. I'm sure she has been referred to as "Jon's Handbrake before". LOL. :bigggrin:

    Thanks for taking the time to explain the pro's and con's, guys. It took awhile to come back and answer as Sally (you know her by a different handle,LOL) and i just finished stripping our old case down to nothing and putting it all into her new Thermaltake.

    Must say that was an experience and a half for us as we have only ever fitted Ram and PCI cards. :scratch: Sally was brilliant, i must say. Very helpful and we both learned heaps. Anyway, that's another story. Might tell that one in the PUB. Bit more to it. :rockon:

    Thanks again for the replies.

    Jon
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited January 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    dragonV8, one other thing... being the cooling forum mod, I'm just a bit paranoid about CPU temperatures ;D Personally, I would not run folding @ home on a laptop, without some additional cooling beyond what the laptop came with. I use a ~7" Comair-Rotron 24v DC 235cfm fan @ 12v :D, but that's kind of overkill (the CPU on my P4-2.4 laptop runs at <38*C under full load with that fan pulling air through the heatsink). What laptop you have is going to impact what the best way of cooling it would be, but I would consider doing something to it...

    Hi Geeky1. Just read your post after i typed and posted the one above.
    Both our house and my room at the mine are airconditioned and stay very cool. Do you think that may be sufficient or would it still be detremental to the longevity of my laptop?

    In my room at the minesite camp the aircon is actually in the opposite wall, blowing straight down to where my laptop sits. Don't know if that might make a difference?

    Jon
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