a better way to donate?

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mr. poopyhead
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a better way to donate?

Post by mr. poopyhead » Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:29 am

i was just thinking about the total cost of folding...
0.042 kW[1] x 3hrs x $0.055[2] x 260000 CPUs[3]= $1801.80/day

[1] http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page4.html
[2] http://www.torontohydro.com/electricsys ... /index.cfm
[3] http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... pe=osstats
i would estimate that the average person might use their computer for about 3 hours a day? i mean HERE we have a lot of 24/7 folders and people with dedicated boxes JUST to fold... but we're a small and geeky minority.

please feel free to edit my formula. obviously it is a (grossly?) simplified model of what really happens since i'm ignoring some of the other impacts of folding.

would it be better if we just donated our electricity bills to stanford so they could buy some kind of supercomputer? f@h is producing 689 TFLOPS per day at that price... is it worth it? how much is a supercomputer that also does at least 689 TFLOPS?

i'm not quittig folding... just wondering.
Last edited by mr. poopyhead on Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

avi_dan
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Post by avi_dan » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:06 am

Most of my folding machines are @ work. It is a little social justice to get a big corporation to help find a cure for Alzheimers....

:D :D :D

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:13 am

Hello,

And what would Stanford need to do with our money donation? They would have to buy computers, and run Folding@Home on clusters! :o

They need results to their experiments in order to gain knowledge about how proteins work, and how they "break", too.

qviri
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Post by qviri » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:17 am

I think I saw an argument before that it would be far simpler to fold with a supercomputer. I think the draw of F@H is supposed to be that people already have these machines, and the cost of the electricity needed to run at full load rather than idle is small compared to even a single fridge. In essence, they're using what's already here.

floffe
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Post by floffe » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:10 pm

Well, the Blue Gene, the current fastest single supercomputer today, "only" packs around 300 TFlops, so I'm pretty sure this is a MUCH more economical way to achieve that kind of computing power.

peteamer
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Post by peteamer » Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:42 pm

Anybody checked the price of a Blue Gene recently? What's it's life expectancy(cost/year)? What's it's daily power requirement in terms of cost? How much air conditioning(cost) does it require? How much floor space (rent)? Salary for staff to run it?

Oh, and we're gonna need two.....


Pete
:D

P.S. Can it cope with Solitaire?...

floffe
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Post by floffe » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:09 am

Those 280 GFlops was achieved with 64 rack-sized cabinets, with a starting price (one rack) of $1.5-2 millions. So for getting two of these 64-cabinet systems, to get up to 500+ TFlops, I think a low estimate would be $100 million.

peteamer
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Post by peteamer » Fri May 04, 2007 9:01 am

Bad news Boys'n'Girls... the current total is 879 TFLOPS!!! :shock:

Looks like we may have to open up a couple more Piggy Banks. :lol:


Pete
(Anyboby know how to overclock a Piggy Bank?...)

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Fri May 04, 2007 10:30 am

the current total is 879 TFLOPS!!!
is that the highest ever Folding TFlops?

floffe
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Post by floffe » Fri May 04, 2007 1:35 pm

Almost two thirds of that is from PS3s, so probably yes. :shock:

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Thu May 10, 2007 5:43 am

0.042 kW? I pay like 6.5 cents for delivery charges, that doesn't include the electrical cost itself (also about 6.5 cents).

But at times computers are left on, used or not, that does not represent the true cost of FAH. It's cost is the power use at 100% cpu minus power use at idle.

Well there are a number of people here that have stopped folding simply because they feel they are helping greedy corporations, so I doubt they will send money to anyone. The thing about folding yourself is you know how the money is being spent.

Ultimately though if Alzheimers is not resolved before most of the Baby Boomer generation reaches the typical age the problem set in it's going to be very expensive for everbody, whether or not the disease directly affects you. IE for this particular subject and time the "Greed is good" theory may indeed benefit mankind.

Most utility companies have excess power during off peak hours and some offer multiple rates (peak and off peak) for electricity. So I'd like to see several hundred PCs at several thousand universities spend midnight to 6:00 am folding at a reduced cost. Not that other businesses couldn't do the same thing, but universities, as education centers, should lead the way.

I'm gunning for you Mr Poopyhead - :D

Aris

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Post by xan_user » Sat May 19, 2007 10:13 am

:idea:
Solar powered folding.

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Sun May 20, 2007 10:02 am

That would require lead acid batteries for 24/7 folding, and frankly pico PSUs are way overpriced for what they are.

Unless we considerinf folding in just sunny days :?:

Nah.

unregistered
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Post by unregistered » Wed May 23, 2007 4:23 pm

Try getting F@home off of you computer. It is very difficult. You will have to use Regedit. I did and will not ever fold again.

F... folding @ home. Who do they think they are MS?

AMF.............

avi_dan
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Post by avi_dan » Wed May 23, 2007 5:10 pm

Whats your problem???

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Wed May 23, 2007 5:12 pm

Apparently FAH is not fully MS compliant. If it was such a big deal I would just delete the parts and run a reg cleaner.

No big deal.

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