Questions from a Folder out of the loop for a few years

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:19 am

I've been folding for awhile now, but I haven't kept up on the latest trends in folding. I recently got a 40GB PS3 (almost exclusively for movies) and I'm letting it fold for me when it is idle. I checked out my scores and I'm getting 1400 PPD on the PS3, which I am very happy with. My 2 single core 2.0ghz Athlon64s have been folding for over a year and get ~100PPD each, so the PS3 basically makes my other machines worthless. They are SageTV clients that I leave on 24/7, and they are optimized for low power at full load so it doesn't bother me that they are on, and every little bit helps.

However, since starting up the PS3 I got more interested in points and I am seeing that people are getting 1000PPD with their Dual Core rigs, and 3000PPD with Quad Core rigs. So, what gives with my single core athlons? They aren't THAT slow that I should be getting 1/10th the points of a dual core athlon. What can I do to make these rigs worthwhile again? One of them is even an AM2 board that can accept dual core CPUs for cheap, but I don't really want to go through the process of optimizing it for stability at low voltage and high load again. I also have a new server in the garage that I have at idle all the time for low power. I have not undervolted it yet because it idles 95% of the time and I figured CnQ was good enough. It is a Dual Core 2.5ghz Athlon that would fold very nicely. What do I need to do to get these rigs back up to speed so I can start to contribute more than I already do?

bkh · Post by **bkh** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:14 pm

Hi, Autoboy.

I think you can't get the big points with the single-core athlons. The main reason for the high PPD of the successful dual- and quad-core folders is that the SMP jobs (especially the 64-bit Linux SMP jobs) have much higher PPD values than the uniprocessor jobs --- in part because the SMP jobs have tight deadlines (days, not weeks) and therefore require reasonably fast machines that fold almost constantly.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:14 pm

True. I have an AMD X2 5200+ completely stock and using the SMP client, I get about 1000 PPD. When I started folding I got about 100 PPD using the simple graphical client. My machine folds 24/7 and a WU is completed in about 1.5 days.

That is the trade-off: if you don't want/have your PC on all the time, SMP client will do you no good because it will not be able to complete the WU in time. If you are willing to leave it running all the time though, in result you will get much higher PPD provided you have at least a dual core processor.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:57 pm

Well, it looks like I'll be working on undervolting my server for full load duty tomorrow. I sure hope this doesn't ruin the stability. My single core athlons fold all day and complete in about 3 days. Can I run the SMP client on them and get more points?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:20 am

Hello,

The SMP Folding@Home client requires a dual core or a quad core to run at all. In Linux, you need a 64bit distro. The best you can do on a single core machine is to use the console version running as a service.

avi_dan · Post by **avi_dan** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:38 am

The only exception being a single core hyperthreaded CPU.

I have a 3.0 GHz P4 630 Prescott that is running the SMP client 24/7 and it completes a Project 2653 work unit in 3 days (aprox).

Avi

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:16 am

Is there a speed difference between running as a service, and running the client in a window?