Interesting Races and Folders-on-the-Move

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:44 am

wgragg had a HUGE day yesterday, putting up 2361 points.

SGreiwe had a big day yesterday, posting 424 points.

bcassell has definitely found some new production. One more day and he should be GREEN.

bcassell and Equiquay is looking like an interesting race.

genotomcat has made page 2

olos is a name to watch. Currently back at #208, he could make page 2 in another day or so.

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:40 am

ColdFlame wrote:Congrats dude! I stopped folding on my server (because it is just wrong) and stopped my other folder because it is now doing something else. Which leaves me with p3 1 Ghz and AMD 3500+

It was also very hot yesterday and my CPUs hit 60C so I stopped folding completely. We'll see where I end up. I'm definitely losing passion for this though.

I 100% understand. We have got so far, and the challenges ahead look to mean more investment and the heat and power issues as well start to take thier toll. Now the UK has some respectable weather, I can only slow my folding down. I have way too many other things to be doing, and these 160 point proteins are really spoiling my fun - You can't edge past anyone, you just take big leaps every few days! I have one PC with a 160 that's been going for a week, and has a couple more days to go. I'm about to reboot it from Linux to win2k, so unless I do something that's a weeks points lost! I'm turning off advmethods on my slower boxes because they are better off with the small fry!

I was hoping for a top 20 place before starting to cruise, but now I think that #30 is a pretty good achievment, and the guys coming up fast are going to knock me back some more. Its time to ease off the throttle and make sure the car gets home.

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:35 pm

haysdb wrote:bcassell has definitely found some new production. One more day and he should be GREEN.

bcassell and Equiquay is looking like an interesting race.

Well, I might have to concede this portion of the race =P. It turns out my dual p3 system is not quite stable at 933mhz (they're stock 800's, but they're engineering samples, so they're not multiplier locked). It really sucks because with my old motherboard they would do 1ghz rock solid, but alas, that motherboard died and this one sucks =(.

Anyway, to the point: the p3's are going down for a few days to be set up as a server, and when they come back up they'll be running at 800mhz =(. Considering how close Equiquay and I are that'll probably make the difference...

So why did I make this post? I wanted to bitch about my shitty motherboard!!! That's the last time I spend $80 on a dual motherboard =) (though I was broke at the time and needed a replacement badly). No voltage adjustments, no manual multiplier settings over 8.0 (GRRRRRRRRRR), and hardly stable at 133mhz FSB (though it is BX, but hey, my tiger100 was stable at 133). I guess I should mention that I went from a Tyan Tiger100 to a Rioworks PDB-R... Anyway, enough of my rant for now...

Bryan

Equiquay · Post by **Equiquay** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:27 pm

Hey Bryan,

That's terrible luck with the motherboard, I was enjoying our race!

Tomorrow looks like a pretty good day for me, but after that I think I'll see a drop in points for a bit while my slower computers digest the 160pt gromacs they've been flooded with. Hope you can get the new server up soon!

Travis

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:08 pm

Equiquay wrote:Hey Bryan,

That's terrible luck with the motherboard, I was enjoying our race!

Well, I don't think I'll fall too far behind. What really sucks though is that both the p3's were over half way through 160 pointers, and they both seemed to crap out. I'm not really sure what happened. All I know is that they should have had a day or two left on the 160 pointers, and I checked this morning and they were working on 18 pointers. I looked through the output, and it said they halted early, so I think I lost 2-3 days worth of work for each p3 =(.

Btw, just out of curiosity, what machines do you have folding? We seem to have pretty similar outputs, so I'm wondering how we're each generating them =). As for me, this is what I currently have going:

Athlon64 3000+ (stock 2ghz) -- Idle during the day, gets used at night for games, web surfing, whatever.
P4 2.8ghz -- Work machine, used HEAVILY during the day (constantly compiling, etc), but idle at night.
dual p3 800mhz -- idle almost all the time.
thunderbird 1.4ghz -- idle almost all the time.
duron 900mhz -- idle almost all the time.

That's it for me, what about you?

Bryan

Equiquay · Post by **Equiquay** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:45 pm

Wow, you must have those optimizations worked out better than I do, because I currently have 15 computers folding.

All computers are idle at night.

(X1) A64 3000 -- Heavily used from 9:00-4:00.
(X3) XP2000 -- Semi-regular light use.
(X3) XP1700 -- Free, for the most part.
(X2) P3 1.0ghz -- Semi-regular light use.
(X5) Various single processor 600-800mhz -- Light use.
(X1) G4 PowerBook Laptop -- never folding during the day.

All of these computers are running at stock speed, and most of them in an office-type setting. I think I currently have 10 of those 160 pointers at the moment - all on the slower computers it seems like, so I don't think they've contributed much to my total because some of them take 3.5 hours per frame!

So... what's your secret?

Or am I just slow?

Travis

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:52 pm

Whoa.... ok, so you should be kicking my ass =P.

Ummm, only optimization I did was to turn on -forcesse on my A64 3000+. That made a HUGE difference. Do those XP's have SSE? If so, definitely turn on -forcesse. Other than that, I have no idea why your production would be low... maybe you'll turn in all the 160 pointers at once and leap ahead one day? =P

Bryan

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:53 pm

Equi - do you have the -forceSSE option enabled on all those AMD systems?

Equiquay · Post by **Equiquay** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:31 am

I've enabled what I could. The SSE won't take on one of my XP1700's and on 4 of my lower-end systems, but it's up and running on everything else. The laptop has AltiVec working. I think my total PPW in F@H LogStats is about 4,200 but I really have no idea what that number is supposed to mean.

Also, when I look up my stats I find that I'm turning in some units for only 2 points, but that there aren't any projects out there only worth 2. Anyone know what those are?

Travis

Wrah · Post by **Wrah** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 1:31 am

Equiquay wrote:I think my total PPW in F@H LogStats is about 4,200 but I really have no idea what that number is supposed to mean.

That number means that you would be one of the best folders of the team.

However I think that fahlog is being a bit too optimistic here..

Check here for some comparison. (PPW = points per week if you didn't know that already)

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:59 am

Equiquay wrote: Also, when I look up my stats I find that I'm turning in some units for only 2 points, but that there aren't any projects out there only worth 2. Anyone know what those are?

That looks like one of your systems not being stable enough for F@H and thus starting a WU and having an error at early stages. When that happens F@H terminates the WU (because it can't continue) and send the job done to Stanford which credits you for the part being done, for example if it stopped when it was 10% done on a 18 points WU, Stanford gives you 1.8.

Check the log files to find which system is finishing WUs wrongly, some proteins require tend to fail more than others. Other factors to consider are: overheating, enabling SSE with AMD CPUs and not running at stock voltage

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 1:07 pm

D_Bailey is up to #44
sthayashi is up to #52
BMW is up to #61
kaid is up to #68

Lots of folks in the 100's have made some big moves today as well.

Equiquay · Post by **Equiquay** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:13 pm

Hmm, well something's not adding up because I'm nowhere near 4,200 points per week. The 4,200 estimate is at night when most of the computers are idle so I checked during the day today and had a PPW of 3,200. Conceivably, this number might fall to 2,500 on really heavy computer days, but I don't know how to explain the inconsistency with my results unless the LogStats estimate isn't very accurate. I checked all of my logs and I didn't see any that were terminating early. If I can find some time this weekend I'll try to pin the problem down.

Travis

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:41 pm

Well, if you take your average points per day for the last 3 days and extrapolate that to points per week, it comes out to be about 3000 PPW. You put up some huge points your last couple days, so maybe it was just that you had a lot of slower machines working on big work units? Anyway, you lept ahead of me today, and it looks like I won't be passing you back any time soon =P.

Bryan

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:50 pm

Equiquay wrote:I don't know how to explain the inconsistency with my results unless the LogStats estimate isn't very accurate.

LogStats reports an "instantaneous" number based on the most recent frame time for each client. It's not unusual to see it report some crazy high number one minute and some crazy low number the next. You have to mentally "average" the times in your head. It's handy and useful, so long as you understand what it's reporting.

For longer term averages, Electron Microscope III works well because it keeps a database of completed work units.

David

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:46 pm

D_Bailey has had a heck of a day today. 1217 points! His average PPD is 8th best on the team, ahead of Frank_Condron and Zyzzyx and just shy of CharlieChan and bkh. That's good company. Over 400K total points from those 4.

mas92264 is approaching the Top 500 folders. Considering the hundreds of thousands of people who have contributed to the Folding@Home project, being one of the top 500 is an accomplishment to be proud of. TRC-13 is #114, bkh is #243, mjrusso45 is #315, ARM Systems is #463, and Zhentar is #467. wgragg, presently at #576, will be joining this elite group shortly.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:05 pm

Today it's dasman with the HUGE day - 1455 points as of 10PM CST. Dave had a 1300 point day just over a week ago, and here he is already topping that. This little spurt has shot dasman up to #30, with #29 just 12 points away. Dave could be into the low 20's by the end of April.

David

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:56 pm

David,

Thanks for the love -- it's as cool as the other side of the pillow

I'll tell ya, those 160 ptr's, you look like crap for a day or so and then... BAM! You're up there with the best of them (for a day at least

)

Dave

EDIT -- Stuart Scott and Emerill all in one post

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:45 am

olos is BLUE! 156 points per week average. Olos, here is your stats page at extremeoverclocking. Lookin' good!

bcassell is on the verge of being GREEN with a 281 PPD average. It take a 300 PPD average to be GREEN. Are you keeping those clients running all the time? Are you using the -advmethods and -forcesse flags? Just 19 more PPD, you are so close!

Of the Top 15 folders for SPCR, in terms of points per day (PPD) average, FOUR are what I would consider "new folders", and that doesn't even include ARM Systems, who have not really been with us all that long. Here is SPCR's team summary page, which lists the top 15 Producers, new members, User Milestones, our production graph, and lots more.

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:27 am

haysdb wrote: bcassell is on the verge of being GREEN with a 281 PPD average. It take a 300 PPD average to be GREEN. Are you keeping those clients running all the time? Are you using the -advmethods and -forcesse flags? Just 19 more PPD, you are so close!

Heh, I was green... for a few days last week =). Yes, I'm using the appropriate flags, clients are running all the time, etc. It just seems like the PPD vary so wildly based on what protein you're folding... Last week my A64 and my P4 both got some 160 pointers pretty consistently, and those were giving me great PPW. Now, for the last 4-5 days it seems like my P4 has only received the double gromacs proteins (which don't take all the cpu, and don't seem to give very good PPW), and my A64 has only been getting 11 or 18 point gromacs, which seem to give it pretty poor PPW. Not to mention the Tinkers! Anyway, that's my story,

Bryan

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:48 am

bcassell wrote:Anyway, that's my story

...and I'm stickin' to it.

Yeah, the last several days have not been good.

OK, just checkin', making sure you are being all you can be!

David

olos · Post by **olos** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:00 pm

And I'm not blue any longer either (but the new light blue) as I've mostly got Tinkers.
Anyway, I've updated my options and look forward to receiving Gromacs in large numbers.

Olov

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:17 pm

The new color is officially "Teal", covering those averaging 75-150 points per day. I am pleased to see this new level since 75 points per day is NOT nothing. Take a look in the top 50 and see how many folders we have in this group, and how many points they have produced. A BUNCH. Put up 75 points a day for a year and what do you have? 27,375. That'd be good for #36 at SPCR, which ain't shabby at all!

David

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 8:10 pm

There will be some shuffling of the Top 10 over the next few days...

mas92264 will pass Zhentar to move up to #6
wgragg will pass CharlieChan to overtake #8
I will overtake Tragus for #10

Some will rip me for pointing this out, but #6's User Overtake page contains a lot of red

mas92264 - 4 days
wgragg - 7 days
CharlieChan - 19 days
myself - 25 days
Frank_Condron - 87 days
Lenny - 189 days
dasman - 201 days
D_Bailey - 214 days

Lockheed left because he was "bored" stuck at #2, and although we miss his points, a little attrition at the top can sometimes be a good thing because it "shakes things up." D_Bailey will overtake our former #2 folder in 231 days according to EOC. dasman in just 223 days. One of our top folders once quipped that he was thinking of splitting himself into two new users and competing with himself, just to make things interesting again.

David

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 8:43 pm

Woo hoo!

My main goal right now is to get past Zhentar before wgragg passes me. Back to #7 then.

Well, that's the way the mop flops.

For a different perspective, take a look at the "all users" pages. CharlieChan and I are on page 5, whilst tragus, wgragg and David are on page 6.

Not too worry, wgragg and David will soon be on page 5 too. Tragus will take a little longer, but he'll get there soon.

It's going to be a long and winding road to page 4.

M

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:40 pm

I am back at 575, but you know, that ain't bad! How many people have folded for this project? Five hundred thousand?

The All Users overtake page is a cool new features of EOC "Stats II". Here is the one for mas. Note that it is SOLID GREEN all the way up to #410, i.e. every single User from 485 to 410 is on mas' threats list

, and even then there aren't many who are not until you get into the top 100!

Granted, he won't overtake some of them for like FIVE YEARS

, but still, I predict #400 for mas within 30 days.

The only user within 125 places that's on mas' threats list? wgragg!

David

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:48 pm

wgragg has passed CharlieChan, to overtake #8

I should slip quietly past tragus tomorrow (Saturday) to take my rightful place at #10.

mas92264 is going to need until Monday to get around Zhentar to claim #6

Lenny, a name that hasn't been mentioned much lately, is sneaking up on MikeC at #15

dasman is now up to #27 and will be at #25 in a few days (Monday)

Coldflame should slip into the Top 30 in a couple of days

sthayashi is sneaking up on NullObject. YO! NullObject! Send me a PM to let me know you are alive. I have something for you!

ogre1384 continues his rapid climb through the ranks. Now at #85, 8 "slowpokes" are on the menu for next week. That means YOU Pete_Amer!

Equiquay has quietly, without fanfare, increased his output to 500 PPW and climbed all the way up to #96. As fast as Ogre1384 is climbing, he will still be forced to yield the left lane to Equiquay in just a few days. Equiquay isn't going to be at #96 for long. 9 people are in his way in just the next DAY, and #70 looks to be only 1 week away.

bcassell continues his romp through the 100's. Now up to #112, the Top 100 should be only 4 days away.

olos and genetomcat are racing each other through the lower ranks, not intending to stay there for long. These two are at #151 and #154 respectively, but both solidly blue and moving upward quickly.

I am moving Hortalonus from the "beginner page" onto the "movers and shakers page" because in just 2 days his output jumped to over 200 per day, and has remained there for 3 days running, so Hortalonus looks like "the real deal".

David

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 12:48 am

wgragg and CharlieChan have both broken into the Top 500 overall on the Folding@Home project.

David

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 5:12 am

And haysdb silently makes it into the top 10. Way to go, David.

M

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 1:53 pm

mas92264 wrote:And haysdb silently makes it into the top 10. Way to go, David.

M

Thank you. I sort of "limped" past tragus. Between the Tinkers and some low point Gromacs, my points are down about 15% from a week ago. Looks like everyone is in the same boat though.

David