How to set up Folding@home

I know folding@home is for a good cause and all, but is having your PC running full whack all the time not hard on your wallet, lecky style?!

I agree with PT88. It's a noble cause but I can't afford to do this.

Originally Posted by PT88
I know folding@home is for a good cause and all, but is having your PC running full whack all the time not hard on your wallet, lecky style?!

Article needs more disclaimer imo, TV style "make sure you have permission from the bill payer"...

Although you can look at the text log files each client produces, a better method is to use a third-party application such as [eurl=http://fahmon.net ]FahMon[/eurl]

i guess there is something wrong

My house has electric central heating, so I run FAH whenever I'm at home during the winter, as it makes sense to me to be doing something useful with the power before it gets dumped into the room as heat - basically using my PC and PS3 as heaters. In the summer, though, I don't fold - electricity is too expensive; I don't believe in leaving electrical goods on more than necessary; and my place gets hot enough as it is without adding to it!

Originally Posted by alpaca
Although you can look at the text log files each client produces, a better method is to use a third-party application such as [eurl=http://fahmon.net ]FahMon[/eurl]

i guess there is something wrong

Fixed, thanks. Tiny typo...

I just turn it on when I'm doing other things. My pc would be on most of the day and I haven't really noticed much of a difference bill-wise using one core for folding and carrying on with email, browsing,etc on the other.

Frankly excellent article James. I tried setting up F@H a few times, and ran in to so many problems, with fixes hard to find, that I just gave up.

Everything needed is nice and tidy in this article. Well done.

Nice write-up, thanks for the guide. I've now got started with my local PC and two 24/7 servers - configured to contribute to the bit-tech/cpc team of course!.

That FAHMon tool is pretty sweet too, I was a bit confused by it at first as I was pointing it to the F@H directory and it wasn't picking up the client - but that wasn't where the FAHlog.txt file was. Found it in the C:\Users\%NAME%\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-x86 (example path is from Windows 7).

W00t what a complicated setup! I already set mine up before reading the artical. Turns out I did some things wrong.

But why is it better to run SMP compared to 2 regular clients? Plz explain.

In short - you'll get far more points per day running an SMP client on a dual-core CPU than two standard CPU clients.

When you guys all complain of hot summers, you arent thinking of people who live in heat all the time. Here in Singapore a cool day would be 25-27 degrees. Hot will be like >30. Its usually in between.

Pah! 30C is nothing, when I used to live in Dubai it was regularly 45C+ for a large part of the year. Now that I live in the UK again I can fold more easily (and use the farm to heat my house nicely too :) )

small disclaimer (and i might be wrong on this one but this is what i am getting) the smp client for Linux is for x64 only.

Once I finish Trident, I plan to set up GPU folding on it, as it will have three video cards. However, I only have two monitors at the moment, and F@H requires each video card to have a monitor connected in order for it to recoqnize the card. Could you go over how to "fool" the folding client into thinking that there are more monitors plugged in? Some sort of wiring trick with the DVI port or something. Thanks!

Connect the VGA cable from one of the monitors to the third gfx card? (assuming your 'using' DVI and they have both :p)

mmm. i don't see any particularly amazing science coming out of this. just a whole bunch of wasted power messing up the environment... and scant justification for that faster cpu, that new graphics card. bit of a weird obsession imo.

Define "amazing science"

I know this is probably a little late now, and I haven't compared this to the print article in issue 70 either, but there are several misnomers on page 4 of this article.

First, the -local flag is deprecated and does precisely nothing in the version 6 clients since the registry is no longer used to determine the working directory for the clients. -local is implicit in version 6.

Second, multiple console clients (of the same type) can be set up in exactly the same way as the system tray clients. You only need 1 executable which is shared by all clients. The "Start in" folder is what determines where the client actually works from.

Edit: Why can't I delete my own incompetent double-post?

Errrrm.. why does SMP give more points than 2 regular clients? I don't quite see how it can be more productive unless you get more points the sooner you finish or somthing??

Plus the SMP client sucks. I just want to download, unpack, and run it when I'm not using the PC. Not to have to install the software. Why is there a 32bit and a 64bit SMP client? Last time I checked, my CPU cud run 32bit apps ok, and yet the 32bit client just crashes.

The GPU client also laggs up my system quite a bit. ATM I'm running 2 regular clients and one GPU client all console version. The GPU client seem to get much more done than the other 2 put together. My system is Athlon X2 2.1GHz and 8600GT.

Originally Posted by zoot2boot
mmm. i don't see any particularly amazing science coming out of this. just a whole bunch of wasted power messing up the environment... and scant justification for that faster cpu, that new graphics card. bit of a weird obsession imo.

I would suggest reading up on the science behind Folding on Stanford's website. They also have a page documenting their Folding achievements to date.

A much worthy cause if you ask me. :)

Ok, tried this, but no go. The GPU client just doesn't seem to work on my machine. Maybe it's because I'm running 7, but FahMon just keeps reporting it as paused, while the tray client says it's runnig. The logs show no errors, I see no progress being made by this. So, so much for folding...

Originally Posted by Singularity
Ok, tried this, but no go. The GPU client just doesn't seem to work on my machine. Maybe it's because I'm running 7, but FahMon just keeps reporting it as paused, while the tray client says it's runnig. The logs show no errors, I see no progress being made by this. So, so much for folding...

If you are refering to a 7 series geforce gpu then you are correct about the no progress as you a series 8 geforce and above or a 4000 and above ATI for the client work.

I wonder who pays electric bills of those all "fools" who "fold at home". Even the name "folding" disturbes my nerves.
Ask your governments to spend less money on weapons and fund scientific research more. Money is there, but they ask for your hard earned money to be dumped on such a weird project that you don't have any kind of control on.