Folders required

[Kadayi]

The Halflife2.net folding team could really do with some support guys (we are in the top 500 teams, but are rapidly falling down the table atm). I'm quite sure many of you have fairly decent PCs running now and folding (especially on high end graphic cards) won't detrimentally effect your game play performance (you can also pause it if it does as well). Surfing the forums? Surfing the web? Leaving your machine on while you download stuff overnight? The perfect time to set your machine to do some folding.

Details are here: -

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?136203-Folding-Home-96276

If you've a good graphics card my advice is to install a high performance client available here (note: set to run as administrator): -

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther

The Team number is 96276

Every contribution counts.

Kad

 

[Higlac]

I would, but my laptop has a hard enough time handling minecraft. I'll start once I get my new rig built up though.

 

[ríomhaire]

I would also do this but my laptop is buggy and unstable and prone to crashing. Doesn't seem like a good idea in the circumstances.

 

[Doomination]

pretty cool, i've never heard of this before.

I don't have an uber machine but it's decent.. I'll look into it

edit: did I do it correctly?

 

[Shem]

I would too, but my laptop is pretty old. Can't really do anything with it besides browse the web.

 

[Kadayi]

I probably wouldn't fold if you have a laptop truth be told, but a tower is fine. Also GPU folding is a lot faster than CPU folding, so just run the high performance client, rather than try having CPU & GPU running at the same time.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Have there been any results from all this folding?

 

[kazsymonds]

If someone would explain the F@H interface I would fold. One of the reasons I gave up on getting involved because I couldn't see how much cancer I had cured, or how much of <insert whatever it is the client does> I had done / uploaded. If I saw it doing anything, I might be more motivated. I remember it said 0/200 once.

I downloaded it, but it never seemed to be doing anything. I went to their website and it just had a ton of confusing info that didn't help me.

OP, tell me which client(s) I need, and I will give it another shot.

Specs:
i7 @ 4.0ghz
Radeon HD5870 1024mb
Win 7 64 bit

 

[Kadayi]

Have there been any results from all this folding?

Yes: -

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers

All the tests provide useful feedback (this isn't like seti looking for alien life)

 

[Hectic Glenn]

OK I'm back up and running again, it's been about a 2 year break...and I have a better GPU now. It is very easy to install and set-up. I hope this will make some progress for the team.

 

[Raziaar]

Is there any immediate visual satisfaction? a cool graphical interface showing the folding and how you're saving humanity?

I thought about it when I got my new computer, and I wanted to, but I'm worried about electricity costs as well as the stress on my computer running it full tilt all the time.

 

[Kadayi]

If someone would explain the F@H interface I would fold. One of the reasons I gave up on getting involved because I couldn't see how much cancer I had cured, or how much of <insert whatever it is the client does> I had done / uploaded. If I saw it doing anything, I might be more motivated. I remember it said 0/200 once.

I downloaded it, but it never seemed to be doing anything. I went to their website and it just had a ton of confusing info that didn't help me.

OP, tell me which client(s) I need, and I will give it another shot.

Specs:
i7 @ 4.0ghz
Radeon HD5870 1024mb
Win 7 64 bit

Basically as you've a Radeon card I'd go for the 6.23 high end folding client: -

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/[email protected]

Download and install (note: set to run as administrator). It will start up a taskbar icon, right click on that and goto configure, enter a user name (kazsymonds) and team number 96276

You can check the log (rightclick>status>log) to see if it's running, or goto display to see it in action. Generally mousing over the icon will tell you the present status. Likewise you can pause etc there.

You can check your personal progress (rightclick>status>user statistics) which will open up a web page (note it takes time to update after an initial fold) or go to the more comprehensive (unofficial) stats page for the hl2.net team here: -

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_list.php?s=&t=96276

The key thing to note is the team overtake page: -

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_overtake.php?s=&t=96276

as you can see, we are progressing up (though we are getting caught up a lot as well), but with a few more people actively folding we could break into the top 400 by next Christmas, which would be a magnificent achievement given the size of the site. Any efforts no matter how small or infrequent are appreciated.

Kad

 

[Kadayi]

OK I'm back up and running again, it's been about a 2 year break...and I have a better GPU now. It is very easy to install and set-up. I hope this will make some progress for the team.

Excellent news Glenn. WB.

Is there any immediate visual satisfaction? a cool graphical interface showing the folding and how you're saving humanity?

I thought about it when I got my new computer, and I wanted to, but I'm worried about electricity costs as well as the stress on my computer running it full tilt all the time.

You can watch the folder in progress if you want raz (just select display on the desk tray icon). Also you can pause the folder when you want. Also although it would be great if everyone could fold 24/7 I recognise that's simply not going to be the case (even if you only fold one unit a day, it's still one more unit to the team effort). However folding is less stressful on your graphics card than playing a full on MP game.

 

[dfc05]

I'm still folding, just under a different username than here (SL87). I have it running on a laptop, but I have the settings at ~40% CPU usage. Maybe that helps some? I don't really know. I do recall running the folding on a desktop computer several years ago and my brand new hard drive failed pretty fast -- like a few years. Have no idea if it had anything to do with folding or if the hard drive was just a crappy product. I'm pretty sure I used 50% back then too. So that's mostly what I'm worried about. Can't really afford to kill my laptop. I don't backup files often enough (or ever, really ).

Don't mean to draw attention away, but for a couple years I'd switched over to Climate Prediction Experiment. It had a really freakin awesome display. You run a climate change model over 200 years and you can see the global map of modeled temperatures, rainfall, etc over time. Basically showing how screwed the Earth is . But honestly, whatever graphics are available get boring after a while, so choose the project you care about most.

Also also also
You can see the exact project you're folding for, which is pretty cool! Go to Status -> Queue Info. There's a number for your Project.
Put that number in here: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/fahproject.overusingIPswillbebanned

This is my current project:

Spoiler

P6881 : Second stage sampling of a single full-length amyloid beta (Abeta) monomer mutant in explicit water:

A pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease is the senile plaques composed of Abeta peptides in patient brains. The simulation system is composed of a single full-length Abeta in water. These simulations are our second-stage sampling of the peptide conformations. The results will be used to build up Markov states for Abeta monomer, which will serve as great starting points for future oligomerization studies.

 

[Raziaar]

Maybe I'll give it a shot for a while. As long as it's easy to set up and start.

 

[Kadayi]

I do recall running the folding on a desktop computer several years ago and my brand new hard drive failed pretty fast -- like a few years. Have no idea if it had anything to do with folding or if the hard drive was just a crappy product.

Folding uses CPU or GPU processing power, it doesn't really do much read/write to the hard drive tbh (save log files). The hard drive was probably defective at a guess.

You are still listed as folding though: -

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_list.php?s=&t=96276

But if you can fold using your gpu occasionally that would be more beneficial.

 

[dfc05]

Yeah, I started up again last year on the hl2.net team. Kinda had it turned off last week while I was at home. The hard drive incident was in 2007, folding for a university team back then. Frankly I don't know enough about computers to understand wtf happened to that machine. Which I guess goes to show, if I was able to set up FAH well enough for it to be doing something, it must be really easy so probably anybody can figure it out .

I don't know how to make it fold using the gpu though.

[edit] On further thought, it was actually the power supply unit that had quit back then. Wow I'm dumb. So yeah... really had nothing to do with the folding.

 

[Kadayi]

Maybe I'll give it a shot for a while. As long as it's easy to set up and start.

well get yourself a gpu client from here: -

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther

If you are unsure which client to get, there are details here: -

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinGPUGuide

However TL: DR generally ATI - 6.23 client. Nvidia 6.32 client (note: set to run as administrator). Also make sure your respective graphic drivers are upto date, and make sure you put your name & the team number in the configuration boxes.

Personally I have a 460 gtx and I average a work unit every 3 hours to give you an idea of folding speed.

 

[Kadayi]

I don't know how to make it fold using the gpu though.

Well it's probably best to leave it as it is, if it's long in the tooth. Essentially you just download a gpu client instead of a cpu client (see link given to raz). You need at least an 8 series geforce GPU or 2xxx+ ATi to fold on the GPU though.

 

[No Limit]

Thanks for posting this, I forgot about it. The GPU version says my GPU is not supported, which is odd since I have a fairly new Ati HD 5750. I installed the regular version for now. I will also install it on my computer at work tomorrow and test out how it works. If it doesn't affect my performance I might ask for permission to get this loaded on all our workstations (around 20). I think my boss will say yes since he's a physicist and appreciates this kind of stuff, unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get the HL2 team number in there for privacy reasons (unless there is a way to hide that).

 

[Krynn72]

I don't want to keep it on very long each day, since I'm mooching off my parent's electric bill, but I'll try and do at least a unit a day. I got the GPU client, and have a 5850, so it should be pretty decent. If I remember to set it up when I move out of here, I'll probably leave it on all the time (except when working/playing) because I was never one to care about my electric bill.

EDIT: I got the same thing as No Limit. Kinda dumb that they list ATI 5XXX series as supported then.

EDIT2: @ No Limit: I just saw a note on the download page saying to add the following to the target line in a shortcut to make our cards work.

-forcegpu ati_r700

Just paste that in the target line after the quotes.

 

[Kadayi]

I'd just settle for having you doing it at home dude. I wouldn't bother getting it running on your work machines.

 

[15357]

I used to have it running, but I dunno why I stopped.

I should do this when I'm back on my PC.

 

[No Limit]

EDIT2: @ No Limit: I just saw a note on the download page saying to add the following to the target line in a shortcut to make our cards work.

-forcegpu ati_r700

Just paste that in the target line after the quotes.

Cool, I'll try it when I get home.

I'd just settle for having you doing it at home dude. I wouldn't bother getting it running on your work machines.

I just installed it on my work PC, will see how it performs. The majority of these computers sit idle for 16 hours a day, might as well do something useful with them.

 

[Kadayi]

Cool. Good to see a positive response from people. Be aware that it takes a while for peoples completed units to register on the team stats (they run an update 4 times a day iirc).

@nolimit

BTW there's no traceback on the team id to a particular machine, so you can set your work machine to the same account and the team number to maximise gains (I use my work mac to fold as well as my home PC, the points just go to my user account).

 

[No Limit]

But can't anybody click on the tray icon and select view team page from the configuration menu? I am going to see later if I start the program under my username if it will run in the background, I'm hoping it will.

 

[Kadayi]

Well, as I say I'd just be inclined to run it on your home machine if you are worried. There's no point getting into trouble at work if that's your concern. I wouldn't want that happening to you either tbh dude.

 

[No Limit]

Nah, I won't get in trouble. I just don't want any links back to you crazy people . So I'll play around with it and at worst I might not be able to set the team id. Like I said, I think my boss will actually love the idea.

 

[kazsymonds]

Well, here's my guy.

I'm going to name him Mr H.G Blob

 

[StarBob]

How's this on a network? I could run it on my work computer, but I don't want to be using a lot of bandwidth. Does it just download some data and run or is it constantly streaming?

 

[No Limit]

It downloads the data needed to do the calculations (a work unit I believe it's called) then nothing is sent until all the work is done. Not very much bandwidth at all.

 

[StarBob]

Ok second question, my work computer has pretty nice quad core processor and a pretty mediocre geforce gts 250, however being that this is a simulation I feel like GPUs are the best choice... but which one would be more efficient for me?

 

[No Limit]

I'm not sure, I installed the cpu version this morning forgetting that this thing did have an okay GPU in it. Installed the GPU version now and funny enough it seems like you can run both at the same time. I'll let you know which was faster. I have a quad core processor and a ati HD 4350 in this.

 

[Krynn72]

Well, here's my guy.

I'm going to name him Mr H.G Blob

Holy shit, how are you getting 450 iter/sec? I get 60 at most with almost the same card (5850)

Also, in the donor section where it says name and team, it just says "Core is not running now" I don't think mine is working right.

 

[kazsymonds]

Holy shit, how are you getting 450 iter/sec? I get 60 at most with almost the same card (5850)

Also, in the donor section where it says name and team, it just says "Core is not running now" I don't think mine is working right.

That was low for some reason, probably because I was dicking around in paint.

It runs at over 800 continually, and peaks at 1100 - 1200, so you should be looking to get similar performance.

Sounds like you're doing it wrong.

 

[No Limit]

If I open the display up it says its only doing 24 /sec. But it's clearly doing way more than that when minimized just based on the fact that I have over 300,000 done and I just installed it a little over an hour ago.

 

[Kadayi]

Holy shit, how are you getting 450 iter/sec? I get 60 at most with almost the same card (5850)

Also, in the donor section where it says name and team, it just says "Core is not running now" I don't think mine is working right.

Did you install the 6.23 client or the 6.32 by mistake Krynn?

Uninstall the application (also delete user/your name/app data/roaming/Folding@home-gpu or Folding@home-cpu if it's there) and get the Windows: V6 GPU2 6.23 client (second one down) from here: -

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther

you'll need to enter your name & the team number (96276) again.

Any problems, you can zap me on Steam: Kadayi

 

[Ennui]

I'll hop on this train. My username for FAH is EnnuiHL2. I just got the clients running... I am running the 6.32 GPU3 client for my GTX 460, and I also configured WinSMP to run on my processor.

So, I shouldn't run them both at the same time? I gave core priority to the GPU client (set the core priority for SMP to low) but I don't know if it's worth running both of them at once or not... for what it's worth, my CPU is only running at around 10-25% on average running just the GPU client, whereas running both GPU and SMP at the same time brings my CPU usage up to 100%. I know the GPU is more efficient, but my CPU is pretty hefty (4 3.5ghz cores) so if I can get extra mileage out of that by running SMP on top of GPU3 I want to do that.

Someone that actually understands all this please enlighten me

 

[Krynn72]

Yeah, thats what I did before. I just re-did it all and it was doing the same thing. But running it at administrator seemed to make it work correctly, its displaying my name and team number as well as going a lot faster. It also doesnt drop to 1/sec when not in focus now too.

 

[Kadayi]

@Ennui

I'd just go with the GPU folding tbh dude. Back when I had a 9800 GTX I used to do both CPU & GPU, but the CPU is a lot slower at folding than the GPU and it's just going to generate more heat. The strain on your GPU is significantly less because it's more suited to running the calculations, as well as being a lot faster overall. You're welcome to run both, however I don't expect everyone to be a mad man like me and fold 24/7 (I can afford to). The key thing is moving the team up the table into the top 400. If we can do that by this time next year, that would be a huge achievement by everyone participating. I really appreciate the positive response by people so far.

@Krynn

Cool, I must admit I forgot that aspect (I rarely restart my PC), but yes you are right, best to run the software as administrator (updates earlier posts).