Finalgear Folding@Home team

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This is a thread to recruit members to the Finalgear Folding@home team...

We've had a team since early 2005 and at one point nearly got into the top 500.

But recently there have been only a few of us folding and we have slipped into the 800's.

Folding at home is a distributed computing project run by Stanford university to investigate the reasons why proteins fold incorrectly.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

When Proteins fold incorrectly they cause diseases such as Cancer & Alzheimer's amongst others.

So by joining the team you can help, by donating computing time , to help cure these diseases.

The negative aspect is that your computer will use more power, it will cost real money, personally I can live with that.

If you use the GPU client, your bandwidth usage will go up and things will seem a little slow, but personally when I'm browsing the Internet I just don't notice.

We even have a sub-forum dedicated to the Finalgear team.

http://forums.finalgear.com/folding-at-home/

Anyone who beats Hokiethang gets a prize :)

Even if you just read this thread, please post your thoughts....

Thanks...
 
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Please join F@H if you can. I know some of you probably leave your computers on 24/7 as it is, and it might as well do something useful. You can even set it up so it will start up with your machine and run in the background. Every little bit helps.

 
I'm using a PS3 because my laptop can't handle F@H so can I still join your team?

If so, how?
 
Just enter 42134 as your team number to join the Finalgear team.
 
I'd run it, but the last time I tried it years ago Windows couldn't properly make it use less CPU when I'd game even with the low priority, i.e. it'd lag me.
 
I'd run it, but the last time I tried it years ago Windows couldn't properly make it use less CPU when I'd game even with the low priority, i.e. it'd lag me.

I have my CPU client running 24/7 even while gaming with no lag issues. I think they fixed it now. I do have to pause the GPU client though.
 
I have my CPU client running 24/7 even while gaming with no lag issues. I think they fixed it now. I do have to pause the GPU client though.
Hmm, guess I'll give it another try.

BTW, anyone have a rough $/year figure?
 
My PS3 is set to fold for the FG team when ever I leave it running. Should have gotten like 2-3 work unites over the last week.
I'll check to make sure the team number is the correct one.
 
Yeah, I have my PS3 set up to fold for the team, but I rarely leave it on while at the main menu.

I did however set up my PC to fold via the GPU (that's better than CPU, right?). It's folding via my 8800 GT and only using 7-8% CPU (i.e. it doesn't lag me at all as I'm using my PC). Yet to play a game though to test how well it gives up the GPU.

We'll see how it goes and if I'll actually manage to submit a work unit for the first time in over 3 years or not before (assuming I do) get pissed off at the thing and close it. :p
 
I always wanted to try folding@home on my PS3 too, so I'm gonna give it a shot.

How much power this uses very much depends on your computer and how you set the software up, so it's very hard to give out a general number of how much this costs.
 
How much power this uses very much depends on your computer and how you set the software up, so it's very hard to give out a general number of how much this costs.

8800 GT.
 
Like I said, even when you give me your complete PC stats, finding out the actual power consumption would still be very hard, as it depends on the configuration of your computer and the f@h software itself. I would assume that using youc CPU will use less power than using your GPU, but not knowing how exactly the software works, that's just a good guess.
 
The GPU client is better for points. It's much faster than the CPU client. I've got one GPU client running, and it's running circles around my PS3. I'm actually running three on one machine when i'm not using it (2 CPU and 1 GPU).

As for a monetary figure, I don't know, it's not large enough that I notice, (especially on the server, since the server I don't pay for power on).
 
Yeah, my GPU is burning through a WU in under 3 hours. I remember my old P4 taking a lot, lot longer and my PS3 was looking to take a lot longer than that as well before I turned it off.
 
Here's an example for the actual cost:

According to Wiki, a PS3 consumes around 200 Watts when you're running f@h. That is...

  • 0.2 kWh per hour
  • 4.8 kWh per day
  • 1752 kWh a year
Given that I pay 20,34 Eurocent per kWh, that is...

  • 4 Eurocents per hour
  • 98 Eurocents per day
  • 356 Euros per year
... given I let the PS3 run with f@h 24/7 for the whole year. You can break that down for your respective use. Given I let it run for an average of 1 hour a day, I pay 14,84 Euros a year.

A PC is very like to use much less, given you don't have the ultimate gaming machine. An average office PC will probably use 1/2 of what the PS3 uses. Therefore, you can approximately half that cost when you're doing it on a PC.

Whether or not that's worth it, that's your call...
 
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My PC is on 24/7 anyway, I'm just trying to figure out how much additional kWh's my GPU is using. Hmm.
 
I'm absolutely not sure about power consumption when using the GPU. The GT 8800 is rated at a maximum power draw of 105 watts. The thing is that I have no idea whether the GPU client uses as much power as a 3D simulation. Therefore, the power consumption may be minor, so the power draw may not be far from idle.

Also, if you have power saving software running, the difference between idle and f@h would be much bigger than when you're not running such software.
 
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