Folding@Home

graywave · Post by **graywave** » October 14th, 2005, 5:28 pm

Ol Grumpy wrote:
RAF wrote: The company I work for will then have most machines replaced by faster ones. I now have five machines I don't even fold with, because of lack of processor power. Five more is all I'll ever have to give. But it should be enough to overtake Larry. : )

I can go up 50Mhz still.

Every Hz counts! 8)

Post by **Nitin** » October 14th, 2005, 10:12 pm

28,000+ points last 4 days - go team!
6 more days..

Post by **Nitin** » October 17th, 2005, 11:33 am

I made it back on this list after months!

Post by **RAF** » October 17th, 2005, 12:20 pm

Pff...

Thumper · Post by **Thumper** » October 17th, 2005, 1:33 pm

You people should go to hell.

Is everyone else getting 5000 frame behemoths lately? I don't remember work units being like this before.

- Chris

Post by **RAF** » October 17th, 2005, 1:39 pm

Is it on the Stats page on the Stanford site or do you have one of those units that has no time limit? They're worth more points, you know.

Or feed The Machine some Stella.

Post by **old SKopischke** » October 17th, 2005, 1:42 pm

My most recent work unit was huge, but the current one (due to finish in about 30 minutes) is quite a bit smaller.

sleewa · Post by **sleewa** » October 17th, 2005, 1:47 pm

In my short time folding (1-1/2 months) I've learned to ignore the number of frames that the project issues. What really matters on my CPUs (everything from a PIII/667 to a 2.8GHz Xeon) are the number of points per project per unit of time. And, all things being equal, each individual CPU gets the same number of points/[hour|day|week] today as it did two weeks ago on a completely separate project. The only difference (which is the case on my Xeon) is getting projects with bonus points.

I do have to admit it would be nicer to get small work units on the slower PIII/667 (there's not as much gratification on folding a project for 2+ weeks just to get a couple hundred points; it'd be easier personally to have it fold 3 days for 40+ points). But that's just me... to the F@H project, it's all the same.

Thumper · Post by **Thumper** » October 17th, 2005, 1:52 pm

That's two in a row I've had, and I actually ran out of time on the last one. Suck.

- Chris

UncleVR · Post by **UncleVR** » October 17th, 2005, 2:02 pm

Thumper, do you use the -advmethods switch when you start the client?

Thumper · Post by **Thumper** » October 17th, 2005, 2:16 pm

No?

- Chris

UncleVR · Post by **UncleVR** » October 17th, 2005, 3:07 pm

What about allowing big work units, then? The reason I ask is because I remember reading a warning about using those, particularly in combination.

EDIT: From the folding@home configuration FAQ.

-advmethods This flag gives "advanced methods" work units (WUs). These work units will inherently be less stable than regular WUs. The donor should monitor the client regularly and report unusual situations to the folding community forum (http://forum.folding-community.org).

SETTINGS UNIQUE TO THE VERSION 5.0x CLIENT

The configuration setting Accept WUs>5MB (also known as the "BigWU" setting) allows for large WUs (large in either download size, upload size, or RAM requirements). Note that these work units are the most demanding work units in download and/or RAM. In the console client, this is set through the -config flag. You will be asked "Allow receipt of work unit assignments and return of work results greater than 5MB in size (such units may have large memory demands)". In the GUI client, this is set through the config panel. We do not recommend the BigWU setting for clients with modems, due to the large filesize involved (and greater potential for transmission problems and WU loss).

Combining advanced methods and BigWU: this combination unlocks the most demanding work units, including QMD and very large RAM and/or download WUs. We do not suggest this setting for a machine which is not readily administered, as this setting is the most demanding and would likely require more donor intervention than any other setting. To compensate for this, these WUs have a large bonus. The donor should monitor the client regularly and report unusual situations to the folding community forum (http://forum.folding-community.org). THIS COMBINATION SHOULD BE ONLY USED WITH EXTREME CAUTION AND FAMILIARITY WITH FAH -- THERE WILL BE HUGE DEMANDS ON THE CLIENT MACHINE, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) RAM, HARD DRIVE, NETWORK CONNECTION. Bonus points are awarded due to these increased demands.

EDIT #2: An easy way to check for the big work units is to look at the client.cfg file. It will have a line with "bigpackets=yes" in it. Advanced methods, at least in Windows, you enable by altering the registry entry and adding -advmethods to the end of it. I assume you would alter whatever the equivalent method of starting the client in Linux is.

EDIT #3: sleewa, you probably want to rerun the configuration, answer yes to "change advanced options" and then answer yes to "request work units without deadlines". Oh, and for the love of God, do not answer yes to "Allow receipt of work unit assignments and return of work results greater than 5MB in size (such units may have large memory demands". I -think- that's the combination of options for you to get the lighter mode genome folding work units instead, which don't take long at all. The side effect of that is that they are not worth many points at all.

sleewa · Post by **sleewa** » October 17th, 2005, 3:26 pm

UncleVR wrote:EDIT #3: sleewa, you probably want to rerun the configuration, answer yes to "change advanced options" and then answer yes to "request work units without deadlines". Oh, and for the love of God, do not answer yes to "Allow receipt of work unit assignments and return of work results greater than 5MB in size (such units may have large memory demands". I -think- that's the combination of options for you to get the lighter mode genome folding work units instead, which don't take long at all. The side effect of that is that they are not worth many points at all.

I can confirm that I'm not accepting >5MB work units on the PIII/667. That would be painful. I'll try changing the config to request deadlineless work units... projects 753-755 would be just the right size... although 1159 (deadlineless with a 30 day preferred return) would probably take the system about 2-3 weeks to fold.

Thumper · Post by **Thumper** » October 17th, 2005, 3:28 pm

Big units are disabled.

My machine is freezing (at least in Windows) every so often (between twenty minutes and twenty hours) just now anyway, and the resultant disk trashing is killing my work units, so I'm off the folders for a while anyway. I haven't finished a WU in months.

- Chris

graywave · Post by **graywave** » October 18th, 2005, 2:47 pm

Nitin wrote:I made it back on this list after months!

And I dropped off :cry: