24 hours

[mrpaco]

I know absolutely zero about folding@. You guys have peaked my interest. severely...
But I'm sure you guys that know this stuff will help me get up n running.

I would like to run a min of 2 set ups at my job that can stay running 24 hours. As well as one at home a few hours a day.
But I have a few questions first.

System:
Can I run 2 rigs at my job at the same time as well as one occasionally at home?
GPUs single or sli/xfire ? or CPUs single or multi-socket? whats the better way to go?
OS to use?

May have more questions as this progresses 

[Bones]

The others like Wulfe can explain it much better than I but I do know you'd want a low powered system running something like a Sempron as it's CPU. Although you can fold with a CPU it's best to do it with a GPU.

Nvidia cards are best for folding. You can fold with an AMD card but an Nvidia of the same gen will beat it everytime so go green team with those.

I really can't answer about SLI but seem to recall issues with it, I do know you can fold with multiple cards in the system, each one will take up a folding slot in the program you manually assign to the cards.

As for actual multiple rigs running at the same time, I can't answer that one - Could be possible though as long as you have your passkey for them once obtained.

[Vinster]

Yes, Doesn't Matter and Any

Number of Systems Question:

you can run as many systems as you want. When you install the software (my preference over the web based utility in a browser) you have to enter in your Username, your team Number (234770 in our case) and also a Passkey which will increase your points by nearly 10x.

to get a passkey go here: apps.foldingathome.org/getpasskey

you will need a valid email as it will email it to you.

Use the same username as you entered in your folding utility (there is no signup for a username) Just go here and search for the name you'd like to use and make sure it isn't used yet; stats.foldingathome.org/donors-monthly

Save this Passkey.. I created a Notpad file for myself with Username, Team# and Passkey# so I could easily copy/paste it to the applications on install.

SLI/XFire Question.....

Doesn't matter, the software doesn't look at that at all regardless if it is enabled or not. On install it will look at your system and populate Folding slots based on the hardware it detects. If you have a CPU and 1 GPU, then you'll have 2 slots, etc..

I recommend deleting the CPU slot, you might get 500-5000 points per day, which is still great for a CPU... but the CPU will be obliterated with work and depending on the GPU's you can get in to the 300K+ ppd easily... so the CPU work could be negligible

OS...

Pick your poison, I've run this app on Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows 10 currently. it just works...

Drivers...

This is where it can get hairy... for nVidia drivers on my 1080Ti, I HAVE TO use 388.13, any driver before or after my GPU will error out in the Folding App...

Partial Folding at home...

In the software, you can right-click and "Pause" the folding for either each of the slots or the entire system. Or shutdown the PC. Usually there is a 1 week expiry on finishing the work unit from when it was allocated. You can let it go and complete after the expiry, you just won't get points for it.

I hope that clears it up a bit for you.

if you have any other questions, feel free

Vin

[mrpaco]

I set up a test pc at work to try n get familiar with the folding app. Nothing fancy at all just an old s775 oem rig.

I used the installer instead of the web based, install n setup went fine... I think.
shows online n folding, but do have a few questions/issues.
On the interface if I click on our team number it will take me to our team page but when I click on my name in the interface it comes back NOT FOUND.
When I do go to team page I am not listed there as well.

When I go back to work will need info on the various preferences/configuration options like what disease to choose, would it help if I manually open the port in my router and so forth.

In the meanwhile I installed the app on a setup at home, so I have 2 machines running right now as Im writing this, how or where can I see/find how many rigs I have folding?

[Vinster]

Mar 28, 2019 15:38:57 GMT -5 mrpaco said:

I set up a test pc at work to try n get familiar with the folding app. Nothing fancy at all just an old s775 oem rig.

I used the installer instead of the web based, install n setup went fine... I think.
shows online n folding, but do have a few questions/issues.
On the interface if I click on our team number it will take me to our team page but when I click on my name in the interface it comes back NOT FOUND.
When I do go to team page I am not listed there as well.

When I go back to work will need info on the various preferences/configuration options like what disease to choose, would it help if I manually open the port in my router and so forth.

In the meanwhile I installed the app on a setup at home, so I have 2 machines running right now as Im writing this, how or where can I see/find how many rigs I have folding?

I don't know how to monitor individual systems, I know there is a way but I have never cared to look/figure it out. If anyone knows how to do that, it would be WhiteWulfe

for coming up on on the team, it takes a few days for that. you need to start turning in WU's (Work Units) and then you're name will pop up and you'll start to see your progress.

Vin

[WhiteWulfe]

Monitoring individual systems is doable with HFM.net, and I think the most current repository for the program is over at github.com/harlam357/hfm-net

Older guide on setting it up, but it looks like it's still current enough, even if the DropBox serving syncing doesn't work anymore: www.overclock.net/forum/366-folding-home-guides-tutorials/1426334-guide-hfm-net-guide-use-dropbox-f-h-v7-optional-ftp-settings.html

As for showing up on the team, one should show up within a few minutes of your first work unit being submitted to Stanford University's Folding@Home Stats page, but with the Extreme Overclocking stats page it can sometimes take a few days due to the FAH Stats third party updater server being offline (aka the one that sends stats to external sites). Typically though, it's usually one to two updates (so about five hours tops).

With regards to diseases, it seems to be generally agreed upon that the best PPD is by having no preferences set, as setting a preference can reduce the amount of work you receive, or you might wind up with a consistent row of lower PPD work. It's mainly there for people who want to specifically support research on a certain disease.

Going back a few questions... You can run as many systems as you are able to on the same user name, there is no need to have separate user names, and you can use the same passkey on every system as well. The only time you would want a second passkey (aka use a second email address) is if you were doing something like OCN's Team Competitions, where that particular piece of hardware you're running needs to be separately tracked.
- As for GPU's, I believe a few years ago they finally fixed it so that the client doesn't care about SLI status and can use both, but many were still recommending having SLI disabled as apparently you can get slightly higher PPD. Sadly, I've not really run any SLI setups (my HWBot scores for such were when we were breaking in new cards, and hubby let me borrow his "for a few hours" (he got it back like half a day later)), so can't test on modern hardware.
- GPU is typically considered much better than CPU, as even the new CPU work units are going to have trouble getting anywhere near 250k PPD, whereas nowadays a low to mid-tier 1060, 1660, 1660 Ti or 2060 will have higher PPD, while using only slightly more power.
- With operating systems, Linux tends to give about a 20% increase in PPD at similar clocks, due to doing things more efficiently.

[Vinster]

I'll be trying Linux in the next few weeks, my 1080Ti does near 1 mil ppd, it's reported I should be at 1.2-1.4Mil ppd.. so 20% make sense. I'll be able to test it eventually.

Vin

[Vinster]

I see you on the board now Paco, great to see you there

Vin