Maximum PC

Hey there. I just heard about this folding thing and thought it sounded like an EXCELLENT cause to work on. I have a computer about 18 months old that I built myself, and I was hoping some people could tell me what the best use of my resources would be as far as which client I should use and whatnot. I'm also a gamer and want to find out if there is a way to keep the folding from interfering with my games by just running in the background using minimal resources, or possibly pausing the folding during gaming sessions? Not sure if that's even possible as I'm still learning about folding in general.

Here are the important components to my system. (From memory, not at home right now)

750W Power Supply
AMD Phenom II x6 1090T Black Edition @ 3.2 Ghz
Gforce GTX 470 1.25 Ghz GPU (Gets hot. Like 85-90c hot sometimes. Not sure how demanding the GPU client is)
8 gig 1333 ripjaw ram (Thinking about upgrading to 16 if folding can use it.)
Windows 7 Professional
Running on WiFi with DSL connection.

Everything else is pretty standard on my machine. Thoughts about how best to use my computer to help? Oh yeah, I will be joining team MaximumPC when I get home.

Regards,

Bookworm

Welcome, bookworm. We are glad to have you and folding is indeed, a very good thing to be doing. Both your main CPU and your GPU can be used in folding and the new integrated version 7 (or v7) client is the one to use, which is now in a VERY stable beta. Go to folding.stanford.edu to download it and the rather simple directions and we'd also be available to answer any questions.

You also need a passkey, forgive me, but I've forgotten exactly how to request one. It is a 32-character hexadecimal one. Check on the folding.stanford.edu site or at the main alternate site of foldingforum.org for the answer.

The folding client is designed to use spare CPU and GPU cycles when you are not, but will otherwise run flat out. The new client is designed to have a button to hold/pause folding while gaming or whatnot, then restart when finished, which is what I recommend for FPS-type games most of the time but try it both ways and if you can leave it on without performance loss, fine.

Also, I recommend the free GPU monitor and fan control Precision available at evga.com/precision. Works with all models of GPU I think, esp NVidia. Running flat out a GPU can get it rather warm and the fan can be adjusted off of "auto" to a set point....I like to max of 70% for my 460's.

You do not need more memory for the client, 8 Gb more than enough by far.

We are here for questions or help. All the best and.......we are team 11108 when entering into the client. Mike

Thank you for all the information.

The only other question I have is this. My GPU is getting up to those 85-90c temps under 100% fan speed. (Yikes, I know!) I use MSI Afterburner at the moment to control my fan speed. Does the program have a good way to throttle how fast it's allowed to run so that I can keep my temps <80c? My fiancee would be quite annoyed if I had my computer heating the hell out of our bedroom 24/7 through an already warm summer time. I should probably look at Afterburner and see if there is a way to downclock my card manually too, which should cool it down a little, but would be annoying having to change it all the time for gaming.

Thanks again for the info, and will start my folding in the morning. (Anyone who is independently wealthy that wants to adopt me so that I can devote all my time to folding instead of being at work? Hehe.)

Regards,

Bookworm

Welcome! Your system is very similar to mine, but with a little more oomph, it should be quite a folder!

I just started using the V7 client this weekend, so I'm not sure how it compares on the GPU side to the last GPU client I used, but the previous one was murder on GPU's. One series of work units raised my 460GTX temps 10C - 12C over maximum gaming temps in Crysis at 1920x1200 high quality setting, and that was after eliminating the overclocking & manually setting the GPU fans to 100%.

I don't know if it's just me, but I haven't been able to use my PC at all with the V7 client running. I have to pause folding in order to do anything. If you experience the same thing, depending on how you use your PC, you may want to go with the older 6 series client & seperate GPU client.

I am using FAH GPU Tracker V2

With a i5-2.8Ghz no over clocking

I have 2 GTX-470 running at 99% and they will run at 90 to 92c. But I like to keep both of them at 80-82c with evga precision. Here is the link but I have not updated from my version.
I am using 2.04

http://www.evga.com/precision/

You are correct, it will get very loud with the fans running high enough to keep them at that temp. It will all so depend on the temp of your house or where ever you keep the computer. No doubt it is HOT and loud.\\

Also with what Chaosdsm said the 8032 WU runs very hot, not sure why, GPUs are at 99% on every other WU but these are HOT..??



...LOL Get to the back of the line..

Welcome to the team, Bookworm3283!

I couldn't find your name in the EOC stats, so I take it you fold under a different moniker.

Glad you chose to try folding, and especially for choosing Team 11108!

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone!



Actually I will be using this name for folding. I work 12 hours a day, 4 days a week, and I haven't had the opportunity to start yet. Tonight is my Friday, so I should be signing up either later tonight, or tomorrow morning. Rest assured, you will see me on there soon enough. Fortunately for me, my work gives me enough freedom to go online and goof around a little bit through the day.

Regards,

Bookworm

This client is easy on the GPU, however I do not recommend overclocking and folding. I went nuts for a few years and OC'ed all my stuff, and after a while it does catch up unless it is well cooled. Leave at stock, no prob.

Also, you can just click on "pause" for the gpu while you game, then fold again when done.

Hey everyone!

Ok, just started my first folding. My GPU is running steady at 79c, but I have to keep the fan at 100% to maintain that. May not be able to run it 24/7 at that. My CPU is running at 56c. Dang I love the x6 phenoms for their temperatures.

I have two jobs running. One worth 3843 credits that has an eta of 6 hours and one worth 1283 with an eta of 3 hours tops. Anything else I need to know and are these decent speeds? Thanks for the help everyone!

Regards,

Bookworm

I know Doc mentioned the passkey, but didn't have a link to it. You haven't mentioned it, either, so I want to make sure you have a passkey installed.

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-passkey

It doesn't make any difference in the points for GPU folding [at this time], but for CPU it is required for the quick return bonus program. Keep in mind, you will not get the bonuses until you have completed 10 SMP WUs within the deadlines with the passkey installed. You have to maintain an 80% completion rate, as well. The bonuses are not retroactively applied to the WUs you complete while qualifying your key, sadly.

Pausing GPU will have no effect on the direct points received for each WU, though it will affect your points per day (PPD.) Stopping and re-starting CPU WUs will affect the direct points, due to the QR bonuses. The faster it is returned, the higher the bonus. Go past the preferred deadline and you will get base points only. (In addition to the v7 client reporting the credit, you can find the base points for all of the WUs (projects) HERE) If you should go past the final deadline, you get no points at all.

Besides the QR bonus structure, the passkey can be used to look up the points you have generated under that passkey. So even if you were to fold under another name at some point, you could search by passkey and get all usernames you have folded under reported. The stats page for that is HERE

As far as the speeds, you will get better feedback if you tell us the project number you are working on. Sometimes, projects with the same credit base behave quite differently from one another.

Glad you are underway. Don't hesitate to ask questions. Many of us had questions when we started, too.

And here you are with the first points posted. http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=610590

Good to know. It allowed me to register and start folding without it, so I figured that they had taken away the requirement. Have the hexadecimal code in now.

I'm sure I could find it easily by searching, but after a 52 hour work week, I'm feeling lazy. Could someone tell me where to find my point totals besides the link below?

Regards,

Bookworm

Edit: Nevermind. Seems that link updates as time goes on. Will just bookmark it.

Most everyone uses the EOC stats page. It is reliable and gives a fair amount of info.
Your EOC stats page

There are others, though.
[H]ard Folding stats page
KakaoStats page
Free-DC page (not showing up here yet, but you will)

Only if they adopt me first! Welcome Bookworm3283 and happy folding, cheers to all!

Danners

And here is your official Stanford Stats page from which all the others get their data:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... okworm3283

Something you might want to think about, I just changed the thermal paste on my GPU. Got rid of that stock crap and put on a little AS5. I had never done this before, only heard about it, but it was very successful and dropped my GPU a good 5c. That correlates to more speed that you can leave on your GPU without heating it up above your set limit.

Glad to see everybody is helping you get going, Bookworm. And for my 2 cents, I have over 15 GPUs folding flat out 24/7 and I have never had one fail even with temps running above 90 C, though I try to keep them below that, doesn't seem to hurt them any.

I'm not so worried about the card failing. I need to keep the heat down in my bedroom or the significant other will not be happy with my computer being on all the time, especially with summer coming up. Wouldn't want her to ground me from folding all together, right? Hehe. I have down clocked my card so that it's sitting at 70c with 65% fans. Doesn't seem to heat the room up too bad and only increases my fold times on my GPU by about 20-30%.

Regards,

Bookworm

Heat.....oh, yeah...BIG problem, unless you live so close to the Arctic Circle like Staypuff. We appreciate doing what you can, just like all folders. When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Ya know, there are studies out that say that heat is good for the, ahem, fertility.