Maximum PC

(Q) What part of the world do you fold in?









I'm in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. The closest important big city is Springfield, the third biggest in Massachusetts. It's home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Smith & Wesson, Merriam-Webster, and the United States' first planetarium. Previously, the original Indian Motocycle Company was based here.


(Q)Is any of your folding done at your business location or your home and do any friends or relatives add to your production.

All of my folding is done here at home. I haven't had any success with others adding to my production. They either developed PC problems or their computers were so old they'd never meet deadlines.

(Q)Do you use any kind of production monitoring software?

Sure do. For F@H SMP monitoring, I like FahSpy:



I tried FahMon but it crashed every 5 minutes. I tried HFM.net but it didn't like my .NET installs.
For CPU temp monitoring, it's CoreTemp.

(Q)Hardware description of each machine listed.

Just the one rig:

Biostar K8M800 Micro AM2 mobo; Athlon 64 X2 4200+ overclocked from 2.2GHz to 2.42GHz; a new Antec EarthWatts 430D, and for graphics, a recently recapped PNY nVidia FX 5200. No GPU folding here!




Wish I had a newer pic but my camera's on the fritz.

(Q) What's is your normal day like maintaining all your production?

Thanks to a new Noctua 80mm fan, I can finally fold 24/7. Sometimes I'll need to leave my router on overnight to send in a WU and get a new one. Other than that, it's been set-and-forget. I had a lot more problems when trying to run the notfreds VM client, but thankfully SMP superseded it.

(Q) Do you have any procedure you use to beat the heat?

I wish! The rig is in a second floor bedroom with no A/C. The only way to cool off is a window fan across the room blowing toward the computer.

(Q) Do you have to fold less when the heat is at it's worse?

For two summers, I ran this rig overclocked 10% and bumped up the voltage 0.05v. When the room temp got to 90°F/32°c with high humidity, I'd have to stop folding because my CPU temps were pushing 57-60°c. The max allowed for my CPU is just 65°. This year, I'm not overvolting, but I'm still OCing 10%, so I'm going to try just throttling back to stock clock speeds and see what temps I get. If they stay around 52-55°c, I'll be satisfied.


(Q) Do you have any tips or warnings to pass along to the team that you learned the hard way?

Yes, I do. Don't change chipset or graphics drivers unless you really need to, so that means keep copies of your old drivers! Run CHKDSK /R every so often. Look for leaky capacitors on not only your mobo, but your video card too. Don't expect a power supply to last more than two and a half years... if yours is two years old, start shopping! Blow out the dust bunnies. Cut out the metal perforations blocking fan airflow... it really helps speed air flow, and it makes your PC quieter.

(Q) Do you visit the forum often and do you post?

I visit daily, sometimes more than once. I don't post a whole lot, but that's because my rig isn't the latest and greatest.. the CPU and mobo were new in 2006. I don't have a lot to offer regarding newer hardware, so my focus is on software and on keeping older hardware humming.

I do have some words of encouragement for those who may feel that their rigs aren't "good enough" or "fast enough" or "new enough" to fold. No, my machine doesn't put out 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 ppd. I get less than 1,000 ppd, and I'm satisfied. The idea is to contribute in the best way you can. Like they say at drag races, "Run what you brung!" . Small folders are just as valuable as the big guys with farms. It may be the WU that I crunched and sent in that solves the puzzle to a disease. So why not YOU?


(Q)If so, what do you like best about the forum.

No matter how small or simple a problem might be, there is almost always someone with experience and knowledge of the same problem who can help. Everyone here is genuinely interested in helping each other get the most out of their PC, whether or not it's the latest and greatest, no matter if it's one rig or a folding farm.

Thanks OvenMaster for doing HowLight Number 2
You did a great job of demonstrating that whatever contribution a person can make to folding is valuable and appreciated.

Your many posts over time are another way you contribute to the success of the team.
Without them from as many as possible we wouldn't have an interesting place to visit and share our folding exploits.

Now we have seen a HowLight from the person currently producing the most points daily and one from a folder with one machine running.
You probably fall somewhere inbetween, live in another interesting place (together we will see to it) and have a few additional things you do differently to make your contribution happen.

OvenMaster was a volunteer HowLight
I would love to find your offer to do one in a PM soon.
Help keep people going through the summer and folding for the long term

I'm open for business 24/7/365 as long as my health allows

Late Edition to this HowLight
Many of you have seen where Massachusetts was hit by a terrible tornado.
OvenMaster's small town was fortunate to only see severe winds and rain with nickel sized hail.

Springfield which he mentioned above saw much worse with a number of people killed and severe damage.
This is rare in that area and Springfield received only 10 minutes notice.

Very cool, OvenMaster!

Well said about doing what you can. Distributed computing thrives on the mass numbers of people contributing. Check the EOC stats right now and you'll find there are 8,860 folders producing more than 1K per day. There are another 16,737 folders beyond that producing 1K or less. If everyone folding 1K PPD or less each day were to stop all of the sudden, it would be a significant impact on the program. No one should ever think their contribution is too small to make a difference.

Do I spy Ritz-brand ventilation ductwork on the back of the rig? Very resourceful!

I'm glad to hear there was no significant damage or loss of life in your town, OvenMaster, though I'm sure the effect on the area is still felt where you are. I wish your regional neighbors well.

You do indeed. I decided to direct the exhaust air behind the desk and then out the door. It's quieter and cooler than keeping the noise and warmth in the room.

As a storm update, reports have come in that say at least three homes were destroyed, dozens damaged, and a roof was torn off a school in my town. This part of town in the southeast is closed to everyone except emergency personnel and residents. There are many streets blocked by an untold number of fallen trees and power lines. A couple of roads leading into and out of town to the south and east are closed until further notice. We were incredibly lucky to have no injuries or deaths.

Thanks for a nice read, interesting and you are right about every contribution counts!

Finally a new pic.



That's a new (April '11) Antec EarthWatts 430 in there, a Noctua 80mm fan below it (May '11) and in the front, I added my old (from 2002) PC Power & Cooling Silencer 80mm fan. Even with four fans running (PSU, CPU, two case fans), it's finally quiet enough to sleep through and run 24/7... as long as room temps are below 90°F(32°c).