Maximum PC

Hey guys, I used to fold years ago and stopped for a while. Now I want to get back into it now that I have a better pc. I'd love it if some one could help me out with getting the best folding performance out of my rig.

Intel Q8200 2.33GHz
4GB Ram
Nvidia GTX 260 Core 216

Thanks Again

welcome back
you got some great folding tools there

the 260 is a sweet gpu folder

and the quad core will run linux in vmware for 4 instance of FAH

you should be in the 10k ppd range EZ with the gear you got

Should I really be setting up the Linux SMP client in VMWare or should I just use the newer Windows SMP client to save on overhead?

I run the Windows 7 RC x64 if it matters.

in just straight up smp you will only get one client I BELIEVE, I could be mistaken.

I run mine in vmware workstation on a core 2 duo an get about (2k-3500) ppd off it. with only one instance of it running. plust my gpu client which yields almost double the ppd off one 9800 gt

Stanford develops all this stuff in Linux initially, and currently only Linux is capable of crunching the work units based on the newer A2 core, which more efficiently utilizes multi-core procs and net nearly twice as many points vs. the A1 units you'll get in Windows. So even with the overhead of a VM, you still get a significant boost.

Unfortunately, Intel originally excluded Virtualization from the Q8xxx series. They finally realized this was stupid, and included it with the Q8400, and plan to enable it on all future Q8xxx CPUs, including the Q8200. Unless you bought this extremely recently, I think you're out of luck.

On a side note, E5xxx and E7xxx CPUs do not support VT either, but luckily the new Wolfdale E6xxxs include it.

I bought mine in December, unfortunately my computer's been out of working order until recently because of a faulty motherboard.

I did recently notice that VT was disabled on my proc. How much of a performance difference is there in running a VM with vs without Virtualization support?

I think for now I'm going to go ahead and set up a VM to try it out.

Unfortunately, setting up a Virtual Machine is impossible without Virtualization support. You're going to have to stick to Windows SMP. It's not that big of a deal though, you'll still be putting out great numbers.

Welcome to the team by the way! We're glad to have you.

Okay, well I'll just settle for the Windows SMP for now.

I do know that it is possible to run a virtual machine with other software such as VirtualBox without having virtualization support in the processor. I just want to get folding rather than tinkering around with different ways of setting it up.

No worries.

Thanks a lot everyone, and I'm glad to be here!

I would at least give VM workstation a shot dont just accept yours wont

Mine is a E8500 that I got in march an it runs it fine.
The most you got to loose is nothing if it dont run it.

no offense juice but it dont hurt to try

Hold on for a second. He is using Windows 7 64 bit.

VT support won't matter if he installs Linux SMP 64 bit. It should work fine. Since the client only runs on 64 bit Linux, it should work perfectly.

Give it a shot.

I wasn't aware VirtualBox supported full software virtualization, unfortunately, 64-bit guests still require hardware support. From the VirtualBox user manual:

1.6 64-bit guests
Starting with Version 2.0, VirtualBox also supports 64-bit guest operating systems.
Starting with Version 2.1, you can even run 64-bit guests on a 32-bit host operating
system, so long as you have sufficient hardware.
In particular, 64-bit guests are supported under the following conditions:
1. You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support (see chapter
1.2, Software vs. hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V), page 11).
2. You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular VM for which you
want 64-bit support; software virtualization is not supported for 64-bit VMs.

Damns.

Juice, they are referring to a person using a 32 bit operating system. The person is using a 64 bit natively already.

In my experience its been that any 64 bit OS needs VT support in VirtualBox, however I can run a 32 bit guest on my 64 bit host with no problems. This is fine with me as that has no effect on my ability to still use smp with the VM as far as I know.

That's the thing. Linux SMP only works in 64-bit Linux. Meaning the guest has to be 64-bit.

ohhh... apparently I missed that point before. My mistake, sorry about the misunderstanding. Well, in that case I guess I'm stuck with Windows.

Last thing, when I set up with the Windows client, it still seems like its only using one core... I went through the config dialog on the command line and set smp, what else must I do?

Thanks again for your help

Are you starting it through the command line?

As in, typing:

fah6 -smp

You'll know if it's running SMP if you look in task manager and see FahCore_a1. If it's running only 25% or less, and says something other than a1 that's definitely a standard, single-core WU and not what you want.

The other way is to create a shortcut to fah6, and after the quotation marks in the target field add the -smp flag.

When I try it, it returns an error after trying to write files before it starts work on the WU. As of right now its running only a single core one.

EDIT:
In my shortcut I've tried -smp and -local -smp. both end up giving the same error.
Here's a screenshot of what happens when it gives the error.

Hi people, I am JoeCobra also known as Joe. I am a college student getting two degrees, one in Electrical Engineering and the other in Computer Engineering. Been reading Maximum PC since I could read so it just seems nature to join the team.

I recently built a new rig for gaming using the 920 i7 and an EVGA 275 GTX. I decided to get into folding before I headed back to college were I leave my PC on 24/7.

Just a little about myself.

Joe Please make the same post on the main forum where more folks will see it and respond

Only the few who have posted to this thread will see it here.

And welcome to the team, see you in the main forum post

Gordon or G

so i just started using the cpu client for F@H and im currently runnin a simulation but my ? is, how do you exactly BECOME a member of the MPC F@H Team? not to sound to much of a newb to this. i dont kno whether im supposed to just put the team number in the configuring screen or whether im supposed to register another way. so if you would let me kno i would greatly appreciate it.

P4 2.8 GHz CPU
2GB PC3200 Ram
Win XP Pro 32 Bit

Its just a dell machine. It gets the job done lol.