What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Here you can find out about our Folding Team! Our goal: to understand protein folding, protein aggregation, and related diseases
Post Reply
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Kaos Kid »

I was just reading some of the posts in here, it looks like the entire system determines your folding power ie: PSU, CPU, and Video Card. What is the minimum recommended specs for all those parts to be a good folder?
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Apoptosis »

Well, the easier question to answer is what do you have to fold on?
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Kaos Kid »

Well, I have a Phenom X2 555 (unlocks to 3 cores) on an 890 ATX I built for videditing that has the 4290 onboard and an Enermax 500w PSU in a sniper case, I have a 785 mATX board with a Phenom X2 550 (was skiers so is pretty strong and may unlock as well) and HD4000? onboard that will go into my HTPC w/ 500w PSU (in an UltraFly cube so heat is an issue) that is waiting on a 4pin>8pin adapter to be able to fire up, and I have an OEM Compaq board with AthlonX2 5400+ with Nv6150 onboard that will get the Corsair 400wPSU that I just ordered and that will be my everyday surfer/torrentbox and take the place of the skt 754 3000+ I am typing this on now. As you can see I am bottlenecked by my graphics and power supplies so if a ballzy PSU and a fast card is necessary...

I am slowly digging out of the socket A era so that is why most of my parts aren't transferring well to the newer boxes I am trying to build. Everytime I get a good deal on a used part, I find that I need to purchase something else to allow me to actually use it, lol. I'll get there though sooner or later so that is why I thought I may be able to dedicate one of these to folding if the necessary minimum specs aren't too high. Although with what some of you folk have I would just be a waterboy to your 1st stringers... :P
Last edited by Kaos Kid on Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
skier
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4450
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Maine
Contact:

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by skier »

well you can't fold on oboard graphics, and anything less than a dualcore wouldn't bring in many points, but you can fold on any CPU in a system that is stable

as far as ATI discrete graphics(a video card like 5770,5750 etc), they have the short end of the stick as far as folding goes, nvidia cards fold very well and have since 8xxx series, ATI cards just dont work nearly as well as they should at it(because of their architecture).

i'd run SMP on your dualcore boxes
-Austin
Image
Screamin' BCLK: Image
775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
Gamer: Asrock Z77 Extreme4, i7 3770K @4.6GHz, ThermalTake Armor A90 modded, 2x4GB GSKILL RipjawsX DDR3 2133 CL9, Corsair HX-750w, MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr
Server2012: Q9300 - 8GB DDR2 - Asus P5QL Pro - Corsair CX430 - Mirrored 2TB Seagate's with 2TB WD cav for fileshare backups, 1TB WD for OS backups
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Kaos Kid »

I was thinking the videditing box would be a good candidate because it is downstairs in the coolest part of the house so it is easiest to cool and I don't run videditing 24/7 anyway. Once the parts I'm waiting for get here and I can get them all up and running, I will test out the SMP you referred to. Is there a way to pause the folding if you need the box for something else and then resume it? Or do you have to leave it on from start to finish on a certain series of computations?
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
skier
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4450
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Maine
Contact:

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by skier »

depends if you're running vmware or not, but most clients you can just close, it saves checkpoints every so often and it will go back to the most recent checkpoint when you start it back up
-Austin
Image
Screamin' BCLK: Image
775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
Gamer: Asrock Z77 Extreme4, i7 3770K @4.6GHz, ThermalTake Armor A90 modded, 2x4GB GSKILL RipjawsX DDR3 2133 CL9, Corsair HX-750w, MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr
Server2012: Q9300 - 8GB DDR2 - Asus P5QL Pro - Corsair CX430 - Mirrored 2TB Seagate's with 2TB WD cav for fileshare backups, 1TB WD for OS backups
User avatar
bubba
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Posts: 4765
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 10:24 am
Location: STL

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by bubba »

Yup you can pause the client if you need to.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Kaos Kid »

Cool. I 'm not running any kind of vmware or anything like that, like I said it will just mainly be videditing on that box and not every minute so if I can pause then resume later that will work out.

I actually have 3 OS's on that box, one is my original XP-32bit on one hard drive, then a dual-boot XP-64 and Win7-64 on another harddrive. The bios lets me choose which drive to boot to first, and if I choose the 64-bit drive it gives me the option of booting to WinXP-64 or Win7-64. Which of those would be best (read this as easiest ala less hassles) to run this on?

Edit:

One more thing. Does the amount of memory matter? I had to take a 2GB stick out of this box to put into the HTPC since I haven't found any cheap DDR3 for that box yet. Will the folding work OK on only one 2GB stick?
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
skier
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4450
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Maine
Contact:

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by skier »

Kaos Kid wrote: One more thing. Does the amount of memory matter? I had to take a 2GB stick out of this box to put into the HTPC since I haven't found any cheap DDR3 for that box yet. Will the folding work OK on only one 2GB stick?
i've been running a GTX260 and three text-only CPU clients for a few weeks with one stick of XMS2 800MHz at 800(my Q8300 @400FSB(333 stock))
-Austin
Image
Screamin' BCLK: Image
775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
Gamer: Asrock Z77 Extreme4, i7 3770K @4.6GHz, ThermalTake Armor A90 modded, 2x4GB GSKILL RipjawsX DDR3 2133 CL9, Corsair HX-750w, MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr
Server2012: Q9300 - 8GB DDR2 - Asus P5QL Pro - Corsair CX430 - Mirrored 2TB Seagate's with 2TB WD cav for fileshare backups, 1TB WD for OS backups
User avatar
Wavid
Legit Fanatic
Legit Fanatic
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:54 pm
Location: SW Ohio

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Wavid »

skier wrote:well you can't fold on oboard graphics, and anything less than a dualcore wouldn't bring in many points, but you can fold on any CPU in a system that is stable

as far as ATI discrete graphics(a video card like 5770,5750 etc), they have the short end of the stick as far as folding goes, nvidia cards fold very well and have since 8xxx series, ATI cards just dont work nearly as well as they should at it(because of their architecture).

i'd run SMP on your dualcore boxes
does F@H usually increase the temperature of your CPU and GPU to near 53C? Because my machines seems a little warm, and i was wondering if the GPU2 client was putting too much pressure on my 4850.
Attachments
foldingtemps.JPG
vbironchef
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:35 pm

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by vbironchef »

You can count on the cpu and gpu running 100%. That's why I'm not folding with my GC right now. When I do run my graphic cards, I set the fan speed @ 80%. Hope that helps. Always a good Idea to watch temps. :)
User avatar
Wavid
Legit Fanatic
Legit Fanatic
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:54 pm
Location: SW Ohio

Re: What is the minimum recommended specs to fold?

Post by Wavid »

ok, thanks, i'll be sure to keep that in mind. :)
Post Reply