Folding Forum

Footnote: A normal install of Windows Mail will put Passkey responses in Junk Mail.

The Classic Client has Systray and Console Versions (Details) and they both can be downloaded from this site -> http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

If you are facing ProtoMol errors, please post the FAHlog (Details) so we can tell you what has happening and how to avoid that error.

Qinsp wrote:...Apple MBP is probably not going to be effective. Why it runs fine one day, then halts for extended periods is unknown, nor would time be well spent diagnosing it when I have other machines that I can try...

Unfortunately, I haven't got any Mac experience so you will have to wait for someone to help you. If you would really like some help, you could PM susato who happens to know a lot about Macs.

Here is a simplistic view of F@h Project:
Sequential Section -> WUs within a Project, to be specific the Gen X is needed before Geh X+1 is sent out
Parallel Section -> Several Projects can run at the same time

For Science, it is better have fast machines.
For PPD (may vary), people may choose "Wide" machine

Nonetheless, PG accepts all kinds of donations. If you are interested, you can read some related information by Prof. Vijay -> http://fahwiki.net/index.php/FAH_%26_SMP#Related_Info

Thanks!

For the ProtoMol error ([04:36:28]ERROR: ProtoMol ERROR: ABORT) see post #14 in this thread.

If ProtoMol error is WU process error, it is truly unavoidable. I just had to deal with Excel for one of my employees because Excel doesn't always process Excel data that it created itself. Pretty much guarantee that MS has more ($$$ * time * programmers) working on Excel than Stanford has working on F@H. Good news, is while Excel crashed and ate 6 hours of work, F@H just kicked it out and got another one. Better code than MS writes apparently.

Regarding the error, if it occurs very rarely, then it can be considered as a fluke. However, if that error happens on a semi-regular basis, it might be worth looking deeper to find a possible cause and fix it so it won't happen again.

Well, after a week, it appears my son's computer and the Apple aren't good candidates.
The PS3's do well.
The AMD machines and i7 do OK, but like I've read, it appears that gaming video cards, especially the CUDA models are the real muscle.
Haven't fired up a Linux box yet.

Qinsp wrote:The PS3's do well. The AMD machines and i7 do OK, but like I've read, it appears that gaming video cards, especially the CUDA models are the real muscle.

The video cards and the PS3 are fast and do make important contributions, but there's also some of the science that they can't do. The PC platform is still very important, whether it's Windows, Linux, or Mac-OS-X.

It's all relative, and every contribution counts. Even things as old as the original Pentium can contribute, but just how many years of improvements are there between that and the i7? New hardware, whether from AMD or Intel is multi-core, and two cores is more than twice as useful as one, and more cores than that also improve the scientific value and the points, but since your power is "free" from your perspective, running clients on older machines still allows them to contribute.

I've still got a few older machines that fold, but eventually the electrical costs exceed the cost of an upgrade unless (A) the machine is still being used for its intended purpose and would be on anyway or (B) you can count the heat as a benefit. Video cards can be evaluated the same way, except that successive generations happen much faster than CPUs.

Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound like "only hotrods need apply".

In my case, I'm only going to run 2-4 machines, and none are "purpose-built", so I want to turn on the "right" ones.

The device I have that generates the highest PPD is a nVidia GT 230M chip in a notebook (1500 PPD for that chip). It out-strips everything, and it's not a hotrod chip.

It will probably be (2) PS3's, and the notebook (semi-retired). The notebook generates ~2500 PPD (raw, no bonus), and the PS3's make ~1600 PPD total. This is 350w for 4100ppd raw.