Folding Forum

So the basics is I've got an i7 860 processor and decided to (attempt to) setup F@H using the installation for a multi cpu system.
The notification area has the four icons indicating the 4clients are running. But I don't know if it all went right. Here is what is got me doubting, I see CPU - F@H:Working (112/250), CPU - F@H:Working (12/250), CPU - F@H:Working (10/250), CPU - F@H:Working (17/250).
Now are they working together or are the other three doing the stuff that the first one already has done?
If you need more info tell me what to upload etc...

Welcome to the fold, newuser123.

From the menu that pops up when you right-click the icon, go and check the log file of each of the clients. You'll want to look for a line in there that says "Project: xxx (Run yyy, Clone zzz, Gen aaa)". If the exact sequence of numbers in each client is different from every other client's numbers, then they're each working on separate work. If not, then follow the installation guide's instructions about deleting the work folder and queue.dat in the directory of any client that's doing duplicate work.

newuser123 wrote:Now are they working together or are the other three doing the stuff that the first one already has done?

Welcome to foldingforum.org, newuser123

They are not working together, they should be working independently.

There are two types of installations to be considered for a Quad, depending mostly on how many hours per week you fold. Installing four separate clients and having them work on uniprocessor assignments should have them all working on separate assignments (See previous post). If you see duplicated sets of Program/Run/Clone/Gen identifiers, the installation is not right.

The other choice is the SMP client, where a single client enlists all four cores to work together on a single assignment. Deadlines are significantly shorter and points are higher but you pretty much have to fold many hours per week.

bruce wrote: If you see duplicated sets of Program/Run/Clone/Gen identifiers, the installation is not right.

Yep. that's what I saw. Quit everything then removed the work folder and queue.dat from the three cloned folders again. I actually had to remove/re-add one of the copied clients entirely since it kept trying to work on the same program/run/clone/gen as the first client. Relaunched and they are now all working on different projects

bruce wrote: There are two types of installations to be considered for a Quad, depending mostly on how many hours per week you fold.

Decided to go with the multiple client one because the SMP client is still in beta? And I don't leave my PC on when I'm sleeping so average of folding would be 8hours or so a day. May consider getting a GPU client once I can find a decent aftermarket cooler for my melting VGA.

But thanks guys that is now fixed.

Make sure that each Classic Client copy has its own unique Machine ID and separate folder.

Although the SMP2 Client is in Beta Stage, it is fairly stable and doesn't give much issues if configured properly. However, since you are folding for 8 hours a day, your current setup of multiple Classic Clients is the best one.

If you plan to monitor the F@H Clients, you can download an appropriate 3rd party application from the this thread (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=52). BTW, avoid using the viewer since it is known to be buggy/resource hog.

newuser123 wrote:Decided to go with the multiple client one because the SMP client is still in beta? And I don't leave my PC on when I'm sleeping so average of folding would be 8hours or so a day. May consider getting a GPU client once I can find a decent aftermarket cooler for my melting VGA.

Don't let these guys push you into SMP. At 8 hours per day you've probably made a good choice.

What VGA do you have? If it's the melting kind, it might not be supported. Even if it is, FAH pushes it pretty hard so even with an aftermarket cooler it's not going to be running any better than it is now.

gwildperson wrote: What VGA do you have? If it's the melting kind, it might not be supported.

hehehe.
It's a gtx 470 with the stock cooler atm and gets hot and LOUD under load. The main thing is the noise if I throw the fan up to a high enough speed it'll keep the temp stable at 75 degrees or so under load. But the fan noise above 80% is the most obnoxious thing you have heard. Aftermarket cooler (the ones I'm looking at) can drop it by 20degrees and do it with 20-30dBa.
But like I said, "May consider getting a GPU client", will see how it all performs and if it should be used for folding.

You're the only one who can answer the "May consider... " sort of questions for your system. One suggestion: between now and whenever you decide to install an aftermarket cooler, you can run FAH at less than 100% to help manage the heat.

Underclocking is one possibility. For systems in which the cooling is compromised and you can't find a clock-rate that works, you can try the Nvidia specific Environment Variable: FAH_GPU_IDLE. I'd start with a setting between 5 to 10. (I don't remember if this variable works with Fermi. I know it worked with the older cores.)