How to become a world class folder?

[Haplo]

People with powerful graphics cards have a big advantage in terms of points. A top-of-the-line gaming card like the Nnivdia GTX 580 will give you about 20k points per day. You probably need another model of graphics card to get tens of thousands of points. Glancing at Wikipedia it looks like the Quadro cards can do a few hundred gigaflops, but the GTX 580 can do 1500. Similarly a regular dual core CPU will typically get several hundred points at best but a CPU like the Core i7 will get over 10,000.

I was folding 24/7 for years until recently but I upgraded to a Core i7 and a few graphics cards, and I doubled my points in just a week or so. That is, now I do four years' worth of points every week. So what hardware you're using can have a big impact.

If you want to climb in the rankings I'd recommend building a desktop for it. You can skimp on most of the components but add the best graphics cards you can afford, and try to put as many of them in as you can, and you'll get 200 times more points per day.

[iceman1992]

But in terms of PPD/Watt graphics cards are not that good.
A GTX 580 can use up to 244W (from nvidia's website) for about 20k ppd.
A 6 core i7 probably use less than 150W (I don't have one so I'm taking a guess here) for over 30k ppd.

[csvanefalk]

An overclocked 3930K can pull 70k PPD at 300W...that is almost 4x that of a 580. Taking the pricing into account, it actually seems CPUs are just more worth it in the long run...or maybe graphic cards are undervalued PPD wise?

[iceman1992]

An overclocked 3930K can pull 70k PPD at 300W...that is almost 4x that of a 580. Taking the pricing into account, it actually seems CPUs are just more worth it in the long run...or maybe graphic cards are undervalued PPD wise?

300W = total system power or just the CPU? How do you measure that?
Well we know graphics cards don't get bonus points.. Does that count as being undervalued, I'm not sure..

[csvanefalk]

An overclocked 3930K can pull 70k PPD at 300W...that is almost 4x that of a 580. Taking the pricing into account, it actually seems CPUs are just more worth it in the long run...or maybe graphic cards are undervalued PPD wise?

300W = total system power or just the CPU? How do you measure that?
Well we know graphics cards don't get bonus points.. Does that count as being undervalued, I'm not sure..

Its an approximate at-the-wall measure, with monitors and peripherals unplugged. It is possible to get it down to 250W at the same clock (4.2Ghz) if you are willing to walk the edge with regard to stability. Since this involves scientific stuides, I would rather raise vcore a bit to evade stability issues messing with the WUs (dont even know if that is possible, but just in case).

[compdewd]

RMouse, in addition to my 8120, I'm folding on an old single core Sempron 3100+ that gets me about 200 PPD at best. Also in that computer I have integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6100 that can't even fold so I'd much rather have your processor and graphics in there.

I actually stopped folding on that computer because I thought I was slowing down the science and that someone else could fold the work units I received faster and move the science along faster. After a few days I changed how I thought about it. Every contribution is helpful if it makes the preferred deadline. If I stopped folding to let someone else fold my work units faster, I would actually slow the science down because they wouldn't be folding the work units they should have received if I was folding my own work units (if that makes any sense ). So just another way to look at it. I really hope you aren't discouraged! Everyone is just trying to give you the proper perspective on things

[DoctorsSon]

IMHO, anyone who folds is a world class Folder.
I have folded for years and used several names.
My position in the total rankings is kinda nice to know, but I get more fun from weekend, week or month long tournaments.
My enjoyment comes from trying to tweak out every point from what ever system I have.
Someday I hope to move up into 4P and play with the big dogs but in the meantime there are a lot more of us small fries to have some friendly fun.

[RMouse]

Wow!! What an amazing thread, and an amazing community. I cant thank each responder individually so let me say here to everyone THANK YOU. I'm overwhelmed with information as you can imagine right now so I am re-reading the thread many times to let it all soak in.

It looks like my laptop is destined to keep me in the minor leagues for some time so now I'm thinking about a desktop type situation. Right now I live in Shanghai China, but am an expat from the US. I'm don't know how long I'll be here so I cant go hog wild right now with hardware. But there has got to be some cheap hardware here that I can rig up to get serious points compared to my laptop. New desktops are really cheap and I bet some used gear would be really really cheap. I would like to buy a cheap desk top that can take multiple video cards. That seems like a nice way to up my points. I am a Mac user so the details of doing all this in Windows will force me to learn quite a lot I think.

Question: Is there a way to use my laptop as a monitor for a desktop system? I dont mind setting up a box somewhere in the house, hooked up to my wifi network, and just letting it fold night and day. But I'd rather not buy and have a monitor. Can a laptop be plugged into a desktop to use as a monitor? I have never heard of that but I thought something like that might work.

THANKS AGAIN everyone!!!

Keep on foldin'!!!!

[Zagen30]

I don't believe you can use your laptop as a monitor for the desktop unless the laptop specifically has an input video port, and I'm not sure how many of them do.

Many people with dedicated boxes use remote access software like LogMeIn, Team Viewer, or one of the many versions of VNC to control their "headless" rigs (most of them are cross-platform, so controlling a Windows box from a Mac is not a problem). Unfortunately, at some point you do have to have access to a monitor set it up in the machine in the first place, so that's a problem. Maybe ask around and see if someone you know would lend you a monitor for a day or two. Your IT department likely has some unused monitors somewhere, though I can't guarantee how willing they'd be to let you borrow it. You really only need it long enough to get Windows and the remote access software set up, and after that you can control it through your laptop.

[bruce]

The V7 client is designed for remote monitoring. As long as you have a network connection between the machines, a single copy of FAHControl can manage copies of FAHClient running on a number of different machines.

I'm even monitoring and controlling remote machines over a VPN, though this is a bit of an advanced topic.

If you're still stuck running V6, the methods recommended by Zagen30 will work, too, but it's even more complicated.

[Jesse_V]

Maybe you can borrow a monitor for a while, set it up, and let it run without a monitor from there. Like Bruce said, V7 does have a built-in remote monitoring tool. I've used it to connect to my desktop's V7 client, and you have the same control as you normally do, only the commands end up going to the other computer. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syou9u9B_aY and https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/F ... oteClients (the images are broken in that last link, though the text may be sufficient). Controlling one computer from another certainly adds a level of class.

[RMouse]

There certainly sure is a lot of computer stuff to learn here and I'm not the best at this subject. But I AM interested in folding. I didnt really introduce myself so let me back up a bit. As I said, I'm an American living in China working in the chemical industry here. I'm an M.S. degreed chemist with 1 year of graduate biochemistry under my belt, all in protein structure. So I understand a tiny bit of the science here. I have never worked in a biochemical industry so my experience is all academic. My job is in industrial lubrication, which has nothing to do with proteins.

I sort of laugh at my few hundred points/day now. I had dreams of being #1 last week! No worries, my laptop is nice and toasty warm now folding away.

[k1wi]

There certainly sure is a lot of computer stuff to learn here and I'm not the best at this subject.

If I can guarantee you one thing - the longer you stay involved in F@H the more you will know about computer stuff

[RMouse]

There certainly sure is a lot of computer stuff to learn here and I'm not the best at this subject.

If I can guarantee you one thing - the longer you stay involved in F@H the more you will know about computer stuff

That seems inevitable!

I wish Mac's were fully supported. I would go hog wild and buy a Mac Pro for this. But without video card support, that seems stupid. What a great excuse to upgrade big.

[Zagen30]

No worries, my laptop is nice and toasty warm now folding away.

In case it hasn't been mentioned, make sure your laptop is properly ventilated. If it looks like it blows some of the hot air out of the bottom, try propping up the back end when it's in use to ensure all the hot air isn't getting trapped inside the case. It's rare for FAH to damage hardware, but it's a bit more likely with laptops since their cooling isn't as good as desktops' and it's easier to accidentally block some of the exhaust. Laptop components are designed to handle higher temperatures than their desktop counterparts, but it's still possible for them to overheat (though there's likely measures in place to shut it off if it's running too hot).