Need Help Choosing A Client

[^w^ing]

As I mentioned above, technically that's not the case. I tried the console client and was immediately turned off by it's complete and utter lack of being able to store it's extra files where the EXE is located. Dumping these files into the root of the drive is a horrible practice. The console client has been deleted.

Are you saying that the console client, when you run it, stores its files in the root directory? Im asking because that would really be an anomalous behavior, as it is supposed to, as you expected, only use its directory. Maybe the "-local" flag would help but I thought that flag only affected where the client settings were stored. Hmm.

Be sure to have the client configured to accept at least middle sized WUs or prefferably big WUs if you dont want to wait 10 hours for another assignment, as there probably isnt enough small sized WUs. Also do not request deadlineless WUs, as far as I know, there arent any.

I'm not following what you wrote. I only know about the WU for the PS3 and that's a fixed size of 300,000 and takes on average 7½ hours to complete.

Im not so familiar with the systray client as i discontinued using it since the nV GPU console client was released, but in the console client theres an option that allows you to choose if you want to receive small/middle/big sized unit. I remember there was a similar option in the systray client, something about allowing the client to receive WUs that have results of size greater than 10MB, which seems to be the equivalent of the console client's option.

The installer for the latest version of .NET is 250MB, but you bring up something I forgot about. Since these versions are not backward compatible, it would take at least 270MB just to get up to date.

And why .NET? Is that the only way to access the GPU?

Yes the installer for .NET 3 is over 200MB, but for the sake of the GPU client, the 20MB .NET 2 installer is all you should need.

I dont know why .NET, I certainly don't think the actual fahcore which runs the simulation uses any .NET code (I could be wrong tho) so it has to be something in the client itself. Maybe the card detection, I dont know.

[jrweiss]

If you want efficient Folding, use the CPU Console client, and disregard the viewer and the screensaver.

There's a screensaver?

Set it to run as a Service, and let it do what it does. INCREASE the logging interval to the max 30 minutes, and use the -verbosity 9 switch if you want more information available. FahMon (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=40) will monitor progress.

What does setting the logging interval to 30 minutes achieve? Is that to minimize the impact on the hard drive at the lost of greater chunk of work should there be a failure of some kind?

I originally dismissed the Console client due to being unfamiliar with command switches, I'll reconsider the Console client. However, the Win client should work. Otherwise, if the Win client is problematic perhaps it should be temporarily pulled from the download page.

** Update **

I tried the console client and was immediately turned off by it's complete and utter lack of being able to store it's extra files where the EXE is located. Dumping these files into the root of the drive is a horrible practice. The console client has been deleted.

There was a screensaver in the old GUI clients, and there's a viewer in the current Systray clients. Both caused more problems than they offered any utility.

30-minute logging reduces HD writes. A minor disadvantage is that if the client ot computer crashes for any reason, it will have to re-do as much as 30 minutes of work instead of 15 when it restarts.

That "utter lack" is only in your perception. You can easily move the work directory to underneath the client directory (as I have for my GPU clients) and change the work directory in the shortcut to accommodate. It has not dumped ANY files in the root of any of my drives; the "worst" it has done is put some in the [username] tree in Dosc & Settings until I moved them... That should be noted in the install instructions/guides/wiki; otherwise search the forum under the GPU client.

[^w^ing]

Ah yes, faulty shortcut could explain why the console client stored its data elsewhere than in its own directory. Make sure the target path and the "execute in" path are the same in the shortcut's properties, if you want the client to store its files in the directory of the exe.

[bruce]

@Tynat

About 80% of your objections are directed at portions of the FAH client that have been written in accordance with Microsoft's programming standards. (The earlier clients were much less Microsoft compliant.) I don't think anybody is going to respond to those issues and defend Microsoft. The obvious question is: If you don't like Microsoft standards, why are you running Windows? I'd think that Linux would be more appealing to you.

As far as the CPU being unable to run an advanced display program (once the bugs are fixed), technically, you're correct, but it is truly a matter of degree. Very few people who fold on the CPU are willing to devote a major fraction of their CPU power to displaying a protein when they could be using that same processing power to process folding more rapidly. The PS3 reserves specific hardware to run the display process and it cannot be used to fold so the perceived penalty from running the display is nearly undetectable.