Folding Forum

Hi, all,
I'm new to this forum, not to the folding though...

I used to have an AMD 64 Athlon 64 3500+, GTX260 & 1GB RAM.
I folded using the nvidia GPU Tray Client & CPU Tray Client on an XP system.
Totalling 2 instances.

Now recently I changed hardware to an AMD Phenom X4 9650, GTX260 & 4GB RAM.
I'm now folding using the nvidia GPU Tray Client, 1 CPU Tray Client & 3 CPU Console Clients (1 per core, obviously).
I've also added a laptop with Pentium M 1,60Ghz (1 CPU Tray Client) & my PS3 to the pool...
Totalling 7 instances.

Yet it feels like there hasn't been an increase in point production over the past period ...
Is there a way to day-by-day or even WU-per-WU compare how the points have been evolving over the past month or 2?
I guess that was what the "Detailed listing for projects x-y" links were for on my stats page, but I understand they've been disabled for performance reasons...
So is there another way?

I would have added a link to my stats page on EOC, but apparently I can't because of anti-spam measures...

Cheers
Zotteken

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... =&u=448777

http://kakaostats.com/usum.php?u=1516923

Yet it feels like there hasn't been an increase in point production over the past period ...

You have more than doubled your production in the past few weeks.

p.s. welcome to the forum

zotteken wrote:Hi, all,
... 1 CPU Tray Client & 3 CPU Console Clients (1 per core, obviously). ...

You would probably be better off finishing your 4 uP CPU client WUs and running one -SMP CPU client instead

Yeah, I read that the SMP gives better results, but it also involves more maintenance so I read...
i'm not quite a noob to PC's in general, but the SMP stuff I read looks kinda advanced to me...
I'm always wanting to learn new things, however, but I'm a little afraid I'm going to screw this up...

And if I would consider the SMP thing, how can I have the console clients quit after finishing their WU? I know how to do it for the Tray Client, but not for the Console one's.
And will it work on Windows 7?

Are you familiar with the -oneunit parameter? SMP requires linux, Mac OS, or VMware.

EDIT:

Sorry--mistated, not requires but better performance. Not all that familiar with VMware either.

zotteken wrote:... how can I have the console clients quit after finishing their WU? ...

Stop the clients and add the -oneunit flag when you restart them.

Nope, never heard of that... I've never used Linux, Mac OSX nor VMware... I know VMware is something like Microsoft Virtual PC (and I already used that) so would that work instead of VMware?

PennyPincherP wrote:Are you familiar with the -oneunit parameter? SMP requires linux, Mac OS, or VMware.

I've gotta wonder how I managed to run the SMP in XP and Vista for several years.

PennyPincherP wrote:Are you familiar with the -oneunit parameter? SMP requires linux, Mac OS, or VMware.

According to Uncle Fuzzy it works under XP/Vista... As comfirmed by the SMP FAQ, which will now become my starting point in my quest to upgrade to SMP

Pick2 wrote:

zotteken wrote:... how can I have the console clients quit after finishing their WU? ...

Stop the clients and add the -oneunit flag when you restart them.

Okidoki, once I'm that far I'll know how to do that... Thanks...

uncle fuzzy wrote:

PennyPincherP wrote:Are you familiar with the -oneunit parameter? SMP requires linux, Mac OS, or VMware.

I've gotta wonder how I managed to run the SMP in XP and Vista for several years.

Can you tell me how you managed?? I know, you probably just used the SMP FAQ, like I should... I'm off doing some reading...

Download the WINDOWS SMP v6.23 client and the v6.24 drop in binary from near the bottom of this page- http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther.

I use the MPICH version. Follow the FAQ. Have fun.

Here's another resource.
http://folding.typepad.com/news/2008/08 ... lient.html

After reading the FAQ I just got some questions.

1. On setting up the SMP client you can choose to always set the -advmethods flag...
Is this recommended/not recommended or merely a personal preference?

2. On setting up the SMP you can choose a Machine ID, I also have a GPU client...
Machine ID of both can't be the same, right?

3. On setting up the SMP you can choose a checkpoint interval... 15 min. recommended...
Is it a good idea to set it to 5 min. or will it lose much time/performance by doing so?

4. Haven't seen it in the FAQ, but I somewhere (on the forum here) read it is advised to exit the client before shutting down the PC... (not that it happens much but you never know).
Is this correct?

Many thanks for your time...
Cheers
Zotteken

1- I set "yes" on every client I use, including the SMP. Hasn't hurt me, yet.

2- Correct. A different Machine ID for each client.

3- I set it to 30. With a resonably fast cpu, the frame time is short enough it never writes a checkpoint.

4- With any console client, always close it with Ctrl+C before shutting down the machine. Systray or services will shut themselves down if you shutdown the machine.

1. personal preference, if you want to receive work units in the late stage of beta testing or not. Some may be slightly less stable, but not usually a problem. Depends on how much you want to baby sit the client.

2. MUST be different, if both the SMP and GPU clients are on the same computer. Doesn't matter if on different computers.

3. 15 is the recomemended setting, as are most defaults. You won't lose much time, unless you shut down often. And even that isn't the best idea with the SMP client. It's still beta, and even just shutting down the client causes a small risk of losing the whole work unit. The checkpoint won't save you, regardless of the setting. Best to leave it running as much as possible.

4. CPU client, doesn't matter. SMP client isn't quite stable, so yes. CTRL+C to close the command window. Some even recommend making a copy of the SMP folder before shutting down, just in case.

Edit: jinx!

You're certainly welcome to work toward getting SMP to work on your Windows machine if that's what you choose to do. If I were in your same situation, I would not make that choice. For some time, there has been some talk about an upcoming version called SMP2. The Pande Group never predicts when something new will be available and I'm not going to make any predictions, but it still might be worth waiting for SMP2 and avoiding any hassles that you might encounter with SMP. Your current configuration is probably very stable and the difference in total productivity over XX weeks or months may not be worth the extra effort.

uncle fuzzy wrote:3- I set it to 30. With a resonably fast cpu, the frame time is short enough it never writes a checkpoint.

AFAIK, it will always write a checkpoint at the designated time. If you don't have the -verbosity 9 flag set, you may nt see it in the log.

I use 30 minutes just to keep the disk writes down. That brings up a question, since I just ordered an SSD to put my new Win7 OS on: How many PF and Temp and F@H log writes does it take before an SSD slows down? From what I've read, they are sensitive to repeated rewrite cycles...