[Newbie] Startup questions / FAQ

[DieselDragon]

Hail All!
I've just got a few questions about Folding@Home in general (New user here...Sorry! ) and thought I'd open a new thread that could be pinned by the mods as an FAQ/Ready referance for all the other newbies who come in behind me. Anyhow, my questions are:

Work Unit related:

1. Unit processing times: (That old biscuit! )
   I'm going to refrain from asking the old question "How long should a work unit take?" as - Given the varied speeds, types and architectures of equipment involved in the project - The only possible correct answer is "How long is a piece of string?".
   However, is there any way of guesstimating a rough estimate for work unit time; maybe through inputting processor speed, RAM, and other important factors into a simple equasion etc?
   Maybe Folding@Home could even be used to develop such an equasion if it doesn't already exist!
2. Unit averages:
   The reason that I ask the above is because: Looking at my console (I'm running 5.04b under Win32) my first work unit has 400,000 steps, and performs about 4,000 (1% of total) per 30 minutes on average - Meaning that it would obviously take 50 hours on aggregate to process the entire work unit, and that's not accounting for extra CPU load from Windows Media and FireFox!
   Although I know that the "string" axiom might apply to this question as well; Is there such a thing as an "average" work unit, and - Given that I'm using a recent, factory spec home PC - Is 2.5 days an "average" processing time for a 400,000 step (Calculation?) unit?

Users, Teams, and the Folding@Home community:

1. Folding teams:
   Now I already understand the concept of Folding users (Who doesn't? ) and I can grasp the concept of groups of users forming teams to "fold" together, as it's identical - In principle - To the structure of players and guilds in World of Warcraft. However, what I'm interested in is whether there are any advantages of any kind to being a member of a team, as opposed to folding alone (Group set to 0) as I'm doing now?
2. Creating own team for Folding Farm identification:
   I've mainly joined Folding as I am currently experimenting with the idea of hacking/reprogramming old hardware (Mainly old ISP modems/routers) and my eventual goal is to try and get Folding@Home working on this equipment. Although I could run all of these devices on my username under seperate CPU/System ID's (It might only be five units, or it could run as high as a 100-unit Folding farm!) would it be a better idea for me to create my own team - Assuming this is a publicly do-able process - And have all of these devices folding under that team-name?
3. Folding Farms in general:
   I notice from idly browsing another thread that people have built large multiple CPU/system setups that are dedicated to the Folding@Home project. At the moment I plan to be just an average contributor donating spare CPU time on my main PC plus whatever work the hacked routers/inpromptu Folding farm (See above) manage on top...But is there a distinct incentive of some kind for people to build these Folding Farms and "fold" faster than BCCI Bank ever could? Or are they supporters like myself who built the farm by way of a "donation" to the Folding project?

Miscellaneous:

1. Improving work unit processing times:
   Can I assist the project further by bending old paper and card by hand whilst my PC's doing the mathematical stuff? (Groan... )

Farewell...And cheers for thy advice!
+++ DieselDragon +++

(P.S: I'll dump my PC spec in my signature once I've got a Coffee on the go! )

[uncle fuzzy]

I'll take a shot at the first 2.

1- You're looking for fahinfo.org (link at the top of the page) from our own uncle_fungus. People "donate" their specs and times and the site will give you time per core per GHz for most projects. Gives you something to compare your machine to.

2- Yes. "Average" WU on an "average" machine takes from 1.5 to 4 days. Those are the ones most people see most often. You can tweak those times with various setting changes in the client configuration (big WUs take longer as a general "rule").

I'll try the team question, too. I find it helpful to have a small set of people to chase, or run away from. The direct competition makes me fold more, or add new hardware. Bragging rights rule!

[alancabler]

Hello DieselDragon,

Work Unit related:

1. Unit processing times:
   I'm going to refrain from asking the old question "How long should a work unit take?" as - Given the varied speeds, types and architectures of equipment involved in the project - The only possible correct answer is "How long is a piece of string?".
   However, is there any way of guesstimating a rough estimate for work unit time; maybe through inputting processor speed, RAM, and other important factors into a simple equasion etc?
   Maybe Folding@Home could even be used to develop such an equasion if it doesn't already exist!
   Unit averages:
   The reason that I ask the above is because: Looking at my console (I'm running 5.04b under Win32) my first work unit has 400,000 steps, and performs about 4,000 (1% of total) per 30 minutes on average - Meaning that it would obviously take 50 hours on aggregate to process the entire work unit, and that's not accounting for extra CPU load from Windows Media and FireFox!
   Although I know that the "string" axiom might apply to this question as well; Is there such a thing as an "average" work unit, and - Given that I'm using a recent, factory spec home PC - Is 2.5 days an "average" processing time for a 400,000 step (Calculation?) unit?

Find completion rates for most Work Unit/CPU combinations in the DATABASE to get an idea of your machine's capabilities. You are encouraged to add your own scores.
Your client will report each 1% progress of the WU in FAHlog.txt. These 1% increments are commonly referred to as "Frames". After your machine completes a few frames, you can multiply the average completion time/frame X 100 to get an estimate... note: currently a few WUs have only 50 frames. The Project Summary gives details of current WUs, including point value, relative size, compute method (client/core) and processing time-to- deadline.The "400,000 steps" are an interesting info tidbit, but just stick to the 1% framerate for your answers.
The FAHWIKI is your friend.

Users, Teams, and the Folding@Home community:

1. Folding teams:
   Now I already understand the concept of Folding users (Who doesn't? ) and I can grasp the concept of groups of users forming teams to "fold" together, as it's identical - In principle - To the structure of players and guilds in World of Warcraft. However, what I'm interested in is whether there are any advantages of any kind to being a member of a team, as opposed to folding alone (Group set to 0) as I'm doing now?

Yes! The team competitions add quite a bit of fun and processing power to the project.

[*]Creating own team for Folding Farm identification:
I've mainly joined Folding as I am currently experimenting with the idea of hacking/reprogramming old hardware (Mainly old ISP modems/routers) and my eventual goal is to try and get Folding@Home working on this equipment. Although I could run all of these devices on my username under seperate CPU/System ID's (It might only be five units, or it could run as high as a 100-unit Folding farm!) would it be a better idea for me to create my own team - Assuming this is a publicly do-able process - And have all of these devices folding under that team-name?

The effort to convert/hack that gear sounds fun, but may not be worthwhile if-
a) the CPUs are too weak to meet FAH deadlines- the low-end CPU which will meet deadlines is a 450MHZ P III with SSE.
b) the device can't run an OS for which there is a FAH client (see client download page)
c) the device is otherwise hardware- challenged to meet deadlines/perform the work

[*]Folding Farms in general:
I notice from idly browsing another thread that people have built large multiple CPU/system setups that are dedicated to the Folding@Home project. At the moment I plan to be just an average contributor donating spare CPU time on my main PC plus whatever work the hacked routers/inpromptu Folding farm (See above) manage on top...But is there a distinct incentive of some kind for people to build these Folding Farms and "fold" faster than BCCI Bank ever could? Or are they supporters like myself who built the farm by way of a "donation" to the Folding project? [/list][/list]

There are no incentives to build folding farms other than the desire to contribute to the project and the sport of individual/team competition. Bash your buddy's ears in.
Most long- term dedicated folders will tell you that it is often wise to drop your low-end machines in order to save power/money and buy newer and more efficient equipment. A single Intel quad-core box can outperform an entire farm from several years ago, at substantial KW/H savings.
It can be hard to let go of those old boxes and there are quite a few sub-1GHZ PIIIs still folding!
In the end, your farming efforts will depend on the time and money which you are willing to invest.
Have at it, and have fun.

edit: What uncle fuzzy said...

[bruce]

Hail All!
I've just got a few questions about Folding@Home in general (New user here...Sorry! ) and thought I'd open a new thread that could be pinned by the mods as an FAQ/Ready referance for all the other newbies who come in behind me.

Welcome to the forum, DieselDragon.

That's a pretty impressive list of questions. I don't mean to put you off -- we're always willing to help with any questions people have -- but I'd like a little help from you. In order to get it pinned, we need to incorporate the answers, and most of them are already covered in the WIKI. Rather than answer each one individually in this thread, may I suggest that you help us out a bit here and search the WIKI. Then we can edit your list with links to the answers -- and if any answers aren't easy to find, we can certainly generate an answer for the WIKI. (There's also a search tool for this forum, which will turn up many of the answers.)

In fact, the whole list might be a good "newbie index" for the WIKI.