Folding Forum

Hey guys

I'm a total newbie to folding & as such have a couple questions Help would be appreciated (:

Basically I've got a quad core CPU & I am using Windows 7 & started off with the classic sys tray client. So far I've followed the tutorial on The Stanford website & I've managed to load a client for each of my CPU's

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I am unsure of is how do I check if I'm not folding the same things on each of the clients ? I've looked at the log file & I couldn't really figure out what I was looking at

So if maybe some one could tell me what to look for within the log files or where else I can look (:

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Next question. My CPU cores are running at an average of 75 degrees C. Is that normal ? (I can understand the temp increase due to stressing the cpu's by folding but is 75 degrees C not a little too high ?)

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Next question. In order to exit the folding client do I have to pause the folding before I exit ? In other words, how do I save the work it has done thus far when I wish to exit it ? (Besides the auto save feature)

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Next question. At a later stage I wish to use my GPU to fold as well. With this said, to fold with the GPU do I just run the GPU client on a differnet machine ID ?

Thank you very much for your time (:

Okay so I browsed the forum a little & found out how to check if I'm folding the same thing on the different CPU's and I think I'm doing it wrong >.< I checked the Project Code: "some codes" and I checked log on all the cpu's and I find the same Project codes :/ Am I looking at the same log file ? Or ? does 1 log file comprise it for all the cpu's ? So I deleted the queue.dat & the work folder in each of the CPU folders except for the 1st one. Then I reran the client & still found the same codes on the 3 clients I restarted :/

Welcome to foldingforum.org, EliTeUnk.

Apparently you're running multiple copies of the V6 systray client.

You may be running multiple copies of the same WU if you failed to assign a unique value of MachineID to each client. When you look at the log, you will generally see progress messages showing increasing percentages. Scroll back to before the 0% message where the WU started. You'll find a message that looks like this: Project: 7128 (Run 0, Clone 14, Gen 4) which reports what we commonly call PRCG and which uniquely identifies the Work Unit. If one or more of those numbers are different, the Work Assignment is different. If all four match, you're running the same WU.

Do not use Pause before shutting down. If you do use Pause, we strongly recommend that you Unpause before you shut down. Work is automatically saved by a process called checkpointing which by default, happens every 15 minutes. When you restart, the client will have to reprocess from 0 to 14.99 minutes of work. The client is expected to run continuously whenever your computer is on with rare shutdowns so the 15 minute value is a good compromise for most people and I don't recommend changing it.

Yes, if you have a supported GPU, a GPU client can be installed and it will need a new MachineID. Before you do, I recommend you do some additional reading and get familiar with how FAH operates on your machine. Depending on your personal talents and desires, you may (or may not) choose to install the V7 beta client. It has a totally different look-and-feel but makes installation and configuration much, much simpler. The actual science your hardware can process will be the same so there's no real urgency.

I think Bruce got most of the questions there

Except for the tempreture of the CPU that is..
and for that, one easy question:
Which CPU are we talking about? Also important, what's your cooling solution for it?

What CPU do you have? Is it overclocked at all and are you using the stock CPU heatsink and fan? Because 75C seems a little hot for a quad core. My Core 2 Quad will stay around 60-64C when Folding (100%) when the air temp is around 70F. Goes up a tiny bit when the air is warmer in the summer. And that is with a Core 2 Quad with 95W TDP.

Thanks for the help guys !

Thanx OEOTS & Vette for the assist on the CPU temperature

I'm running a core i7 2600k 3.3GHz not overclocked & using basic heat sink & fan in a coolermaster HAF case The temperature is now averaging 71 to 70 Degrees C. Should I maybe throw an extra fan in there ? Or get a better CPU heat sink !?

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Thanks bruce for the info. About the folding the same things I've looked at the log files for each and it all seems to be one instance of the same log file But I figured out I'm not folding the same stuff I right clicked the client went to 'Status' -> 'Queue Info' & on there each of them have a different PRCG so yay (Also each client is on a different MachineID)

As for V7 beta client i'll give it a look @ in a few days Thanx

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Those temps are acceptable for a i7 series processor. However since this is not overclocked and overclocking is so easy on Sandy-Bridge I would suggest an upgrade to the CPU cooler.

I personally am a fan of the Noctua NH-D14, which I am using on my own systems, other good coolers are the Thermalright Silver Arrow and a level below the D14 and the SA is the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro.
these will give you a considerable performance increase over the stock cooler, and give you the possibility of overclocking.

If you are using the default thermal paste, you might consider re-applying the thermal paste with some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound. I don't know what thermal paste Intel puts in their boxed Sandy Bridge's, but chances are it isn't as good as Arctic Silver 5.

And if looking for a new heatsink, remember that LGA1155 (Sandy Bridge) and LGA1156 (Nehalem) can use the same heatsinks. I know there aren't many aftermarket LGA1155 coolers out there yet, but there are tons of LGA1156.

And that K-series processor will overclock REALLY well

EliTeUnk wrote:About the folding the same things I've looked at the log files for each and it all seems to be one instance of the same log file But I figured out I'm not folding the same stuff I right clicked the client went to 'Status' -> 'Queue Info' & on there each of them have a different PRCG so yay (Also each client is on a different MachineID)

I haven't tried to run mulitple clients on the same computer yet, but it sounds like you are just looking at the Queue for just one of your clients. Does more then one of the PRCG's Status values on the Queue list say Active? Or does only one say Active and the rest of the slots say Empty/Deleted?

Baowoulf wrote:

EliTeUnk wrote:About the folding the same things I've looked at the log files for each and it all seems to be one instance of the same log file But I figured out I'm not folding the same stuff I right clicked the client went to 'Status' -> 'Queue Info' & on there each of them have a different PRCG so yay (Also each client is on a different MachineID)

I haven't tried to run mulitple clients on the same computer yet, but it sounds like you are just looking at the Queue for just one of your clients. Does more then one of the PRCG's Status values on the Queue list say Active? Or does only one say Active and the rest of the slots say Empty/Deleted?

This has changed radically between V6 and V7 so I'll explain both. For the sake of an example, let's choose a specific hardware configuration: A multi-cored CPU (say a quad) plus a GPU that is supported by FAH.

In V6, you can install multiple clients. Each one is independent of any others. With that hardware, you have some choices depending on several factors. I'm not going to suggest which of these choices might be "best" but rather just list a few possibilities.
1) A SMP client. It will fold with all unused CPU time on all four CPU cores.
2) A GPU client. It will fold with whatever resources the GPU can provide. It also uses a certain amount of CPU time to feed data to the GPU.
3) One or more Uniprocessor clients (up to four), which each fold using the unused CPU time equivalent to one CPU.
Possible combinations of the above:
4) A GPU client plus a SMP client.
5) A GPU client plus one or more Uniprocessor clients.

Each V6 client downloads, invokes a FahCore to process the WU, and uploads the results. It deals with one WU at a time, independent of any other client that you might be running. Each client is installed separately and maintains a log of what it has been and is currently doing. Depending on the assignment, there are a variety of FahCores that do the actual processing.

In V7, there is one FAHClient plus one FAHControl, (plus one FAHViewer, but let's ignore it). The FAHClient in configured with multiple slots. Each slot downloads, invokes a FahCore to process the WU, and uploads the results, one WU at a time, independent of any other slot you might be running. Each slot is designated as a SMP slot, a GPU slot, or a Uniprocessor slot. (I hope this is beginning to sound familiar.) The major difference is that there is only one FAHClient that manages the uploading and downloading of all of the WUs for all of the slots. The other major difference is that there's only one log file, which combines the output from all of the WUs. It does have tags indicating which process issued the message, but it does get difficult to follow.

The other major difference is that there's one FAHControl running. It is a GUI which allows you to interact with FAHClient and to configure and control each of the slots. That single interface provides a much easier way to manage the processing of multiple concurrent WUs.

EliTeUnk wrote:As for V7 beta client i'll give it a look @ in a few days Thanx

Bruce, it was from this and the paragraph before this one in the same post that I got the feeling they all might be running the same WU since I'm guessing he's running version 6.