Folding Forum

Hi,
I salvaged an old Acer Aspire 3003wlmi (single-cored 1.8GHz CPU, no GPU) and intent to use it for folding only (24/7). I installed Ubuntu 11.10 (which is pretty taugh on the hardware, though) and now it runs v7 client. The overall performance is poor (TPF 50min at best).
I wonder if changing to Ubuntu 10.04 and f@h client 6.02 would help.
Or maybe You have another idea?

Welcome to the F@H Forum Fogtrotter,

Since the hardware is old, I would suggest that you install a very light-weight Linux Distro (http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20a ... tarted.htm) and use V7. If it can complete the assigned WUs before the Timeout, than you can leave it folding 24/7. If it can't make it before the Timeout Deadline, than it would seem that your hardware is too slow for the current Projects so you might want to retire that laptop from folding.

I have Dual-Cores folding 24/7 (not dedicated) and the TPF varies between 30:00 - 01:45 depending on the Project and I never had a Timeout so I think that your system might make it.

TPF can not be judged independent to what the project is. Different projects run at different speeds.

You have salvaged a very low end machine, expect it to perform poorly. Changing clients is not going to help for the actual work is done by the folding core, not the client. Changing from Windows to Linux may help some. Picking a light-weight Linux flavor is good since it will not have many parasitic processes so that folding gets everything the processor can give it. Next, laptops have a tendency to down-clock the processor or power off so pay attention to power settings both in the laptop's BIOS and the OS. Run in full mode.

Thank You, I will check the BIOS and give Puppy a try! My estimated time of completion is already days before timeout, I guess that's a good prognostic.
I also run a desktop with more reasonable hardware, but power consumption is too high to leave it folding all day. PPD/power ratio is surprisingly in favour of laptop, even though its a decade older than the desktop.