Folding Forum

Hello. I am new to folding@home, as I have been folding for only few days now. I have the program installed on a new MacBook air, that was bought within the last 2 to 3 months.
System Specs:
Processor 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB
Software OS X 10.8.4

I currently have the settings on "Idle", with a fan speed that's almost completely quiet. When on "Light", fan speed/heat increases greatly, as expected, but given the type of computer I have, I am not entirely sure if anything above idle would be ok for it in the long run...? I understand I would get more WU at a higher setting, but as long as I am contributing something, and making a difference, even on a lower setting, within a timely manner, or the deadline, I am happy with that. I have already completed 13 work units..
Anyway, given my system specs, what would be the recommended settings that would be ok for my laptop, and still meet the min requirements for the assignments, deadlines, etc..

Thank You.

WinterWolf2010

There is information on the V7 Intermediate FAQ page on what the various settings do.

To clarify, when you set the slider to Idle, that only folds when you are not using the laptop, and then folds using the full resources once the Idle state is detected. That would be all cores and threads available on the i5 processor in your MacBook Air. The Light setting uses half the cores/threads and is actually folding then. That uses a bit less power than with all threads active, which as I recall on the i5 used in the MB Air is 4 on 2 cores. The design of the laptop should be able to handle that level, or will enable a slowdown through thermal protection.

To fold at the Light level I would recommend using either Idle Light or Light depending on whether you want folding active while you are using the laptop. If that level is higher than what you want to use, then you can set the core count lower than what Light uses through the Advanced Control - FAHControl. In FAHControl you select Configure, then Slots. Click on the folding slot and then Edit, you set the number of cores/threads by changing the entry in the box for number of CPU threads. The default of -1 lets the client set the number based on the slider settings, up to the maximum available. Setting it to 1 will just use a single core thread which is less than Light. To save the setting, click on OK and then Save.

You should get assignments that your laptop can complete within the deadlines, but should monitor them to see if this will be an issue at a CPU setting of 1.

HaHa, Thanks for the correction. I meant "Medium." Yea on the first day, after setup, FAH Control was set to "Medium", Not sure if that is the default setting for all users, or if its set based on the computers system specs. After about an hour on medium, I was concerned about the overall health of my laptop in the long run, so I turned it down to idle and came here to ask about it. As for the advanced settings, I think the default settings within it should be fine, with power level set to idle, which i prefer over light, working when I am away. Unless there is a way to tweak it at the current power level to complete more WU without increasing fan speed/heat... .. But yea I am somewhat confused over the whole "Setting the core count" thing.. Ill eventually get it though hopefully. Oh, by the way, you wouldn't happen to know the amount of WU the "average" folder completes in a day? Anyway, Thanks a lot for the help Joe_H. Cheers.

There's really no such thing as an "average" donor. A lot of the people who visit this site fold 24x7 at 100% of every piece of hardware they can lay their hands on, including when they're using their computer for other things. The only real reason that the idle setting was added was that a few people noticed some screen-lag because their GPU was busy when the Operating System wanted to respond to some inputs. That seems to have been mostly fixed by better GPU drivers but the design of the slider choices had already been frozen.

Laptops are often run at less than 100% simply because they don't cool themselves as well as desktop systems.

The slider provides a limited number of choices -- aimed at simple choices. If you're interested in more subtle options, you can consider the program designed for experts called FAHControl, but there's no need to do that unless it appeals to you. Every contribution is scientifically valuable. Use your own best judgement of what you're willing to contribute.