Folding Forum

Hi everyone. I'm new to this stuff and I'm not sure which client to choose. I have:

Intel E8200 (dual core CPU)
Palit 9600GT (a reasonably good GPU with DX10)
2GBs of RAM (with OCZ brand)

What do you suggest?

Get the newest SMP (CPU) and the GPU client.

Just set up your GPU client to have a higher priority than the CPU. It's an option in the advanced config. They should default to different machine IDs so no need to change them.
For the SMP client make sure to add the -smp flag.
There's a pretty comprehensive how-to in the FAQ

To monitor the folds use FahMon.

EDIT:
If you don't have your PC on most of the time use 2 standard CPU clients instead. The deadlines are much longer there.

With a dual-core, run the SMP client only if you are not running the GPU client. You should have 1 physical core for each CPU or GPU client, and 2-4 cores for each SMP client.

An nVidia GPU + CPU client will probably yield more points than an SMP client. On XP you can run both as Services; on Vista the GPU client will not run as a Service.

Thanks to both of you . But I don't even know what SMP is - can you give me a link? I use Vista Ultimate (x64).

I think you should read the official guides : http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegrou ... lish/Guide

English is not my native language, and I'm not very good at English . Can't you choose me one?

If you want to know what the SMP client is, you can start with the FAQ : http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-SMP ... and then install with the guide : http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegrou ... GuideMPICH

jrweiss wrote:With a dual-core, run the SMP client only if you are not running the GPU client. You should have 1 physical core for each CPU or GPU client, and 2-4 cores for each SMP client.

An nVidia GPU + CPU client will probably yield more points than an SMP client. On XP you can run both as Services; on Vista the GPU client will not run as a Service.

You can most certainly run the GPU client and the SMP client on a dual-core processor, at least with an Nvidia card. My roommate's running that setup right now, and the GPU client barely affects the SMP time (i.e. it goes from 1133 PPD w/o GPU to 1100 w/GPU). It's ATI cards where SMP+GPU causes major hangups.

If you're new to Folding@Home, download two uniprocessor CPU clients and set them up with different Machine IDs. SMP is not a good idea unless you have some folding experience since it's a beta client, although it is pretty reliable once you get it running.
The one question you want to answer before you download a CPU client: do you want a set-and-forget client or are you willing to check on your clients occasionally? Get the console uniprocessor clients and set them up as services if you do not want to babysit your clients. If you're willing to check on your clients periodically and deal patiently with any errors that may arise (as they come up a little more often than on the uniprocessor clients), then you could get the SMP client.
For running the GPU client alongside a CPU client, I think the other replies have covered that topic pretty well. Assuming you won't overclock your GPU, the GPU client is very reliable.