Performance (and performance impact) on older machines

This is the place for chat on DBB Distributed Computing projects... remember team #39070 for Stanfords Folding @ Home project.
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Testiculese
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Performance (and performance impact) on older machines

Post by Testiculese »

I have an 800mhz server that is only a file server. It does very little except throw mp3's around, and my source code.

How much useful work could it contribute to Folding, and what impact on the machine would there be? Can you specify amount of CPU utilization, or anything?
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Post by Vindicator »

I have a trio of 700mhz machines (two celerons, one duron) and combined they made up probably a third of all the work units I turned in prior to joining the DBB team. So yes, they are capable of useful work towards Folding.

There would be very little impact on the performance, based on my experiences with running Folding on my main gaming rig. Folding runs at 100% utilization when the PC is idle, but whenever another program wants the CPU its pretty good about sharing. I dont notice any difference in games between leaving Folding running and turning it off.
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Post by Defender »

My 700mhz laptop still haven't finished a WU... heh.
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Post by Iceman »

But when they do, mucho points ...
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Post by Defender »

Well, I hope it's just a massive WU and not that it's a slow a$$ pos :D
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Post by Iceman »

Go to the links thread and download FaHMon. You can use it to see just how many points credit you will get when it completes.
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Post by Viralphrame »

Iceman wrote:But when they do, mucho points ...
I find that pretty interesting. :D My AMD Athlon folding @ 650 MHZ (Tabris; often taking weeks, even a month to finish work units!) has turned out two WUs, and still has more points than my 2.3ghz main box (Viralphrame), which has turned out three WUs. :lol:
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Post by s. »

I have 2 a 2.4 amd and my slow pos 766 p3 the p3 seems to do alright I just got it set up but well see

scrode
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Post by Avder »

I think I'd like to set my 450 to perform timeless work units. Can I do that while its working on a work unit? And I use that -local -config thing, right?
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Post by Iceman »

Sure you can but use the -configonly switch. That way, the only operation performed is to update the client.cfg file. The one already running only needed the client.cfg file when it started up.

If you use the -config switch, it will start the app running and could potentially mess up your current work unit.
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Post by Avder »

Ok. Lemme do this quick....

done. That was easy. I also saw an option I hadnt seen before that would allow sending and recieving work in batches to minimize networking. Is that option only availible if you request timeless work units? I'm gonna try to set it on the other three, as that would really help for when the campus network goes wonky. I think a couple of my machines sat idle for at least half a day when that happened two weeks ago.
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Post by Avder »

Hm, didnt give me the batch option to minimize networking when I said no or no-pref to timeless work units. Oh well.
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Post by Iceman »

I am not familiar with that option. Perhaps you mean the 'bigpackets' option? That option just allows you to receive work assignments larger than 5MB in size. Either way I doubt they are related.
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