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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 23 days
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F@H questions
#9718413 - 02/01/09 04:51 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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So I finally started running F@H about a month ago. Its been fun watching my work units and stats stack up. I shoulda done it years ago. The only real question I have is whether or not it will have a detrimental effect on my computer in the long run. I can hear it working all the time now (obviously its cruching for F@H constantly). Sounds as if the hard drive is always working. I'm assuming this will this shorten the life of my drive/machine? And if so, how big an effect will it have?
Also, looking through the Shroomery team stats page I was surprised how much variation there was in workunits/score ratios. At one end there is a user who has done 534 W/Us with a score of only 1590. Thats less then 3 points per w/u. At the other end someone who has only completed 41 W/Us has a score of 73758. Thats works out to nearly 1800 per wu. Why is there such a discrepancy? Does each work unit really vary that much? And I'm assuming that what you get is all just randomn?
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,817
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 3 hours, 36 minutes
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Good questions.
Folding@home mostly places a load on your CPU, keeping it running at 100% utilization. It shouldn't cause your hard drive to work much more than normal, unless you don't have a lot of memory (ie. < 1GB) and opted to receive "large work units with high memory demands" when you configured the client. In that case it might be utilizing your swap file, which is not a desirable situation for performance reasons, but this can be fixed by configuring Folding@home to not receive these resource-intensive work units.
As for whether it will shorten the life of your CPU, the answer is "yes and no". Running your CPU at 100% utilization may indeed cause it to fail sooner through the effects of electromigration. But all modern CPUs are engineered to manage such a load and this is a relatively minor concern. That is to say, you might be looking at a hardware failure after 15 years instead of 20, but the system will be woefully obsolete by then anyway. The biggest issue with running the Folding@home client is its power consumption; CPUs use more electricity when they're operating at full load, and this cost will dwarf any expenses you might incur due to hardware failures. The exact figures will vary based on your CPU and the cost of electricity in your area, but a rough estimate might be $10/month. Depending on your financial situation and your views on power conservation this might be a good reason to uninstall the client, but I wouldn't worry about its effect on your hardware.
The reason some work units are worth more points is simply that they take longer to process. The Folding@home team tries to make the point distribution relatively fair and consistent, so you get the same number of points for the same amount of work, regardless of how long the work unit itself takes to complete.
Anyway I hope that answers your questions, and I also hope that after consideration you decide to stay on the team. We need all the help we can get!
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daussaulit
Forgetful
Registered: 08/06/02
Posts: 2,894
Loc: Earth
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Obviously with all the processing power required, there will be more heat generated. If you have proper cooling, it shouldn't be detrimental to your system. As far as wear on your HD, there will be some, but no real way to determine how much. A cheap fix if you are worried about wear on your HD is to get a 128 meg flash drive(what are they now, like $0.99?) and run F@H on the flash drive.
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 23 days
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Re: F@H questions [Re: Ythan]
#9719603 - 02/01/09 08:18 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Thanks for the answers. It helped clear up some things I didn't understand.
Quote:
Ythan said: I also hope that after consideration you decide to stay on the team. We need all the help we can get!
No worries there. I'm gonna keep on folding!
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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D4NK
Omni-Potent
Registered: 04/05/05
Posts: 1,707
Loc: A Different Parallel Real...
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I run a GPU client, and my video card has started flaking out after a few weeks of use. I don't have any conclusive evidence that FAH is the MAIN reason, but I have a feeling that it didn't help.
I've also had a power supply go bad while folding, but again, this is not something that I can pin directly to FAH. To be fair, the power supply was quite shitty, so FAH probably just pushed it over the edge.
The way I see it, if your hardware can't handle some serious processing, it's time for new hardware
-------------------- Moderation is key "There is no god higher than truth."
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