F@H: Been away for a while... Need help/hints

[MechEng]

Hi there...

Been away from F@H for a long time, and just now decided I wanted to start run it again.

I can see there's some new clients to choose from now, and have no clue as to what I should run and how to set these clients up in the most efficient way.

I currently have and old P4 single core cpu, Geforce 7800GS and 2GB RAM.

Any recommendations, hints and help with settings and so on would be much appreciated...


Best regards,
MechEng

 

[biodoc]

Originally posted by: MechEng
Hi there...

Been away from F@H for a long time, and just now decided I wanted to start run it again.

I can see there's some new clients to choose from now, and have no clue as to what I should run and how to set these clients up in the most efficient way.

I currently have and old P4 single core cpu, Geforce 7800GS and 2GB RAM.

Any recommendations, hints and help with settings and so on would be much appreciated...


Best regards,
MechEng

Welcome MechEng!

Since you have a single core CPU, you only have a couple of options.

The F@H download page is here.

You can run the Graphical Client (ver 5.03 or 6.00beta1) which is the easiest to set up and it sort of has a gee-whiz interface. The installation instructions are also on the download page.

You can also run the text-only console client (ver 5.04 or 6.00beta1). This is more of a hands on version and also has the option to run as a service which I don't do. For this version I just create a directory called fah and then download the client into that directory. I then open a command prompt window and cd into that directory. I then run the executable with the -configonly switch and then answer all the questions (Team # 198 for us!). For an explanation of config options and suggested settings refer to MDEs setup guide here. This guide needs updating but the config questions and answers section is still valid with the exception of the "advanced methods" one (answer no these days and will get a few more points)). Once your configuration is complete then start the executable FAHxxxx with the -local and -verbosity 9 to display the most info.


If you decide to run the ver 6.00 beta1 clients you will need a password which you can get here

If you try the graphical client first, then make sure it is uninstalled before you move to the console client just to be safe.

Unfortunately, with your system, none of the "high performance" clients are appropriate. You need a dual core or quad to run the SMP client and you need an ATI graphics card (some versions) to run the GPU client. Thus far there's no support for Nvidia cards.

Hope this helps and let us know if you need more help.

 

[Insidious]

HiYa MechEng!

Good to see ya old timer!

even though it's been a while, nothing has really changed for the PC you are describing.

The graphical client (GUI) is the one with the screen saver. The Command line interface (CLI) client is the one that is the least intrusive.

The GPU client is only good for ATI video cards and the SMP client is only for multi-processor PCs.

In your shoes, I'd go for the CLI client (version 5.04 in the recommended software section). Service or not is up to you on if you want it to start automatically when Windows starts and not have a window showing when it does.

The rest is cake... no difference from when you folded with us before (glad to have ya back!)

-Sid

 

[MechEng]

Thx a lot for your replies... and thx... It's nice to be back.

I have set up the Console client as that's the fastest one (At least used to be iirc).
Once again crunching for TA..

Too bad that I have gone so low in the stats although it's kinda nice still, since it means you all have crunched away nicely while I was MIA...

 

[Slider76]

Welcome Back MechEng.

 

[MechEng]

Thank you...

Two questions:
1. Does it still yield more ppd to run 2 clients using HT, than 1 client without HT enabled?
2. How are ppd using the other advances GPU/SMT cores compared to the "old" regular one?

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: MechEng
Thank you...

Two questions:
1. Does it still yield more ppd to run 2 clients using HT, than 1 client without HT enabled?
2. How are ppd using the other advances GPU/SMT cores compared to the "old" regular one?

Welcome back MechEng

1. Running two on HT does not help as much as it used to. The bonus BigWUs all seem to use so much memory bandwidth that running two of them doesn't help much. Mixing WUs may help some.

2. They now have "High-performance" clients that get great bonus because the deadlines are so short they can only be run on newest computers.

SMP client uses up to four cores/CPUs (but runs fine on newest dual core), some are getting >3,500 ppd. Deadlines are 2-4 days. My dual Xeon @2.5 finishes with:

[02:39:27] Unit 7 finished with 33 percent of time to deadline remaining.
[02:39:27] Updated performance fraction: 0.322841

For about 650 ppd.

GPU client (ATI 19**) gets the best TFLOPS but the ppd are not as good Deadlines are six days.

PS3 client gets ~900 ppd, the deadlines are 1-3 days.

 

[Assimilator1]

Welcome back MechEng

I only started on F@H 3mths ago, so I'm still new to this

 

[MechEng]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Welcome back MechEng

I only started on F@H 3mths ago, so I'm still new to this

Hmmmmm.... I seem to remember that name from somewhere tho....

As well as quite a few other names here.... Nice to see

 

[chris huff]

I'm checking in also.

Thanks for starting this thread. I have not been following the new clients and am excited to hear about the SMP. I am going to update to it on my E6300 unit at home.

Do I need to delete the old client first?

 

[Insidious]

you don't want your old client to be running at the same time as the SMP

-Sid