looking for info and advice on first folding project

[totalnoob]

From what I understand GPU's get more "points" folding, but the type of calculations they do are limited compared to what CPU's can do. Being mainly concerned with helping out the medical science, I'm wondering if it would be more beneficial to focus on building a CPU intensive system rather than a GPU one?

I've figured (using some spare parts I have lying around) that it would cost roughly the same $1,000 to build a pair of overclocked I7 machines with low-end graphics cards churning out CPU-based WU's, or a pair of cheap E5200 Core 2 Duo systems with GTX 560+ cards churning out GPU-based WU's. Obviously the 560's would churn out more points, but would both options be relatively equivalent in terms of scientific value? Or do the greater points given by GPU's really indicate a greater amount of "help" being given to the project?

Finally, if you had $1k to improve your current folding setup, what type of machine(s) would you build?

 

[theAnimal]

An OCed quad with HT will still get more points than a GPU, for now at least. (There is talk of bonus points for GPUs so who knows how that will change things.) With any CPU less powerful you're better off with a couple of GPUs. AFAIK the points are a pretty good indicator of the science being done, but every WU matters.

With $1k I'd probably upgrade the quad to a hex or look into WC.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Both in terms of scientific value and points, in terms of Folding@home SMP is king at the moment. I'd go for the i7s, especially since you can OC them to 4GHz+ and run bigadv on them (though the bonus points are being nerfed).

 

[Lightflash]

I would def. go with the CPUs as of right now until they implement the bonus for GPUs. My i7-2600k @4.6GHz right now is getting 20k PPD depending on the WU and that is without doing the bigadv. My GTX580 at 2k shader is only getting 18.5k PPD and cost just as much as my mobo and CPU combined.

But like I said, be on the watch for when they are going to implement GPU bonus as it could shift the argument back to a middle ground. Then I would think PPD will be more equal and hopefully with equal investment in either CPU or GPU.

 

[totalnoob]

Thanks for the advice yall. I'll probably be ordering the parts for a CPU-based folder soon. In the meantime, I put together a new folding rig from some spare parts I had laying around. It's an E5200 dual core OCd to 3.1Ghz with a 9800GTX+.

I'd like to get the most out of this system but am not sure how to decide which type of folding to use. If I run both GPU and SMP on the same machine, will that be stressing my CPU too much and preventing the video card from getting enough "juice" from the CPU to fold? I'd hate to go with pure GPU folding and let the CPU go to waste, but I also want to make sure the GPU has the boost it needs from the CPU to fold at full efficiency. Any advice/suggestions?

 

[ZipSpeed]

Nvidia cards use far less CPU cycles than AMD cards so you'll be fine running both.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Yeah, for a 9800GTX+ and a 5200 it's worth it to run the GPU client along with the SMP client. However, for that 2600k you're planning to buy, it's not worth it. For that 2600k I'd just run the SMP client with bigadv by itself.

 

[Gravity]

What about for an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450? Will that run the smp and the Gpu client? I have a Geforce 295 for the vid card.

Still folding,

Gravity

 

[GLeeM]

What about for an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450? Will that run the smp and the Gpu client? I have a Geforce 295 for the vid card.

I would try it both ways - with and without the GPU - paying close attention to ppd.

I think you will get more points by running both, but it may not be worth the extra electricity costs.

 

[Drsignguy]

What about for an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450? Will that run the smp and the Gpu client? I have a Geforce 295 for the vid card.

Still folding,

Gravity

My Q9450 has been getting around 5K+ PPD and the 2 Geforce 260 were getting 7400 each so, 20k+ PPD seems to be about the norm for it. Just an FYI

 

[GLeeM]

My Q9450 has been getting around 5K+ PPD and the 2 Geforce 260 were getting 7400 each so, 20k+ PPD seems to be about the norm for it. Just an FYI

Oops, yeah, I was thinking about when running -bigadv