Folding Farms

[NavyChief]

As an experiment I thought I would turn on some of the classroom computers in my Department at the University. Since this week is Spring Break, the classroom computers are not doing anything. I set up the single-core folding module on 24 older Pentium D computers and will leave them on till Monday morning. I want to see how these older units do. Just a test to see what can be done to help our team gain in the standings.

[Schlup]

Dang it...guess I better head to the store to buy a PS3 now!  Navy, if you are doing a big unit (500,000) you'll be able to complete one work unit on each computer over that week.  So that'll be 24 very large work units I'd say you'll pull in about 50,000 points from it is my guess.

[NavyChief]

I guess it is sort of like the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) Navy. The U.S. Navy did not fear their missiles due to their high quality - it was their quantity that had us worried. They would shoot 50-60 missiles at a target and hope that just 1 or 2 would hit. The U.S. Navy on the other hand would shoot 1 or 2 missiles at a target and at least one would hit the target. Quantity vs quality.

I have folding programs running on the following:
- 24 Pentium D computers (system tray CPU program)
- 2 Core2Duo computers (system tray CPU program)
- 1 nVidia 8800GTX (high-performance GPU progam)
- 1 nVidia GTX275 (high-performance GPU program)
- 1 PS3 (high-performance program)

The quality of the CPU programs is low but their quantity makes up for what they lack in quality.

Mind that the 24 Pentium D computers will only be running on the weekends. Maybe I will keep them up continuously during the summer.  

[Schlup]

I've got it!  I'll take control of a giant bot network and force all the machines to run the high performance clients.  That should be good for about 100,000 points a day!

[tehfunk101]

I've got it!  I'll take control of a giant bot network and force all the machines to run the high performance clients.  That should be good for about 100,000 points a day!

ha, just don't come cryin to us when the feds knock on your door!! and it would definitely be more than 100k, quad gtx295's do 55k points per day

[Schlup]

Yeah, but what person with quad GTX 295's is going to be noobish enough to allow a bot network to take over?

[tehfunk101]

Yeah, but what person with quad GTX 295's is going to be noobish enough to allow a bot network to take over?

I meant, if 8 powerful GPU's manage 55k a day, imagine what a couple thousand average cpu's could pull off!

[Schlup]

Wow, how big do you think this bot network is going to be?  Considering 80% of all PC's have integrated graphics!  And around the same for dual core or less.

[NavyChief]

Well, I have stopped the 24 Pentium D classroom computers this morning since classes are back in session.

Here are the stats for the 4-day period (Thu - Sun):

Work Units (WU) completed: 247
Points earned: 62,935
Avg points per WU: 254.7

Not bad for only 4 days! I will see about using these computers on the weekends until the end of the Semester and then most of the Summer.

I will still keep my old Core2Duo with 8800GT running continuously. The PS3 will be used sporadically overnight.

[Malhovic]

Hmmm...I may have to think up a method to put about 50 Dell Optiplex GX260's and then around 140 other computers to use with FaH so that I can compete with you all. Considering I am the Network Admin at work, so long as I could setup a script to run the program only at specific times during the evening I would surely put some numbers up. Navy did you manually run those 24 computers or did you script it?

[NavyChief]

No, I did it the manual way. It was fairly easy since the computers are located in only 3 classrooms (8 in each). I have around 400 computers in my department that I am responsible for but these are the easiest to set up since they are mostly unused. I do not want to mess with any of the lab or office computers since the people who use them come in every day and sometimes on weekends.

I have another 20-30 Dell Optiplex 260/270/280 sitting in storage. The only problem is where to set them up.

[Malhovic]

From the looks of it, you could have your own FaH Farm going, lol!

[Schlup]

No, I did it the manual way. It was fairly easy since the computers are located in only 3 classrooms (8 in each). I have around 400 computers in my department that I am responsible for but these are the easiest to set up since they are mostly unused. I do not want to mess with any of the lab or office computers since the people who use them come in every day and sometimes on weekends.

I have another 20-30 Dell Optiplex 260/270/280 sitting in storage. The only problem is where to set them up.

Heck, I'm sure you could put them in a closet and just stack them up with several power strips being used.  You would only need one monitor and just hook it up to each one at a time.  You could use one of those plugin to the electrical outlet LAN adaptors that works off the electrical wiring to create a ring network, then a 24 or 48 port switch for the internet.  Here's a good article about how to build the best folding rigs and there is another article or section about building folding farms.  You should check it out...
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2009/08/03/how-to-build-the-best-folding-rig/1

I read it late last night and that's where I found FahMon.  I'm doing about 7,500 points a day right now, once I get the new video card I expect that number to go up to about 30,000 PPD due to a few different configuration things I am going to do.  Setting up (4) GTX 295's is where it's at though, it'll crank out over 50,000 PPD!

[Schlup]

Hmmm...I may have to think up a method to put about 50 Dell Optiplex GX260's and then around 140 other computers to use with FaH so that I can compete with you all. Considering I am the Network Admin at work, so long as I could setup a script to run the program only at specific times during the evening I would surely put some numbers up. Navy did you manually run those 24 computers or did you script it?

I'm just about positive this is being done somewhere some place.  I'd research it on the interwebs and see what you come up with!