folding with CnQ

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:56 pm

Took me bloody ages to realise that the reason I've not noticed any folding performance increase in the move from XP2100 to Sempron 3200 is that Cool n Quiet seems to be capping the CPU at 1Ghz when I'm not doing much else.

Anyone know if there's a way for F@H to appear on CnQ's radar, as it were? I don't want to run this thing at full tilt round the clock but I'm pretty sure I can contribute more than CnQ is currently allowing....

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:31 pm

Cool and quiet is not capping my system to 1Ghz when folding. I wonder what is going on?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:39 pm

Maybe this is the reason?

http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#run.corepriority

Why does adjusting the core process priority via the task manager not affect its performance? How do I manually adjust the priority of the Folding@home core? Currently when users try to change the priority of the core via the Windows NT/2000/XP task manager this does not affect how much CPU the core gets. The reason for this is that the work is done by the core thread, which is fixed to run at idle priority and is not affected by the task manager priority for the process (which displays as 'normal' by default). In order to change the priority manually users must use a program that allows thread-level priority adjustments.

How to change F@H priority

Ok
Right Click on the Folding Applet icon in the task bar
Select Configure
Select Advanced Tab
There is a CPU usage percent slider that you can move up or down at the top of the Advanced Page

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:53 pm

jaganath wrote:Maybe this is the reason?

http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#run.corepriority

Why does adjusting the core process priority via the task manager not affect its performance? How do I manually adjust the priority of the Folding@home core? Currently when users try to change the priority of the core via the Windows NT/2000/XP task manager this does not affect how much CPU the core gets. The reason for this is that the work is done by the core thread, which is fixed to run at idle priority and is not affected by the task manager priority for the process (which displays as 'normal' by default). In order to change the priority manually users must use a program that allows thread-level priority adjustments.

Interesting - not sure what sort of application they mean but perhaps I'll get something on the f@h community site.

How to change F@H priority

Ok
Right Click on the Folding Applet icon in the task bar
Select Configure
Select Advanced Tab
There is a CPU usage percent slider that you can move up or down at the top of the Advanced Page

Yeah - did that already and also selected higher priority using the radio button but no change.

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:55 pm

autoboy wrote:Cool and quiet is not capping my system to 1Ghz when folding. I wonder what is going on?

Just to clarify, it is still letting the CPU ramp up when needed - just that f@h isn't making it do this.

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:53 am

OK, given that CnQ seems to be letting me go passive on a NH-U9 HS (browsing the web and manipulating a scanned image in photoshop, my core temp is at 33C) I think I'll live with the lower folding performance.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:37 am

CnQ seems to be letting me go passive on a NH-U9 HS

Wow, passive! Is that with secondary airflow from case fan + PSU? Are you using the stock case fan?

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:57 am

Yep - PSU has a 120mm fan which the HS half overlaps and then the 120mm tri-cool on it's lowest setting.

Currently, with f@h running, Speedfan sees nothing above 40 degrees. The core temp shows as 34 degrees.

Couldn't tell you exactly what the ambient temp is but it is quite cool at the moment.

The Xilence, although pretty quiet, isn't exactly silent and is now pretty evident without the cpu fan running. That said, I wouldn't hear it if there was music playing at normal levels.

I'll have a better idea how workable this is once I've got a project to work on and have various adobe apps running alongside browsers etc - it's not really being stressed to much just now.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:02 pm

You could play with RMclock or cyrstalcupid to adjust the cool and quiet options. That is a cool trick though. Cool and quiet but still folding. While your folding score is lower you electricity bill is lower as well.

Do you have the folding set to only use a percentage of the cpu? That might do it.

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:54 pm

CPU percentage is currently at 80% though it was at 100% and didn't make an impact on CnQ. Like I say - If it'll let me run without a fan, I'll probably stick with it the way it is - perhaps tweak it a little up as I'm sure the core temp can handle being a little higher than 39 degrees!

pixel_pimp · Post by **pixel_pimp** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:17 pm

OK, the fanless thing isn't working out - perhaps if I'd gone for the 120mm HS rather than the 92mm it could have worked but there you go. It only takes a very little airflow to keep things in check so it's no great problem.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:53 pm

Ok, so i replaced my server with a sempron with CnQ and I want to fold at 1Ghz but allow the system to ramp up when needed. So...how did you do it?

kike_1974 · Post by **kike_1974** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:43 am

I would suggest RMClock. It is a great utility. With adjusted voltages I get about 10ÂºC lower temperatures in my CPU when idle (at 800MHz) and about 15ÂºC lower on load (at 2GHz) in my athlon64 3000 with 89W TDP.
I also use it in my laptop (2GHz PentiumM), and now the fan is off most of the time. I was able adjust the voltage in the pentiumM to 0,8V when idle!!

The tool is very configurable, it allows several states to configure, not only idle and maximun, you can configure intermediate states. One of the best tools I've seen for computer quieters like us

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:06 am

Yeah, RMclock is a good tool. I use crystalCPUID to do the same thing. The problem with folding is that it holds your cpu at 100% all the time and cool and quiet is no longer usefull. Yes, i can undervolt with RMclock but that is not what i want to do.

I want to set my folding@home to such a low priority that even cool and quiet does not realize it is working so it will clock the system at 1Ghz and 1.1V when "idle (not doing anything else except folding@home)" If I can fold without it affecting the operation of CnQ, that could save me some power and heat while still allowing my server to use its full reasources when it really needs them.

kike_1974 · Post by **kike_1974** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:28 pm

In RMclock there are several profiles. You could use the power saving profile when you want your computer only folding. That would stuck it at 1GHz 1,1V. When you are active in your computer you can switch to power on demand profile to allow the use of full resources.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:15 am

Yeah, except it is a server that sits in the garage. It needs to do it on its own.