SPCR Folds Team Blog

A forum just for SPCR's folding team... by request.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu May 19, 2011 4:31 am

Welcome Jim! All contributors are appreciated. The points system has changed over the years -- or at least the scale of the points have changed. We used to be happy with an average of ~100 points per day! My first Folding projects were on the order of 50 points every 3 or 4 days. The advent of SMP and then GPU clients have really opening things up, so you will likely get into the top Folders pretty soon.

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Thu May 19, 2011 1:24 pm

Welcome Jim !!!
Every little bit counts !!!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by Jim G » Thu May 19, 2011 2:49 pm

Gah... I just had a look at the front page... how many systems are people folding with to get over 20,000 points/day - or even 100,000?! Or is my lack of graphics card holding me back? :S

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Thu May 19, 2011 3:26 pm

GPUs help :)
Approx numbers based on the work units I'm working on right now :
intel Q9550 gets me 6,000 PPD
GTS450 gets 9,000 PPD each (got 2 of those)
And I have a small setup.

Cordis has a thread somewhere with some of his setup, but it changes regularly, so I'm not sure how up to date it is.

Some people get more than 1 million points a day ! And SR-2 motherboard with just 2 hex cores (no gpus) can get you 100,000 PPD by itself without even trying... and some people have more than one of those (not on our team though, cordis is behind on that one ;) ).

What are you folding with btw ?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Thu May 19, 2011 3:37 pm

Hi Jim, welcome to the team! Actually, you can get 20k a day in a single system with SMP folding, if you have enough fast cores. An i7 9XX can get from 15k-40k points a day, depending on the speed, and whether or not it can run bigadv jobs (extra large smp jobs that give you extra points, but you need at least 8 cores to run them). Most reports of the high end sandy bridge chips put them at 25k-40k, depending on whether or not you overclock. In terms of gpus, an nvidia 460 can get around 9k to 11k, depending on the speed. A mid range processor with a 460 can easily get 20k a day. But the real bang for the buck is currently with bigadv smp folding. I'm currently getting around 150k ppd, and I'm folding on 3 systems. Two of them are i7 980x systems, the bigadv smp jobs give me 40k+ on each, and each of those has two gtx 460 cards, each of those generating around 11k ppd. The third system is an i7 960 system, it runs bigadv smp too, but it's a little more marginal, getting between 17k and 25k depending on the WU. I've ordered the parts to upgrade that 3rd system to a new sandybridge i7 2600k, and if that works well I'll probably turn off a couple of the 460s. Getting a little hot these days. Now that may sound impressive, but I regularly get passed by people doing 250k to 400k, and every once in a while somebody blows by doing 2 million+ ppd. Don't worry too much about how other people are doing, there's always someone faster, just do what you feel comfortable with.

One part that can be hard is configuring your system. If you can tell us what hardware you're running on, we can give you some pointers to maximize your output. We're always happy to help! :D

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by Jim G » Thu May 19, 2011 3:52 pm

2 million ppd? Yikes... Got any shots of your setup Cordis? I always like seeing shiny systems :p

@Frenchie - I only just discovered the SR-2 the other day... I don't tend to look at the high-end desktop stuff much but that would be a very fun setup to have, I suspect... and that's a crazy number of points alone. I wouldn't half mind having one of those as a workstation :p

Thanks for the help! The computer most likely to fold at the moment for me is the server we've got at work... it's:

Xeon X3450
Intel 3420GPV
2x2GB Kingston 1333 ECC RAM sticks
32mb onboard graphics

My workstation which will be able to from time to time:

2009 Mac Pro - 2.66 quad Nehalem
12GB 1066 DDR3
512MB GeForce GT 120

annnnnnd our home file server, which may be able to fold more than mine:

AMD X2 555 @ stock
Asus M4A88TD-M
Onboard graphics (ATI 4250)
2x2GB Kingston 1333 ECC RAM

...nothing particularly exciting all up, though it would be nice if I could get the most out of what's available :)

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Thu May 19, 2011 5:34 pm

Well, for pictures there's my old thread: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=57386

but that's way out of date, the only one of those cases I still use for a folding machine is the silverstone ft-02, that has one of the i7 980x cpus in it. After dealing with all those old systems or a while, I started measuring them in terms of ppd/watt and optimizing for that, which is why I have fewer but more powerful cpus now. The first of those machines was my big brass box:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=59803

This one is actually going through some changes now. I have sort of a combination of drive suspension and velcro holding the drives in place, and the veclro isn't holding up very well. So I'm going to try putting a larger frame over that section (and possibly the cpu side too) to give me a frame I can do full drive suspension with. This will take some time, but on the plus side I should be able to fit a 3rd row of hard drives in, giving possible space for 13 drives, and maybe a couple more on the cpu side if I'm clever. You can see it's a rotated motherboard style case like the fortress, I came to like those. This system is the i7 960 now, it's the one I'm going to upgrade soon.

My newest one was a wood version of the same basic layout, but with much less hard drive space. Make it a little easier to fit on a shelf:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=61400

This one is an i7 980x system, with 2 gtx 460s in it. Runs pretty reliably.

As far as your systems go, the mac pro and the xeon have enough cores to run bigadv smp jobs on, but the cpus are probably a little too slow to get them done on time. Also, if you run anything cpu hungry on those, it will cut into your folding time too much. So you should probably just go with normal smp folding on those. That also goes for the file server, a dual core at 3.2GHz should be fairly decent for that, although more cores would help. The one thing you want to do to really get your folding points to rack up is to leave the systems on as much as possible, the more idle time systems have when they're on but not being used, the more points you'll get. I'm guessing that it won't be a problem for the file server, but hopefully you can leave the other machines on as well. Hope that helps!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by dereksbelanger » Fri May 20, 2011 11:30 am

...

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Sun May 22, 2011 2:50 pm

Hey, update on the new z68 system. Currently, I'm pretty impressed, it's running Ubuntu so it's getting more ppd than a windows system of the same speed, so keep that in mind. The i7 2600k a little bit overclocked, I used the bios to do an automatic overclock up to 3.8GHz, I can probably get it higher. But currently, with a decent bigadv job (6900) it's giving me 53391.2 ppd! And the best part is that the power is 180W! That's > 296 ppd/watt!! Considering that the old i7 960 system ran at around 245W, and produced at best 30k ppd, it's a big improvement. Now for the upgrade I pulled off all the extra hard drives, so I'm sure the power will go up after I reconnect those, but I'm definitely considering replacing the 700W psu with something lower. The z68 board is great, let's me overclock the cpu while not needing the extra power of a gpu. So if you're looking for an upgrade, it's recommended. :D

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Sun May 22, 2011 3:35 pm

Nice ppd numbers cordis !!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Wed May 25, 2011 11:47 am

Thanks Frenchie, but I think that things are more complicated with Sandybridge processors than I thought. I ran the multipler up so that it should be running at 4.8GHz, the power rose to 225W, but the ppd only went up to around 55k. And I'm seeing some wild temperature swings on cores, from 96C to 80C from minute to minute. I did some digging, and it turns out that these cpus have a feature where if the chip gets too hot, the speed is automatically throttled back until the temps come down again. So I think that I'm just way over the capacity of the chip, to the point where it keeps getting throttled, and that's why there isn't much consistent improvement. So I'll probably try a different cooler, that might help. But for now, I'm going to try to cut back on the overclock and see if I can get temps to stabilize, and really find a stable overclock. So the chip has great potential, but it's complicated. :(

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by Jim G » Wed May 25, 2011 2:43 pm

cordis wrote:Thanks Frenchie, but I think that things are more complicated with Sandybridge processors than I thought. I ran the multipler up so that it should be running at 4.8GHz, the power rose to 225W, but the ppd only went up to around 55k. And I'm seeing some wild temperature swings on cores, from 96C to 80C from minute to minute. I did some digging, and it turns out that these cpus have a feature where if the chip gets too hot, the speed is automatically throttled back until the temps come down again. So I think that I'm just way over the capacity of the chip, to the point where it keeps getting throttled, and that's why there isn't much consistent improvement. So I'll probably try a different cooler, that might help. But for now, I'm going to try to cut back on the overclock and see if I can get temps to stabilize, and really find a stable overclock. So the chip has great potential, but it's complicated. :(
Which cooler are you using at the moment?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Wed May 25, 2011 3:34 pm

It's a prolimatech armageddon with 2 fans on it. It's a pretty good cooler, but if you're really pushing it the original prolimatech cooler is usually better, and things like the noctua dual 14cm cooler are best. A prolimatech genesis would be great, but I have yet to see anyone with it in stock. Eh, I'll see how low I wind up cranking it down and then decide, probably. :?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Tue May 31, 2011 2:13 pm

Looks like SebRad is back online !!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Tue May 31, 2011 3:46 pm

Hey, great news, welcome back, SebRad!

In other news, I got my new cooler, but I managed to break off one of the mounting screws while mounting it. I've ordered a replacement bracket, but in the meantime my production has fallen. In fact, it looks like jhimanka just took the #1 producer spot away from me! Go jhimanka!! :D

BTW, anyone looking for a compact folder, it looks like zotac just announced a mini-itx z68 board! So if you can find a case with enough room for a decent cooler, might be a good way to go! Not sure if you can put an i7 2600k on it, though. Interesting piece of hardware, though. I'll be interested to get more details on it. And it looks like 6 core sandy bridge processors will be coming out this summer, those will fold great! It's a great time for high performance computing!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:01 am

I'm almost finished with another 6041 unit that has taken the better part of four days to complete...

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by dereksbelanger » Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:49 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:I'm almost finished with another 6041 unit that has taken the better part of four days to complete...
Oh man! I dont like big WUs. Lately my SMP client has been getting 3k WUs that finish in just a few hours - love it!

Need all the help I can get because Thorsted is going to catch me soon! Thorsted - whats your setup!?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:57 pm

As anyone thought of what to do with the team when SPCR disapears this summer ?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:57 pm

Yeah, I've been thinking about it, but there are no easy answers. I guess the big question is whether or not the site gets bought. If that happens, it depends on how it winds up. It could end up as a standalone site under the ownership of a larger conglomerate, and in that (ideal) case, I'd say we just go along as we are now. If the site gets bought, and they just suck all the articles and forums into their own setup, then we could either join an existing team that they have, keep our own team, or rename our team if they don't have one. Worst case, if the site shuts down entirely, we can talk about moving en masse to a different team, or try to find someplace to put a forum to keep ours going, or just go our separate ways.

In terms of the policies of the project, the only real problem is finding out who started the team up. To start one up, somebody winds being the team owner, and they can change stuff, but we need to identify that person. Changing the team you contribute to is an easy matter of reconfiguring your clients. The big problem with changing teams is that your old points don't move with you. You still keep your points, kind of, if you check on this page http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... =userstats, you can search for your name. The problem is, FAH doesn't enforce unique user names, so if there are other people using your name, you'll get something like this http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... =userstats. If you pick your most probable user name, you get a list like this http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... ame=cordis you still get a list of all the different user/team combinations. Now there's also a passkey search option on the original page, that may give you a more selective view. But anyway, if you join a new team, your points don't transfer, you just start accumulating new points for that team. So if you check your points on someplace like EOC stats, you'll see your points back at zero for the new team. Which isn't ideal, but eh, what can you do?

Ultimately, it depends on how things wind up working out. If it winds up that the community here can stay together in some way, I'd love to stay with the team, with the old name or a new one if we can rename it. If it does all go up in a puff of smoke, that would suck, we can talk about where to go in a new thread or something. Or we can just post here. Anyone know any team they'd like to join if the site goes black? Here's a list: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s=, any thoughts?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by dereksbelanger » Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:34 am

Well...I didnt know spcr was closing! Just like me to be so out of touch.

If we have to move I will go with you people! :) I prefer a small community of sensible individuals. Where ever we can find that is fine with me!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:21 am

Yes, here's a link to the announcement: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=62491

Sad times. :(

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:23 pm

There is hope yet, that SPCR will be staying online. Let's hope something can be worked out.

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:06 pm

Yes! Well, I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but it sounds from the latest entry on that thread that something might get worked out. Goodish news! BTW Neil, are you the guy who set up the SPCR folding team?

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by NeilBlanchard » Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:19 am

I was an early member, but no, I think that Mike or someone else set it up.

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by frenchie » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:24 pm

I like our little team too :)

Skeptical_thinker has stepped it up BTW !!!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by cordis » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:50 pm

Yeah, great work SKeptical_Thinker!! Looks like you've started in with bigadv jobs, that will take you to a new level.
Speaking of stepping it up, it looks like jhimanka had a really good day last week, ran up 488,655 points in a single day! Not sure how that happened, but great work! I'm pretty sure that's what gave us the big spike in the graph: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... s=&t=31574

In other news, it sounds like there's plans in the works to keep the site going, so it's looking less likely that the team will need to disband. Yay!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by jhimanka » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:58 am

cordis wrote: Speaking of stepping it up, it looks like jhimanka had a really good day last week, ran up 488,655 points in a single day! Not sure how that happened, but great work!
I didn't check, but I think two or three bigadv jobs happened to finish very near each other. It's a fluke, but looks impressive, yes.

Would sure be great if Mike found a way to keep SPCR going.

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by dereksbelanger » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:43 am

V7 Client is out.

Download: https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/F ... etaRelease
FAQ: http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=18043
Everything: http://foldingforum.org/viewforum.php?f=67

I didnt want to risk the reliability of my folding rig so I installed V7 on my i3 laptop and I must say - its pretty darn sweet!

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by SebRad » Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:35 am

Hi, yes the fear of large electric bills have gone away and I'm folding again :)
Machine is Q9400 @ 3GHz with GTX260 216.
Running GPU and SMP CPU folding, FahSpy sugests the CPU can manage ~58000ppd and the GPU ~8000ppd
EOC stats showing half that, not sure why only showing 6~7000ppd...
If it's really managing 14,000ppd and meter shows 230w then that ~60ppd/w, not good compared to cordis's figures :(
But it's now old hardware, if I want to be in the team top 10 guess I need some new kit :D
I've been getting in to Civ V recently and have to stop the clients to play it for sure, faster PC wouldn't go amis for that either.

Regards, Seb

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Re: SPCR Folds Team Blog

Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:44 am

Welcome back!

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