Question for you folding @ home people!

[MAD_JIHAD]

Ok so I have been folding for quite some time on multiple machines and I was wondering whats the cheapest way to fold?

By that I mean whats the best bang for your buck when it comes to $ per WU/PPD? I have a ps3 and it seems to be the fastest at processing WUs in my house, so should I get another one of those ($399 i think?) and keep scaling up over time with more ps3s or is it cheaper to get a pc with quad video cards? as video cards seem to be dirt cheap these days and I could start with 1 nvidia 8800 or something then just keep adding more as I get the money.

Any help would be much appreciated thx!

[3rdalbum]

When Nvidia engineers helped to develop the CUDA client for F@H, they started running it in their development lab on all their fancy Nvidia graphics cards. By the end of the week, they were in the top-10 teams for that week.

I think a good video card would be best if you are folding on a Windows machine, but as far as I know there's no GPU client for Linux yet. If you are folding on Linux then you should definitely get another PS3.

[MAD_JIHAD]

I think a good video card would be best if you are folding on a Windows machine, but as far as I know there's no GPU client for Linux yet. If you are folding on Linux then you should definitely get another PS3.

Yea ur right no GPU on linux is a problem, thx for the info im gonna look into it a bit more because used PS3s are cheap but so are video cards, i was hoping someone else has done the calculations for $ per PPD before but i guess i gotta do it lol.

[MikeTheC]

The cheapest way I know to fold is to take a sheet of paper, fold it alternatively length-wise then width-wise. Actually, doing this with receipt tape you get from the register at a store when you buy something would be even cheaper, in a sense. But it could also be more expensive, if you factor the cost of whatever it is you were buying.

However, if you were going to buy what you bought anyway, and you were planning on folding something anyway, then other external costs would be a moot factor, and one could argue it was actually free.

But then again, I never learned to fold. I only know how to bend things into Mobius loops.

[miegiel]

Actually, doing this with receipt tape you get from the register at a store when you buy something would be even cheaper, in a sense. But it could also be more expensive, if you factor the cost of whatever it is you were buying.

However, if you were going to buy what you bought anyway, and you were planning on folding something anyway, then other external costs would be a moot factor, and one could argue it was actually free.

I must agree there, can't really see the point in spending money to fold (ignoring the cost the extra watts you use while folding).

[leandromartinez98]

What exactly are you talking about? Are you saying that you are participating on the folding@home project by donnating CPU time to their research on protein folding, or what? Are you planning to buy CPUs to increase your partcipation on their project?

[Shaoline]

I am folding under Ubuntu 8.04 (8.10 has a kernel-flaw making it a bad choice for folding), using a Phenom2 x4 810@ 3400~ Mhz along with a XFX GTX295. I have about 19000-21000 PPD on my machine, so folding under Linux is quite alright..

This page has some really nice info how to get GPU-folding working:
http://www.gpu2.twomurs.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

[swoody]

Just to let everyone know, there is no official GPU client for Linux yet, but there *are* ways to get the Windows GPU client to work under Wine. With that in mind, the best bang for the buck right now would be nVidia video cards. Probably the best one out there is the 9800GX2 which has 2 GPUs per card, and thus can run 2 F@H GPU clients simultaneously. This will net you about 5,000 points per day per core, or about 10,000 points per graphics card. You can pick up a used 9800GX2 for about $200, so it's a great folding card at a great price :D

I also just wanted to throw out a reminder to everyone here, that the Ubuntu Folding@Home Team does have it's own IRC channel!! It's up and running strong again, and hopefully it can be a great resource for those looking for help getting F@H setup, or troubleshooting any issues you may be having. If nothing else, come hang out and we can shoot the breeze and talk folding!

So come on by, and check us out on #ubuntu-folding on the FreeNode network! We look forward to seeing you guys there!!