Believe it or not, if you par take in this you are helping fighting diseases all over the world!
I just had a real cool idea.
Why don't we setup a GTF Folding@Home team. For those of you who don't know what F@H is, go to
Folding@home - Main. All it requires is that you download the client, and let it run when your not using your computer. You can even throttle the cpu usage so that it doesn't use all of your CPU.
Lets have a show of hands to see who is interested? I would be quite happy to set the team up and everything.
Team Details -
Team # 98791
Link:
GTF Folders Stats
Team Name -
GTF Folders
How to prepare your system for Folding
1) Download and install the appropriate client (no, really?
)
2) I suggest you download
Speedfan and install that as well.
3) Now, configure the client to run at 100% CPU and let it go. Now, open up Speedfan. We will now monitor the temperature of the CPU(s). Let it run for about half and hour or so, monitoring the CPU temp. Should the CPU temp go over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), I suggest that you either:
i) Improve the cooling of your system
ii) Run the client at a lower CPU usage (I would recommend trying 50% and seeing how that goes)
iii) Not run Folding
The choice is up to you. Should the temperature be anything less than the above mentioned temperatures, you are pretty well set and can continue folding.
Other suggestions:
1) If you are using a laptop, I suggest you do not Fold. Laptop cooling systems tend to be inadequate for this kind of treatment (i.e. running the CPU flat-out the whole time). If you are going to fold on your laptop, do so at your own risk.
2) It is probably better to leave the computer on 24/7, so be prepared for that and all that entails (i.e. power cost, excess noise etc). However, if you can't/won't be leaving it on 24/7, it isn't a major problem.
3) If you find that when you are doing heavy tasks, such as gaming, video encoding and other heavy lifting, I suggest that you right click the task-tray icon and hit 'Pause Work'. Some applications, games especially seem to 'cough' and 'act up' when Folding is running. This may not be the case for all systems, however, many systems do have this problem. See how it goes on your system, tinker around, if you find that this is going to be a problem, try pausing work before doing heavy lifting.
4) A common assumption is that because this app is taking up CPU space, it will slow your computer down. This is incorrect. This program (and other distributed computing clients) only run in the background using your excess CPU cycles. The average PC has a few million of these every second, and if another program requires these cycles, Folding@Home will gladly surrender them to the application that needs it. On most systems, there won't be much of an appreciable difference.
Well there you have it. Happy Folding!