Personal computing discussed

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pez-king
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should i help?

Wed Jan 15, 2003 1:25 am

thinking of throwing together a half-assed system of spare parts for folding (team TR of course :D) would a p3 450, 128 ram and a voodoo5 be worth doing?

and which os would use the least resources to run this? ME *shudders* or xp pro with sp1?

i have both
 
HowardDrake
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:37 am

Definitely help. I'm folding on 2 VIA C3-800 systems, and it can't be worse than that. ;)
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just brew it!
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 10:10 am

If you're not planning on using the box for anything else that requires Windows, my suggestion would be to run Linux on it. Great opportunity to learn Linux too, if that's something you're interested in doing.

I just recently turned a bunch of parts from my "junk closet" into a Linux-based web server and folding box: http://justbrewit.net/server/

Edit: I'd also consider ditching the Voodoo5 if you've got something else you can use... even an old PCI VGA card should be fine for a folding box. Voodoo5 = high power consumption = lots of heat (and high electric bills since it will be running 24x7).
 
pez-king
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 10:48 am

the voodoo5 is all i have sadly.... linux is a good idea, but i dont really have any means of getting it unless i download it.... i'm quite broke

i had a creative blaster 3d card... i lent it to a friend and now it's floating around somewheres. That wouldnt take much power
 
Coldfirex
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 10:50 am

I thought the linux client was still slower than the windows client?
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Steel
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:06 am

If you have a CD burner you could give Overfoldix a try:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ofdx/

I thought the linux client was still slower than the windows client?

That's my understanding too though the difference isn't supposed to be extreme (maybe about 5%).
 
just brew it!
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:31 am

I thought the linux client was still slower than the windows client?

Could be. I haven't done any scientific benchmarks, but I do have two similar systems (both of them are K6-III+/500) that are folding, with one of them running Windows and the other running Linux. Yeah the Linux one is a bit slower. Different motherboard chipsets though -- the Windows one is ALi, and the Linux one is VIA. IIRC ALi's Super 7 chipset was a better performer than VIA's, so that could account for part of the difference.

linux is a good idea, but i dont really have any means of getting it unless i download it.... i'm quite broke

Yes, if you are on dial-up that would be a big problem. If that's what is stopping you, do you know anyone with broadband who could download it and burn a set of CDs for you? Downloading and burning ISO images for the Redhat 8 CDs is a piece of cake (that's how I got mine). That article I linked in my previous post contains a link to Redhat's FTP mirror list... just pick the FTP server that seems to work the fastest for you.
 
pez-king
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 3:11 pm

all my friends on broadband do not have burners :(

i'm on 56k yes... i'll stick with XP PRO sp1
 
boobyne
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Wed Jan 15, 2003 3:33 pm

Yes. You should help.
 
pez-king
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 8:18 am

ehhh, my idea of putting it on the computers at school sounded good in my head, but since these computers are public for students throughout the day kids have been going in the config and messing with the settings even though they have no clue what they are doing.

Is there any way i can make the client hidden from the system tray so they wouldnt even know it was there?
 
muyuubyou
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 8:37 am

That depends. If they run Win2000/NT/XP you can install it as a service. Check http://www.tech-report.com/etc/folding/

Another point: the console client runs significantly faster than the graphical/screensaver one, even if your GPU supports OpenGL (if it doesn't, we're talking 99%). I guess the linux console client should be just as good.
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just brew it!
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 9:15 am

I hate to say anything that might reduce the number of CPUs folding for the TR team, but I feel I must comment on the practice of using school computers in general:

There was a fairly well-publicised case a couple of years ago, of a sysadmin at a university who lost his job and was literally arrested and thrown in jail for installing a distributed computing client on a large number of university machines. The university claimed he was stealing computing resources and network bandwidth; his former employer also tried to extract a mind-bogglingly large sum of money (six figures, IIRC) in damages, ostensibly to cover the cost of the "stolen" resources.

Now, I'm not implying that most schools would react this way; it is quite clear that the university administration was totally clueless, and blew the whole thing way out of proportion. But my point is, if you work for a school (or any other bureaucratic organization) and are thinking of installing the folding client on machines you are responsible for, you may want to consider getting "the powers that be" to sign off on the idea first. Your job (or worse) could be at stake.

Better safe than sorry.
 
pez-king
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 9:29 am

i cant run the firedeamon becasue i don't have administrator access... i don't work for the school. So i'm safe i guess... the school has 2k pro

i only put it on a few of the computers here... isn't there a way to hide the client from the sys tray other than FD?
 
Steel
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 9:41 am

The school's administration may still get ticked at you if they find it.... but anyway, Electron Microscope III is able to hide the console version of the client as well as itself:
http://home.attbi.com/~wxdude1/emsite/download.html
 
pez-king
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Thu Jan 16, 2003 9:47 am

thanks for the link steel

yeah they might... i'll take the chance though 8)

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