Configuration of SMP Client cont.
Core Priority allows you to change the way the application behaves. It is not the same as changing the priority through the Windows Task Manager (and I STRONGLY advise against this). This should be left at low unless the machine is dedicated to folding. The CPU usage requested does not change much within the SMP client other than allowing clock cycles to be saved for other applications. The SMP client is set to the lowest priority and gives clock cycles to other applications by default anyway and this setting can be kept at 100. The Disable highly optimized assembly code option is only used if you are experiencing issues with the client. If you are not, leave this set at no.
The setting Pause if battery power is being used is only useful if you are running the client on a laptop. If you unplug your laptop from the AC Adapter then the client will pause itself so that your laptop will not die after a short amount of time. Set this to yes if you are running on a laptop to save your battery power. The checkpoints setting allows you to specify when the client will create a backup (in minutes) of the work unit currently being worked on. This is good for if you lose power while folding so that you do not lose all of your data. I like to set this to 3 because I do not want to be waiting for my work units to take longer in case of power outages. The memory setting does not set aside memory to use by the application, but instead determines what work units will be downloaded. By default this is set to the max amount of RAM. For now, we can leave this at the default value.
The set –advmethods flag allows you to download beta stage work units that are in testing phases. These generally yield higher point values but can often be buggy or crash the client. We will set this to no for the purpose of this article. Ignore any deadline information should be left at default unless your machine has issues keeping the correct time. The Machine ID number should be set to 1. If you want to run multiple folding clients on the same machine, then set this to a different number so that they do not conflict each other. Launch automatically as a service can be ignored as it has proven to be buggy with many users machines. Disable CPU affinity lock is not useful for SMP clients and should be kept at default. Under Additional client parameters be sure to enter in -smp so that the client recognizes that it really is an SMP client (this is because the console versions of the Folding@Home clients are all essentially the same but require slightly different parameters). You can also leave the IP address setting blank since we will not have a GUI for this client. At the end, this is what you command prompt should look like:
Once you have completed all of these steps, you can close out the command prompt and click on the executable file in your folding folder. You can create a shortcut on your desktop to make it easier to find or you can even create one within your startup folder to have the program start automatically when you turn your computer on.
Conclusion
In short, folding is a great way to utilize the idle clock cycles of your computer. If you own a Playstation 3, you can also configure a client to run on it as well, which yields decent results. It is possible to have multiple clients run under your name in order to increase the points that you earn. You can also set up multiple clients to run on one machine or across many. The choice is yours on what clients you want to run; the setup procedure is mostly the same if you use the console version of the client. If you use the system tray client you have it even easier; there are fewer options you have to set up; the downfall of these is that they do not earn as many points as the SMP client. If you have any further questions or would like to join a team for Folding@Home, leave a comment below and I will be sure to answer your questions.
[…] Quote: For years distributed processing projects have been running in order to speed up the research process. Distributed processing clients are programs that are run across multiple machines worldwide. This allows for the researchers to gain access to a wealth of information faster than if they were to use a supercomputer. LINK: TechwareLabs Editorial: Folding@Home Configuration Guide […]
[…] Folding@Home Configuration Guide @ TechwareLabs […]
[…] Quote: For years distributed processing projects have been running in order to speed up the research process. Distributed processing clients are programs that are run across multiple machines worldwide. This allows for the researchers to gain access to a wealth of information faster than if they were to use a supercomputer. LINK: TechwareLabs Editorial: Folding@Home Configuration Guide […]