Folding effects on hardware
- Thread starter SEBAR
- Start date
Folding writes very little to disk. I've been folding 24/7 on my rig with SSD for over two years now without issue. The only way folding is going to damage hardware is if you don't keep things cool or have volts too high. Folding itself won't wreck your components.
Any kind of excessive reading/writing on your SSD will degrade it. The more you do the faster the degradation. Also the smaller the SSD the more likely it is to wear out faster because there are less cells for the writes to be spread out over the different NAND chips to age each one more slowly.
I'd expect a CPU to withstand folding 24.7 a lot better than a GPU. I'm not saying GPU's are made shoddily but they definitely are designed within very tight thermal designs especially the high end ones and if the board the GPU is on degrades some how (like the power regulaters die) you can't merely remove the GPU from the card and put it on another board like you can with a CPU.
With a lot of boards these days using capacitors that are rated for what 5-7 years continuous usage at normal load levels I'd expect these to last a little less under folding at home 80%-100% loads 24.7.
Hope this helped.
I'd expect a CPU to withstand folding 24.7 a lot better than a GPU. I'm not saying GPU's are made shoddily but they definitely are designed within very tight thermal designs especially the high end ones and if the board the GPU is on degrades some how (like the power regulaters die) you can't merely remove the GPU from the card and put it on another board like you can with a CPU.
With a lot of boards these days using capacitors that are rated for what 5-7 years continuous usage at normal load levels I'd expect these to last a little less under folding at home 80%-100% loads 24.7.
Hope this helped.
mArTyN
New member
Please excuse me being a bit thick............i've not had anything to do with folding@home in the past so what I know about it you could write on a pin head with a sledge hammer.
Is there any sort of minimum spec of equipment needed to fold. It's just I have a rig sitting here that's not gainfully employed at the moment.
Is there any sort of minimum spec of equipment needed to fold. It's just I have a rig sitting here that's not gainfully employed at the moment.
SEBAR
New member
Please excuse me being a bit thick............i've not had anything to do with folding@home in the past so what I know about it you could write on a pin head with a sledge hammer.
Is there any sort of minimum spec of equipment needed to fold. It's just I have a rig sitting here that's not gainfully employed at the moment.
I was the same way. Last night I just decided to download the software and start. As far as I know there are no real minimume specs, BUT your system, CPU and or GPU, will have to be able to complete a WU before the expiration.
SEBAR
New member
I would get the 'GPU Tracker' Folding an SMP Client on that Q6600! Some nice points there. For now the AMD/ATi GPU will probably hinder the points produced though as Folding wise, they're not too efficient.That Q6600 will do nicely though!
Can you suggest a more suitable card for my setup?
SEBAR
New member
Most of the nVidia cards perform better alongside a CPU Client. Something like a GTX 460 or 560 would be a perfect partner. Or if you're on a budget, a 2xx series (260 55nm or a 270) or slightly lower again, a G92 based 98xx or 88xx based card (9800GT/GTX/GTX+ or 8800GTS 512MB).
Thanks, I have an old 9500GT laying around. Maybe I will try this and see how it performs until I can pick up a GTX 460. I think it will be a little overkill to go with a 560ti for just folding.
SEBAR
New member
Have an aftermarket Zalman cooler on it. The only problem is that thing is LOUD.
Correction to an earlier post where I said I had a 9500GT. I pulled the card out of the closet and turns out that it is a 8600GT. I did not have time to test it to see what kind of ppd it will pull, but I did run GPU tracker v2 and the R6850 was only getting about 1700 ppd.
I also set up my main rig to run GPU tracker v2 to see what the 2600K would do. Started off nice at 22,000 ppd but when I woke up 6 hours later and checked the system had slowed to 8000 ppd.
What is going on that causes the system to slow down? Does having two systems folding at the same time cause a problem?
yassarikhan786
New member
It mostly depends on the WU's that you get. Everyone is experiencing similar issues. My 2600K is usually around the 20k mark @ 4GHz, but fluctuates a lot and the lowest I've seen lately is 12 K PPD folding a 3000+ point WU (I will get 24k+ PPD from that WU though, which is the plus side). I'm looking to OC the CPU further later on, but as I'm in a race with two other guys to 5 million I don't have the time.
SEBAR
New member
Good luck on hitting that 5 million mark. At the rate you are going it will be in about a month.
Just found the thread and will be following.
yassarikhan786
New member
Good luck on hitting that 5 million mark. At the rate you are going it will be in about a month.
Just found the thread and will be following.
Thanks mate, My average has gone up since I've not gamed the last few days. The 3000 point WU on SMP is killing my PPD a little, but once that completes I'll get a very nice 24k+ points
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