Put me down, boys. I'm in.

[tlowr4]

Yup.

Considering medical research and the entire medical profession as a whole has been around me for the last 10 years of my life (mother terminally ill), I figured I should start making my contribution as much as possible.

So I'm just getting into this, and the website and what I've found on YouTube aren't perfectly clear as to what I need in terms of internet and the computer. I've got tons of crappy hardware laying around, what would be nessecary? I was thinking something along these lines just to start with:

Intel Pentium 4 Costa Rica @ 2.8GHz (Socket 478)

1GB DDR 400MHz RAM (2x 512MB)

Onboard Video (could install GeForce FX5200 or ATI Radeon 9600L/SE AGP if needed).

80GB 7200RPM IDE HDD

Stock Acer Mobo

250W PSU

Linux and/or Win XP

And later upgrade to (since I'm trying to get the system going and getting parts off friends):

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1.8GHz (Socket LGA775)

2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM (2x1GB)

GeForce GT210 and/or Radeon HD5450/6450

80GB 7200RPM SATA 2 HDD

Stock HP Mobo

250W PSU

Linux and/or XP

If anyone's got any pointers, or suggestions, I'd be greatly abliged if you could share them

Cheers.

EDIT: Oh, also, what do I need in terms of Internet? Is it very stressful on your internet connection? I have a poor connection (7Mbps down, 700Kbps up), but I have 500GB of bandwidth and a Minecraft server I run as well, most I max out each month is 200GB. Would I use much bandwidth, and would it take too much from my connection in terms of speed? Cheers, again.

 

[JackyBoy]

Glad to have you on board!

It doesn't use much Internet at all. It only uses Internet to download a WU and then to send back the finished unit.

Yeah, use what ever hardware you can, for much older hardware don't expect many points, but everything helps. Best bet would be to set it up and get it to start folding and see what points you get. Only need to worry about graphics cards if they can fold, otherwise get the cheapest one you can just to get it running. As far as I know, any card from the nvidia 8000 series can fold. (not sure about ati/amd)

I would suggest trying to get a quad core in the socket 775 as soon as possible, but apart from that, get folding!

 

[tlowr4]

Will do! I'm saving up and will proberbly move to 1155 later in the year, i5 2400 and 4GB of RAM. Is CPU folding or GPU folding more effective? I see many people going for the GPU alternative.

Points aren't really what I'm chasing at the moment, I'm more looking for just helping the medical scene. Moving up the ranks is just a bonus

 

[Pickster]

Will do! I'm saving up and will proberbly move to 1155 later in the year, i5 2400 and 4GB of RAM. Is CPU folding or GPU folding more effective? I see many people going for the GPU alternative.

Points aren't really what I'm chasing at the moment, I'm more looking for just helping the medical scene. Moving up the ranks is just a bonus

CPU folding, as long as the CPU is modern enough is more power efficent than GPU folding. But on an old rig (if you have PCI Express) you can just stick in a modern Nvidia graphics card and be folding away with some decent points.

Honestly in my opinion it's probably not worth folding on the P4. You might get 500 PPD, probably less though. My Dads AMD A64 Dual core running at 2.25ghz only gets 1000 PPD.... but by all means if you want to and the power draw is not an issue for you go ahead. If nothing else it gives you some experience with folding and you can try out the different versions to find out what suits you best (and it gets you addicted

)

The graphics cards to use at the moment for folding are Nvidia ones, if you only have an ATI card laying about (thats capable of folding) then thats fair enough but if you end up buying one for the primary reason of folding go Nvidia all the way.

I'm not sure if the Nvidia 210 is any good at folding, if you can pick up a 8800GT/9800GT cheap, they are a good place to start folding. They can be had for pretty cheap and give out about 5000PPD.

You could also fold on you Macbook.

 

[stevehat1]

Welcome to 98860!

 

[mArTyN]

Welcome aboard

 

[kilobravo]

Welcome

 

[Excalabur50]

Welcome to the team

 

[tlowr4]

CPU folding, as long as the CPU is modern enough is more power efficent than GPU folding. But on an old rig (if you have PCI Express) you can just stick in a modern Nvidia graphics card and be folding away with some decent points. Honestly in my opinion it's probably not worth folding on the P4. You might get 500 PPD, probably less though. My Dads AMD A64 Dual core running at 2.25ghz only gets 1000 PPD.... but by all means if you want to and the power draw is not an issue for you go ahead. If nothing else it gives you some experience with folding and you can try out the different versions to find out what suits you best (and it gets you addicted

) The graphics cards to use at the moment for folding are Nvidia ones, if you only have an ATI card laying about (thats capable of folding) then thats fair enough but if you end up buying one for the primary reason of folding go Nvidia all the way. I'm not sure if the Nvidia 210 is any good at folding, if you can pick up a 8800GT/9800GT cheap, they are a good place to start folding. They can be had for pretty cheap and give out about 5000PPD. You could also fold on you Macbook.

Alright. I'll see if I can get the Core 2 Duo rig going, and I'll drop in an older nVidia card once I get hold of one.

I would fold on my Macbook but it has massive thermal issues, and I need all the power I can get from it as is for school etc.

I might use this thread as an update thread too. Thanks for all the welcomes everyone

Noob Question: What's PPD?

 

[JohnnyHundo]

As team contributor number 6 - and looking to keep it that way - welcome aboard chap.

And I'm not even English.

(Errrrrrrr - I guess number 7! Dear nothingspecial - what the F happened yesterday where you folded like you just hijacked a multinational server room???)

 

[tlowr4]

Curiosity question, how do nVidia quadro cards go for folding? Something like an FX4500, or such around the older and cheaper versions of the Quadros. Would they be any better than a 560 or such?

 

[Pickster]

PPD = Points Per Day.

As for Quadro cards. If they support CUDA they should work. I don't believe the FX 4500 does. Where as the 560 is one of the best folding cards out there.

 

[xovius]

As team contributor number 6 - and looking to keep it that way - welcome aboard chap.

And I'm not even English.

(Errrrrrrr - I guess number 7! Dear nothingspecial - what the F happened yesterday where you folded like you just hijacked a multinational server room???)

He probably hijacked a multinational server room

Great idea btw

 

[Mcslave]

welcome to the team