So basically Folding@Home is a distributed computing program used by Stanford University that will use your processing cycles that are not being used by other programs from either your CPU and/or graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI based) to work on complex protein folding sequences’ trying to find cures for diseases, such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many cancers. If you would like to learn more about this you can find more information here
http://folding.stanford.edu/ .
Now there are several different programs and ways to go about helping with the cause. I will list the current programs available and try to explain a little about each one.
1: Basic easy mode programs include the system tray CPU client and the GPU client
A: The system tray CPU client will utilize approximately 100% of your single core CPU’s processing power depending on the Work Unit (WU). This client is extremely easy to setup and is pretty much a set it and forget it program for the basic computer users.
This client can be downloaded from Stanford here
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download B: The GPU2 client which will utilize your single chip graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI based) at 100% of unused cycles (this can be changed by a slider bar in the advanced configuration tab). This client is just as easy to setup and use as the system tray client. If you have a multi-chip graphics card or more than one graphics card that you want to use please refer to this guide for setup
https://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=9849&mpage=1#9849 .
This client can be downloaded here
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther C: There is also a console client for the CPU that is basically the same as the system tray client except it uses a command line input system similar to DOS. This client can be found on the same page as the system tray client.
2: For a slightly more advanced user there is thenew SMP2 client. The SMP2 client is a command line input system similar to DOS that can utilize multi-core processors to 100% of unused processing cycles. While being slightly more difficult to setup than the system tray client's above it is still fairly easy to setup by following the respective guide for your OS The new SMP2 client also utilizes a bonus point system that will give more points for completing the work units faster in order to obtain bonus points you will need a passkey wich is talked about further down this thread.
Guide for 32-bit window's OS's
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinSMPGuideDEINO Guide for 32 or 64-bit windows OS's
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinSMPGuideMPICH These two clients can be downloaded here
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther found under Windows V6 Beta Smp2/CPU clients
3: For the power user's there are a few different options that will run on virtual machines (requires a CPU with virtualization technology) with2-8 core proccesors
A: NOTFRED'S is a SMP client that will run on a Virtual Machine and is capable of utilizing up to 100% of your CPU's unused cycles.
For a guide on how to install this client you can go to
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?high=&m=9778&mpage=1#9778 B: Linuxrouter's BigAdvanced Image is a Linux based SMP client that is capable of folding -BigAdv projects on windows with the help of the virtual machine. This client now has a web interface for setup and allows for auto starting the client.
For a the guide on how to install you can go to
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=4464 4: There are also clients for MAC, Linux, and Playstation3 available.
Now for the fun part, for each work unit you complete you will be awarded a certain number of points depending on the work unit and how long it took to complete the work unit. For certain work units you will need a passkey from Stanford in order to qualify for bonus points. This passkey can be obtained here
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py . With the points you are awarded you will be ranked against all others that are folding. You can also join a tem of people that are folding and be ranked separately within that team (I'm kind of partial to team EVGA Team #111065).
I would like to give credit to and thank Horvat for the guide to setup multi-GPUs and NOTFRED's guide. Also I would like to give creditt to and thank LinuxRouter for the excellent work he has done porting the Linux SMP image to VMware so that we can be all that we can be in the folding army.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to better this guide please let me know.
post edited by fonze98 - 2010/03/31 00:07:11