WARNING Changes to bigadv thresholds in 1Q 2014 cause me to say DO NOT build a 4P socket F for BIGADV WUs.
If you want to do regular SMP with a cheap 4P socket F then continue on.
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1Upcoming changes to bigadv threshold
by
kasson » Today, 10:43 am
We have a policy of periodically re-evaluating the bigadv program, including the threshold required to run bigadv projects.
It is the intent of bigadv to match large and resource-intensive work units with some of the most powerful machines used by FAH donors. This "most powerful" line naturally advances with computing power. To date, bigadv has been a CPU-based program, and with increasing numbers of CPU cores and power of those cores, we have decided to lay out a roadmap of bigadv threshold changes for the next several months.
Feb 17 (two months from today): bigadv threshold will become 24 cores
Apr 17 (four months from today): bigadv threshold will become 32 cores
We want to give advance notice of these changes, and we recognize that change is not always welcome or comfortable. We should also emphasize that the science performed by donor machines is valuable in all parts of the FAH project, and part of the change in bigadv threshold is because we would like to encourage moderately powerful machines to help boost the capabilities of non-bigadv SMP projects where we do a lot of this science.
We also recognize that core count is not the most robust metric of machine capability, but given our current infrastructure it is the most straightforward surrogate to evaluate.
Thank you once again for your generous participation in the Folding@Home project!
I am going to try to make a condensed thread with the info needed to buy and get running a inexpensive 4P system
I would like to keep this thread short and simple, only so it is easy to find what you need.
If you see something wrong or know of something left out. Please PM the info to me.
Thanks to EVGA for a forum to learn and be among others who also have the folding bug.
A big thanks to H for their guides, and helping us do this.
A huge thanke to Punchy, Quinst, Wolf, xavier, Texinga, viper97, Afterberner, yodap, muskie32, johnerz, BrotherJohn, Lvcoyote, jinihammerer.
Please give them all a big hand.
A special big thanks to my wonderful wife Susan. Who has put up with me for 35 years. She is a saint. 
I in no way take any credit for the information in this thread. I am just trying to put it in one place where it can be found easy.
It is not meant to be the only source of information, you may have to follow other links and/or guides and/or threads.
I just want to point you in the right direction.
We have been using the SuperMicro H8QME-2 SOCKET F motherboards that can be found on e-bay.
Here is a link to the MFG board web page. http://www.supermicro.com...8000/MCP55/H8QME-2.cfm Manual is here:
http://files.siliconmecha...oard/MNL-H8QM8E-2+.pdf The board uses AMD Opertron 83xx 4 core and 84xx six core CPU chips SOCKET F
Chips that are said to make the deadline for QRB in order of performance on P8101:
Using Musky install
8386-QC @ 2.8ghz 32:03
8389 - QC @ 2.9ghz - 31:00 TPF
ZS301804P4D14 - QC @ 3.0ghz Engineering Sample 32:00 TPF
8425 - Hexacore @ 2.1ghz LE 28:30 TPF
8431 - Hexacore @ 2.4ghz 27:30 TPF
8439 - Hexacore @ 2.8ghz SE 23:00 TPF
Want the specs for your chip, go here. Type in chip model # in the box upper right side.
http://products.amd.com/e.us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx When you first get your board, if it comes with memory and CPUs.
Some of us had to pull out CPU 3 and 4 and their memory to get the system to boot.
You may also have to move CPUs and/or memory around to different sockets to get things stable.
These boards are known to be picky as to where things are installed.
Make notes where and what has been moved to where. So you know where it was.
HAHA bet you have to read that twice.
What I am trying to say is keep track of where you have had it, and where it is going next.
Run memtest86 on the memory sticks to make sure they are good if having problems.
These boards have a bit of delay when first turned on, or from a cold boot.
Give it a min. or two and see if you get video on the monitor. Check the video output jumper on the board.
There is a setting in bios that asks OS it is either Linux or other.
Set it to Linux if you are using it. Set it to other for windows.
Turn off things in bios you're not using, like Floppy drive, or ports not going to be used.
Printer ports. ect.........
On board video works good on these boards. The GUI in Ubuntu seems to work fine with no lag.
There is a slot, but it is too close to the other to use an aftermarket video card.
Power supply I am using a 750W gold PSU everything is working fine.
The board takes TWO 8 pin 12v cpu power plug. Some CPUs have a 4 pin some have a 8 pin or a 4+4
They make splitters to split the 8 pin into two 8 pin connectors.
http://www.newegg.com/Pro...x?Item=N82E16812198019 http://www.ebay.com/itm/8...Name=ADME:L:OU:GB:3160 My board with 4 -
AMD 8425 hex core is 170 watts idle and 360 watts at 100% load with a 8103WU
All I have extra is 4-80mm fans on the heatsinks and 3-120mm fans blowing over the board. And one SSD hard drive. 4 sticks of 800mhz 2 gb ram
With 8 sticks it was 315 watts The
AMD 8425 hex cores are rated at 55 watts The
8439 hex cores are rated at 105 watts.
This is to give you an idea what you may need as far as power.
The bios on the boards have to be flashed to the newest bios ver. to use the New fastest 4 core and 6 core chips You will need TWO 2 core chips to flash with an USB or floppy drive.
You can also buy a new bios chip with the new bios ver. all ready flashed for you.
If your board does not come with chips installed, ask on here. I am sure there are extra 4 core chips floating around.
It is known that the bios flash download from Supermicro, the flash.bat file has to be edited and the /X switch added.
Thanks wolf.
When you make your bootable DOS floppy or USB
it must be FAT32 not NTFS For those wanting to update the bios for the H8QME-2/2+ motherboards.
First you'll need to format and make your USB drive bootable.
I used
Rufus what you need to know and the download is in the link.
Here is the bios file with the /x switch
http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/74052172/file.html already edited with the force flag /X within the H8QM820122 folder.
All files +edit are also unpacked within the zip package as well.
Simplest way would be unpack then run
Rufus once the USB drive is completed formatted/made bootable
Copy and paste all files that are in the H8QM820122.zip to your USB drive.
There will be four files in that folder to copy over to the USB drive.
Just place those four in the root, so you don't have to do CD to the folder.
Reboot your H8QME-2/2+ enter bios and set your USB drive as first boot device.
F10 save and exit. It should now reboot and boot off the USB drive.
Once the boot to the USB is complete,
type flash H8QM820.122 , the flash will began,
Do not stop or reboot or power off until the flash has completed.
Once this has completed and time to reboot, power down wait a few seconds
then power on, enter bios Use F9 to load Optimized Defaults and F10 to save & exit.
Now on reboot enter bios and set things to match your preference. All done.
If there is a problem with that link to get the fixed bios. Go here and get the bios zip file.
Here is the link to the bios from the supermicro web page.
This file has to be edited with the /x switch.
http://www.supermicro.com...resources/results.aspx Then open the H8QM820122.zip and then open notepad, in notepad open the flash.bat file and add the /x switch like this.
In note pad you have to make it all files bottom right to see and open it, and when done, you save as all files not a .txt file @echo off
REN AFUDOS.SMC AFUDOS.EXE
AFUDOS.EXE %1 /P /B /N /C /X
REN AFUDOS.EXE AFUDOS.SMC
Reboot your H8QME-2/2+ enter bios and set your USB drive as first boot device.
F10 save and exit. It should now reboot and boot off the USB drive.
Once the boot to the USB is complete,
type flash H8QM820.122 , the flash will began,
Do not stop or reboot or power off until the flash has completed.
Once this has completed and time to reboot, power down wait a few seconds
then power on, enter bios Use F9 to load Optimized Defaults and F10 to save & exit.
Now on reboot enter bios and set things to match your preference. All done.
http://forums.evga.com...mp;high=usb+boot+image I have the floppy files with the edited flash.bat file if you would rather use the floppy.
You can get the bios file from supermicro in an EXE format. Make the floppy like they tell you to.
Then you can edit the flash.bat file in dos, save it, then in windows copy edited file to the floppy, when asked copy and replace file.
Then save it boot from it and it does it all by itself. A pain in the butt, but you save 29$
Linux is the operating system to use if you want to get bigadv work units.
Windows OS, unless it is a server ver. only sees 2 sockets So it will not be useable.
As of now bigadv is only in Linux, windows will only do regular SMP.
Here is a link to a great guide to install Linux Ubuntu it says to use V. 12.04 if you like some other Linux it most likely will work.
I am using Ubuntu 11.04 and the guide said if you like your ver 10.xx you can use it. Some are using "Mint Linux," it works too.
Security may be an issue using an older version of Ubuntu.
With H's guide ext4 is not an issue since it is set up on a ramdisk They say to use ext4 not to worry about using ext3.
Thanks H
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1601608 Hard drive: The folding in the H guide sets up FAH to fold on a ram disk.
So use what you have laying around. Linux is a small install I know 80GB is big enough.
That's unless you are going to store files on the computer or use it as a server, something other than just FAH.
CPU cooling, heat sinks and fan.
The boards a lot of use are buying come with heat sinks.
The heat sinks, with a fan installed on top cools off the AMD 8425 hex core chips fine.
I use fans from AMD heatsinks and fans I had laying around. I believe the fans are 80mm.
The Hyper 212 evo is one HSF that is being used on the board.
BrotherJohn used stock AMD FX-4100 HSF with K8 brackets.
Two of the CPUs are close together, giving a bit of a fitment issue.
Case for your motherboard. Some of us are running without a case on a board or on top of a box.
It has been said that you should NOT run it on top of the anti-static bag electronics come in.
They may be able to short out the board and cause it to be unstable.
This is one example of a case that is being used. There is a 9U model too
http://www.amazon.com/gp/...amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER There is a guide in this forum on cases and other ideas that may be of interest to you.
link to come Getting down to folding You have to get a pass key from Stanford. Get it here.
"You have to fold 10 smp WUs to get the QRB Do them in regular smp"
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py You will put that passkey in the config. when you set up the client.
Write it down Keep it in a safe place write it to txt file save it.
You will put in your name.
You will enter the team number 111065
You will have to put in the flags. -smp -bigadv or -bigbeta -verbosity 9
I use -forceasm also. That's up to you.
packet size has be set to big. Before you shut down type in 'fahbackup' in the folding terminal. H put in a backup since it is on a ramdisk
Then type ctrl-c to shut the client down. Wait a little bit for the system to write to disk before turning it off.
When you reboot and go in to a new terminal window, all you have to do is hit the up arrow key
that will show the last commands, hit enter when you see the command you want. So you can restart folding with out typing anything.
Here is a link to the WU bonus point calculator, so you can see what PPD you are getting.
http://www.linuxforge.net/bonuscalc2.php MORE INFO TO BE ADDED
post edited by bill1024 - 2013/12/17 18:31:12
