Am I running Folding@Home for optimal performance?

[nickday]

Am I running Folding@Home for optimal performance?

[nickday]

Hi,

After joining the Sudhian group a week or so back, with a break of a few days while I sorted other things out, i'm now back to folding... but i've got a few questions:

I'm running the graphical client which just sits in my system tray folding away, i've set the CPU at 100%.  Is this the best way to make the use out of my system or is the console or running it as a service better?  If a service, how do I go about doing this, and how would I check it's progress on a WU?  Also, I keep going into the configuration options and checking the log file to see how it's doing... is this interrupting the folding process?

Also, what are gromacs, and would my XP 1800+ handle them?

I've just ordered a nice Panaflo fan for my SS40G which should quieten things down a bit so I should leave my PC on more of the time for more folding!

Cheers,
Nick

[ScutMonkey]

Gromacs are a new core type that the FAH guys are working on.  It's a great core for P4s but Athlons see negligable benefits (they will see a little because it's optimized for SSE instructions).  

I haven't noticed a big difference between the command line (CLI) version and the GUI.  If you want to run the GUI with gromacs (when running they're giving out 10 point units), then make a shortcut to the GUI executable, right click > properties and in the target section, AFTER the quotes put in this:

-advmethods -forceasm

advmethods gets the gromacs cores (when available and they are currently out of them) and forceasm is force assembly instructions which turns on SSE and 3dnow.  Then startup the GUI using the shortcut and not the regular .exe