Updated 4th July 09
If you find any of this information incorrect, spot a mistake or have any suggestions for this guide please feel free to make a
post in this thread or PM me.
What is Folding@Home?
Folding@Home is a project that is run by Stanford University that aims to help find cures for diseases by 'Folding' proteins. Protein models need to be 'Folded' on computers to understand how different diseases work, thus helping find cures for these diseases. Instead of building dedicated super computers to do these complex calculations, Stanford decided to distribute it's work to lots of people across the world to fold on their computers. You too can help fight diseases by folding on your computer. See below to find out how. More information on how folding works can be found at
Stanford University's website.
What do I need to do to get involved?
All you need to get involved in Folding is a computer or a PS3, an internet connection and a F@H 'client'. A client is a program that runs on your PC. It does calculations that the Stanford servers send you. These calculations build a model of a protein that your computer then sends back to Stanford University. These packets of data are commonly reffered to as work units. There are clients suited to every computer, see below for details.
Which client(s) do I use and where do I get them?
Normal/Unicore
This is the standard F@H client, it should be used on single core CPUs only. There are currently clients available for Windows, Linux & Mac. There are also 2 versions of each (except linux). One is a system tray client which runs in your system tray. The other is the console client, this runs in a command prompt window. The latter, in almost every case, will net the best performance.
Download Page Latest Version: 6.23
SMP/Multicore
The SMP client is a high performance client which is designed to use multiple cores. This should only be used on a multicore or multi-
CPU PC. Unlike the Unicore client, the SMP is only available in a console version for Windows or Linux. The SMP client is still in it's beta stage but I have been using it for a few months now and it seems very stable.
Download Page Latest Version: 6.23 (with 6.24 binary)
GPU
If you have a dedicated graphics card you can also fold on that. GPUs are much better suited to folding than CPUs due to their architecture. Any ATI 2000 series or above and Any nVidia 8000 series or above can fold. Remember to always keep your drivers upto date, as they can provide important performance increases and bug fixes. Like the SMP client, the
GPU client is currently at the beta stage and available only in console and system tray versions for windows only.
Download Page Latest version: 6.23
Setup Guide
PS3
Have a PS3 for gaming? Well let it fold as well! The PS3 client can be downloaded from the network section of the XMB. For more details see the
How do I download life? page Latest version: 1.3.1
VMware
A more efficient way of running the SMP client is using VMware. It is a program that allows you to run a guest operating system on top of your current one. For example, you could run a version of Linux within Windows. This is great for folding because it allows you to run the
GPU client in windows whilst running 1 or even 2 SMPs in Linux. This will improve performance because Linux is much more efficient at running the SMP client than Windows. If you have a quad core you could run 2 VMWare machines inside windows each running an SMP client, aswell as the
GPU client in Windows. This setup will give the most PPD for a quad core
CPU.
Two or more of theses clients may be used at once. The most common setup is an SMP client running along side a
GPU client but what clients you run depend on what hardware you have.
What do I get in return?
In return you get a great feeling that you are helping fight diseases such as cancer, BSE & Alzheimer's. You also get points for every work unit you do. This number signifies how much work you have done for F@H. There may also be some competitions with prizes involved but this is not a promise.
How do I track my stats?
When you complete F@H work units you recieve points. How many points depend on the WU type. You can check how many points you have either @
Stanford's Stats Page,
Kakao Stats or
Extreme Overclocking Folding Stats. Stanford's stats are updated hourly but are only available for about 15mins every hour, the other websites update every 3 hours but their stats are available all the time. There are also programs that can monitor your points per day (PPD). These programs include
Fahmon. And thats the only one I can remember at the moment.
F@H Beginners Guide
Do you know if it can monitor gpu clients? No problems monitoring both my console clients that are running.
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