Folding@Home Instructions
We kid, because, well, that's what we do.
Occasionally, tho, we get serious.
Robert, for example, is very serious about Stanford's Folding@Home (FAH) project, a worldwide distributed computing project working to map out the process of protein folding.
Why do you care? Per the Folding@Home page, "when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes."
Robert's rallied thousands of DL.TV viewers to download the Folding@Home software and join in.
You can, too.
Just download and install the Folding@Home software and let it run when you're not using your Mac, PC, PS3 or Linux machine. We track the stats regularly on the show.
Want to join the DL.TV Folding@Home crew? Here is what you need to know:
The DL.TV Folding@Home team number is 57391! Configure your FAH client with this team number to join our team!
Use the same unique user name with all instances of FAH that you run so you can track your personal progress.
Programs like FAH stress system hardware - insure your gear is adequately ventilated!
Lots of useful/interesting information can be found on the FAH FAQ page.
Extreme Overclocking's sweet FAH stats page
Which version of FAH is right for you?
Well, here are our recommendations based on relative FAH performance:
PlayStation 3
Go online and update the console's system software. FAH can be found in the PS3's Network column of the XMB. More details here.
PC equipped with ATI X1900-class graphics card w/256MB+ of on-board video memory
Use the GPU version (use multi-GPU version w/X1900 CrossFire setup).
Don't have an X1900-series graphics card? Then skip the GPU version and use a CPU version.
CPU versions
Use the text only (non-graphical) "console version" for best performance.
Console version user guide: http://folding.stanford.edu/console-userguide.html
PC equipped with an Intel quad core CPU
Download the Windows 2000/XP/Vista SMP client console version
Dual core/hyperthreaded PCs should not use the SMP version!!
Detailed SMP install instructions/FAQ here.
PC equipped with an Intel Core Duo/Core 2 Duo/AMD X2 CPU (dual core/hyperthreaded CPUs)
Create two instances of the FAH program that can be run simultaneously so that each core (virtual or physical) is working at 100%
Download: Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista "No nonsense" text-only console
Create a folder named "Folding At Home" and two sub folders called "FAH1" and "FAH2"
Copy the downloaded FAH executable file into each of the two FAH folders.
You must have each FAH executable in a separate folder!
Create a shortcut to each of the two FAH executables.
Suggest naming shortcuts FAH1 and FAH2.
Launch and configure FAH1.
Launch and configure FAH2, but when you get to the Advanced Settings option enter "yes" and change the Machine ID number option to "2". [FAH1 defaulted to Machine ID 1].
Tips
• Windows users should install all Windows Updates - .NET framework v2.0 is the most important, and this is already included with Vista.
• When configuring the FAH software, select the option to receive 5MB+ (large) work units! This will earn you (and the team!) more points per completed work unit than are awarded for completing regular-sized work units. The large work units do take longer to complete, but it's worth it.