Use your PC to research covid-19

[Scorps]

Saw this while reading custom pc. https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/15...-simple-terms/seems a good way to lend a hand if you have a computer.

[dave2010]

Saw this while reading custom pc. https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/15...-simple-terms/seems a good way to lend a hand if you have a computer.

interesting. It’s been a few years since I participated in any project like this one. As I recall, some projects use so much CPU that small computers - such as laptops - get hot, and really shouldn’t be used. That was an issue with one of the BBC Climate Change simulations. Indeed, that one was not recommended for laptops at the time. The world has moved on since then, and this might not be a problem with modern high performance laptops.

One other issue with this type of software was that some of the work units took so long to run, and didn’t have check points, so that if the computer went down or was turned off overnight, all the work done - and the energy to power the computer - was wasted. While very frequent checkpointing isn’t a good idea, it should be done often enough that there isn’t this kind of wastage.

Surely this kind of project should be running on supercomputers. However, I may give it a go anyway. This kind of project may well be worth supporting - though don’t fry your laptop with it. If your computer fans come on all the time, think about decoupling. Also, if you have temperature monitoring on your machine, use it, and check that things don’t get out of hand. Lastly, check electric power consumption. It may rise significantly with this kind of software if there’s a lot of cpu intensive activity, and this will be reflected in the electricity bill.

[Gazjam]

This is a GOOD thing, I'll set a couple of my computers to crunch away (but not my Roon Server )
Seems to be picking up pace too...
https://cointelegraph.com/news/foldi...o-contribution

Great to see the Tech being used for a common good, and not just to generate Bitcoin (i.e. make money)
The process uses the computing power (mainly) of graphics cards, and people were snapping up high end GPUs and using folding@home to make money.

This caused the market prices of high end graphics cards to skyrocket, as I sadly found out last upgrade.

[dave2010]

This is a GOOD thing, I'll set a couple of my computers to crunch away (but not my Roon Server )
Seems to be picking up pace too...
https://cointelegraph.com/news/foldi...o-contribution

Great to see the Tech being used for a common good, and not just to generate Bitcoin (i.e. make money)
The process uses the computing power (mainly) of graphics cards, and people were snapping up high end GPUs and using folding@home to make money.

This caused the market prices of high end graphics cards to skyrocket, as I sadly found out last upgrade.

Not really making money - just "stealing" it more like. The real joke with some of those bitcoin things is that the energy used to "generate" them is significant, but presumably the people who mine them don't pay for it all. Also some people may be using bots on other people's machines for this rather dubious purpose.

Re the CV-19 computing - a good thing indeed, providing it doesn't screw up one's computer. I have provided that kind of resource for a number of projects in the past. If the new ones rely on GPUs though, I'm not sure that my computers are really suitable, as they're all now quite a few years old - even though a couple were high performance when I bought them.

[CageyH]

interesting. It’s been a few years since I participated in any project like this one. As I recall, some projects use so much CPU that small computers - such as laptops - get hot, and really shouldn’t be used. That was an issue with one of the BBC Climate Change simulations. Indeed, that one was not recommended for laptops at the time. The world has moved on since then, and this might not be a problem with modern high performance laptops.

One other issue with this type of software was that some of the work units took so long to run, and didn’t have check points, so that if the computer went down or was turned off overnight, all the work done - and the energy to power the computer - was wasted. While very frequent checkpointing isn’t a good idea, it should be done often enough that there isn’t this kind of wastage.

Surely this kind of project should be running on supercomputers. However, I may give it a go anyway. This kind of project may well be worth supporting - though don’t fry your laptop with it. If your computer fans come on all the time, think about decoupling. Also, if you have temperature monitoring on your machine, use it, and check that things don’t get out of hand. Lastly, check electric power consumption. It may rise significantly with this kind of software if there’s a lot of cpu intensive activity, and this will be reflected in the electricity bill.

It certainly gives the PC a good work out. I have a water cooled system, and the fans are running pretty fast. CPU package temp is up to 74 degrees, which is quite rare.
I will let it run for a few hours, and see what happens.

I may let it run over night, as the eleccy is cheaper....

[Scorps]

I came into my room next day to hear fans going full tilt and a very warm room. Also started messing my mouse about so now only let it run overnight.

[CageyH]

I need to add a water temperature sensor in my cooling loop. If not the fans run flat out as they are working off the CPU temperature, and there is no need.

[Scorps]

Always been dubious about adding water cooling the idea of water and electric in the same place worries me lol. Hence im still sticking wi air cooled. Water cooling systems do look very nice though.

[dave2010]

I'm inclined to give this one a miss, and leave it to very large outfits with supercomputers, or huge banks of linked cpus. Google, Microsoft and Amazon should be able to do this - if they're not too busy making money or doing other possibly helpful things.