Our goal as Folders is to help Stanford University in their quest to find cures for disease. By Folding, we mean Protein Folding. As explained on the F@H homepage, Proteins are the workhorses in human biology and carry out many important functions to keep us healthy and strong.
When Proteins do not function properly, or actually “misfolding” takes place, misfolded proteins are the causes for many of todays’ most serious diseases. Among these are Alzheimers’, Mad Cow Disease (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntingtons’, Parkinsons’, many cancers and caner-related syndromes.
Folding for a cure!
Gator
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You can find the Folding@Home distributed computing homepage here:
http://folding.stanford.edu/ From there, you can access the download page, or click here:
http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html Read the frequently asked questions (FAQs), help, stats and more from the FAH homepage.
It's pretty easy to set up, plus there are installation instructions on the Download page. First, pick a Folding username by doing a search to see if it's been taken. Now it's time for the software. Just begin by finding your Operating System (i.e. Windows XP, 98/ME, Linux, Mac,...), decide which "client" type you'd like to use. How do you decide? Well, most people begin Folding by using the GUI (Graphical User Interface) Client, so they can see the proteins being worked on in a graphical display. It's actually pretty cool!
You can find the instructions here, for Windows Graphical Client:
http://folding.stanford.edu/winstructions.html People using Linux or Macs are generally a bit more computer "savvy" than the beginning Windows user, so they should be able to figure it out on their own.
The "text only" version is what most Folders end up going to in time but the Graphical Client is by far easier to set up for beginners and it's fun to watch the animations. By default, the GUI version sets up to run whenever Windows starts and this can be disabled, simply enough, should you choose. There are instructions for this as well, or one of us can help. There's also a Screensaver option within the GUI client, if you only want FAH to run as a Desktop screensaver during idle times. Once again, I'd like to further emphasize that Folding gives your computer something to do during idle times, runs off the CPU cycles that aren't in use by other programs, usually runs unnoticed in the background except for the display when it's up. It can sometimes interfere with 3-D applications, such as games, especially on older, slower computers. If this happens, if you see too much "lag" or stuttering with FAH running, just shut it down until you're finished with the application and restart it when you're through, no problem.
There are many options, little tweaks and tips but too much for one page. The Links I've provided can answer most questions pretty well but with anything new there can be some confusion (I had many questions when I'd first started Folding). We've all had to begin somewhere; none of us were instant FAH experts. I, for one, will never hold it against you if you decide not to participate, for any reason whatsoever! I won't judge you based on your decision either way, it's completely voluntary.
Once you get the Client installed, it will ask for a team number while running it the first time. I'm expecting you've already entered the user name you've picked out, so when it asks for team number, just type in...
48688You should be good to go, now Folding for Team SerenityFX!
Best wishes to all,
Gator
On another note, if you're just starting out avoid the use of flags completely! The wrong flag/s can cause frequent errors and lost work, so I highly recommend you steer clear of them entirely. Give Folding [without flags] some time, keep things simple and be sure to read the Stanford information about Folding. There's allot of information there, along with joining the forum.
ATTENTION ATI Graphics users:Stanford and ATI had not long ago gone into joint venture to create a Folding Client that runs on ATI GPUs. With todays’ graphic processors that rival the computational power of even the best CPUs, the gains to the science of FAH can be tremendous. On ATI x1900 class GPUs, for example, there has been noted a 20X to 30X speed increase over previous software, on certain applications.
You can find more detailed information at the following Link:
http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.htmlJust be sure to run your ATI GPU with the Catalyst Driver versions specified, or errors can and will result [versions 6.5, 6.10 and 6.11 currently]. I’m hoping that the next release, version 7.2, will have the bugs worked out, so that games and 3-D applications that benefit from the latest drivers can also run with the latest Catalyst driver. Also be sure to update your version of DirectX9c, since even if dxdiag shows DX9c as being installed, there’s a critical .dll that is needed to successfully run the FAH GPU clients.
This GPU client is currently in Beta only, but Stanford has announced going fully public as soon as February of 2007. Even in its’ Beta format, you can expect to see frame rates on an x1900-x1950 GPU as fast as 8 minutes per frame in 2-D mode, and even faster for those using ATI utilities to run at full 3-D speeds but with increased GPU heat and temps. This is pretty good for the average 330 point project, yielding a completed WU [Work Unit] in about 13 hours time.
Oh and by the way, for anyone lucky enough to own a SONY Playstation 3, there’s also a FAH client due to be released that can be run on their GPUs! So now, with all the scientific advancements Stanford has made to the FAH project, we avid gamers can provide our unused CPU and GPU cycles to the advancement of finding cures for disease. With all the money we put into our gaming rigs, now we can use them to give something back to the world at large. When I’m not gaming, I can think of no better use for my computer, or if I had one my PS3, than letting it run the Folding@Home projects in a search for cures!
Fold on!!!
:thumbsup:
