I would also suggestion(sic) 980Ti's. I see a Zotac on Newegg for $599. I have a 970 and 980Ti and the 980Ti is more than double the PPD than the 970. You'd spend more for 2x 970s than 1 980Ti and get less PPD. The rest of the hardware is going to cost you the same, minus the PSU so might as well go big and maximize those PCI-E slots.
So I am new to folding but I have an idea. At work, we have about 14 Dell blades servers that are not being used currently. Each one has 2 CPUs, each with 8 cores (or maybe 6, can't remember which off the top of my head). Was thinking about letting them all run for a few days and see what I can get out of them. Any suggestions or tips to get the most out of them?
That is my first idea. My second is a little more involved. We have about 6000 workstations, a lot which sit idle for long periods of time, and I thought about pushing the software out to them and see what happens...This will take a lot more planning and testing but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I can remotely push the software out so it would actually be fairly easy to accomplish, would just have to do A WHOLE LOT of testing before actually pushing it out. Kind of up for the challenge though...
Well, I am the person in charge so I should be good there I can automate the team number and account name too... Wonder how fast that would move the team upI don't see why it wouldn't work as long as the people in charge don't mind. If you wanted the points to go to a team (like Satellite Guys) I think you would have to enter the team number and an account name at each workstation though. That would be quite the job when you are talking about 6000 computers.
My first thought would be "WOW!" My second thought would be, "What would the CTO think about using company resources for a non-business related project?" My third thought is, "could Joshua lose his job over this?"So I am new to folding but I have an idea. At work, we have about 14 Dell blades servers that are not being used currently. Each one has 2 CPUs, each with 8 cores (or maybe 6, can't remember which off the top of my head). Was thinking about letting them all run for a few days and see what I can get out of them. Any suggestions or tips to get the most out of them?
That is my first idea. My second is a little more involved. We have about 6000 workstations, a lot which sit idle for long periods of time, and I thought about pushing the software out to them and see what happens...This will take a lot more planning and testing but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I can remotely push the software out so it would actually be fairly easy to accomplish, would just have to do A WHOLE LOT of testing before actually pushing it out. Kind of up for the challenge though...
There have been malicious installations of FAH Clients that were included in hacked software that boosted a given Team and random users (Google "FTL Folding at Home"). And as the EULA states, if you don't have written permission from the hardware owners, you could put the Pande Group in a bad light. At worse, the Pande Group could take extreme action, like zeroing points for the donor and/or the team.FAH EULA said:"Please only run Folding@home on machines you either own or on which you have the permission of the owner to run our software. If there is any doubt (eg you want to run on computers at work), we suggest you get written approval (eg get your superior to sign a letter giving authorization); we have found that written documentation of this sort is important if there is ever any dispute of whether permission was indeed granted. Please do not assume that permission is granted by the owner. Any other use of Folding@home violates our end user license agreement (EULA), and just isn't a good idea in general. We will attempt to contact the donor if there is some suspicion of a EULA violation. Many donors use their email as their donor name and this is helpful. If do not have any information on hand and we have been presented with a sufficiently strong case that there was a EULA violation, we will zero the points of the donor and not allow clients to run under the name of that donor. This decision can be reversed if there is sufficient information to exonerate the donor. The donor should contact one of the Pandegroup members or Forum Moderators at our forum (http://foldingforum.org) to get in touch with us in such a situation."
My first thought would be "WOW!" My second thought would be, "What would the CTO think about using company resources for a non-business related project?" My third thought is, "could Joshua lose his job over this?"
The terms of using the Stanford FAH Software relies on the user being the owner of the equipment being used to Fold.There have been malicious installations of FAH Clients that were included in hacked software that boosted a given Team and random users (Google "FTL Folding at Home"). And as the EULA states, if you don't have written permission from the hardware owners, you could put the Pande Group in a bad light. At worse, the Pande Group could take extreme action, like zeroing points for the donor and/or the team.
Now that I've scared (and possible scarred) you, let me relate a tale: I have used the FAH Client as a "burn-in" when stressing systems with questionable hardware while troubleshooting. In my case, my site sits behind corporate firewalls, so getting to the Stanford Folding servers poses the first challenge. That is tackled by using the Configuration tool to set up the Proxy server and specify a username/password combination that has Internet access. Since the user password needs to be changed on a regular basis, it is not a permanent set-up.
I checked with my boss before implementing this activity. He said it was okay with him for the short term, but long-term running non-production software on a larger scale wouldn't be. I'm not saying your superiors would not approve, but you may be fighting an uphill battle depending on your company's economic circumstances.
That's why it helps to be the CTO.