Folding @ Home on a new Penryn Macbook Pro full time?

(I am now officially the "Does this notebook run Folding okay" guy )

I'm comparing a lot of notebooks right now, and am mostly looking at the Macbook Pro because of its LED backlit display (basically the XPS 1330 is the only other normal system with it-only it's got a worse GPU and a smaller screen).

I've tried Folding on a last generation Macbook Pro-a Conroe based 65nm 2.4GHz/4MB CPU. When Folding, the fans had to go NUTS to keep it cool. Got really loud, and I was concerned that it would damage it if doing that long term. Since then I've heard of several people I know having damage to a Macbook or Macbook Pro from really pushing the hardware like that (one person has had their Macbook Pro replaced several times because its GPU's died, and a Macbook's fans burnt out in 2 months from Folding).

BUT...the new Penryn based 45nm, 2.4GHz/3MB chip is supposed to run a LOT cooler. So I'm wondering if the new low end Macbook Pro with that CPU would stand up to Folding okay.

I'd be Folding on it probably 13-15 hours a day (whenever it's on and plugged in, probably the SMP client). Anyone run Folding on a newer Penryn based system? Does it seem to handle it okay? Do the fans have to go nuts?

Thanks!

 

I don't have a Penryn MBP but from what I've read, they run cooler, but not THAT much cooler.

Doesn't the XPS1530 come with an LED screen? Or are they slated to come out with that sometime in the future?

Also, just as an FYI - previous MBPs were Merom based, not Conroe. Merom is a mobile chip, whereas Conroe is a desktop chip

 

Not really answering your question, but a friend of mine who has one of the old Macbook Pros said the heat issues were caused by improper use of thermal paste for the heatsinks (some people opened their MBPs). Hopefully Apple fixed this.

Are you gonna buy a laptop only for its folding capacity?

 

Not sure.

I know the PS3 can probably kick the MBP ass in protein folding though.

Also, I do not believe that the Penryns run THAT much cooler than previous gen (except for the CD).

 

I second the fact that if you want a protein folder, buy a ps3.

your macbook pro is limited to an x86 cpu to protein fold, whereas the ps3 uses the processor + gpu to do it. its much faster.

plus it can run linux. you could literally use your ps3 as your desktop sort of maybe.

 

The GPU clients are faster than Cell for what they or Cell can process...

But both Cell and GPUs are very limited in what types of work units they can do. The project NEEDS regular CPUs running it too.

 

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-PS3

There are entire @home clusters running on PS3s. I'm not an expert on the whole thing, but yeah... it can run all the calculations for the @home project on the system. The Cell was designed for crunching numbers for this type of work (hard core scientific calculations).

Besides, you can buy 3-4 PS3's for less than a good laptop or desktop.

Note that I'm not saying folding on a laptop or anything is bad, but if you were going to spend a few grand on a dedicated system, a cluster of PS3's is really the way to go.

 

Not sure if its just me, and maybe a faulty install, but when I try to run folding my MBP crashes.

Previous gen, but ive just been to lazy to figure out whats wrong.

So if you do get a MBP you might have to look into it running folding, if it doesnt run out of the box.

 

Sooooo does anyone fold on a new Penryn based Macbook Pro?

No it can't. The info you linked to and quoted specifically says it can't. It only runs SOME of the Folding @ Home project. It's good at certain types of calculations (basically easily parallelizable, predictable, single precision floating point) but TERRIBLE at others. Which means:

Isn't necessarily correct.

Not really, a great gaming desktop is $500 or so plus a $150 8800GT. A good gaming laptop is $900-$1250.

If I really just wanted dedicated folders, like I said, I'd go with Core 2 quad based systems with GPUs that can fold, and definitely beat out the science a PS3 can do for the price. I also wouldn't get a laptop for that... And regardless, even if I was buying a bunch of PS3's for Folding, I'd still need to run it on my laptop, and I'm I'm trying to get a laptop here guys

 

buy "coolbook" on the net. its like 10$, but you can limit the CPU multiplier/voltage to whatever you want it to be.

your not gonna achieve full clock speed with no fan though, thats just impossible

 

Whoops, I missed this before. Something's definitely wrong, as the Macbook Pro I ran it on definitely ran it, it just had to run the fan at full blast, which is loud. Ditto when I tried running games on it.

EDIT: Come to think of it though, I'm not 100% sure if I ran it under OS X or Windows.

 

I am not a fan of macs at all, but I really give you credit for folding @ home.
I have the Boinc manager running on my server, and my two main laptops.

Temps and cpu power consumption.

Main Server:
4 x Opteron 885 (8cores) on Tyan Tomcat with 16Gb ECC Crucial PC3200
Each cpu has a modified arctic cooling freezer 64 pro with a 120mm 97cfm EBM PAPST cooling fan.
Each processor has a TDP of 125watts. (90nm process)
Each processor runs at 44C-48C under full load.
powered by a Pc Power and Cooling 1KW PSU.
Produces around 16,000 points a day in boinc.

My Voodoo laptop:
AMD Opteron 185 dual core 2.6GHz processor (undervolted 0.15Volts)
CPU has a 125watt TDP. (90nm process)
Processor runs at 55-60C in my notebook under full load
produces around 4500 points a day on Boinc

My Dell E1505:
Intel T5300 at 1.73Ghz undervolted from 1.175V to 0.950V
Cpu has a 34watt TDP (65nm process)
Processor runs between 54-and 58C under full load
produces around 2700points a day in boinc

I am on Team ANDRAX, (Its the team dedicated to Voodoo owners)

+rep for crunching to fight cancer and such.

K-TRON

 

Oooh, wow, I love that server!

I just looked at the BOINC page, and I didn't realize they had so many projects. At least in their description, it seems like Rosetta and Predictor are trying to do the same thing Folding is, so I have no idea what's best to run.

I Fold for Team 18 (Macaddict), although most of the work is done on (older) Dells right now.

 

Ok I went on over to Stanford and downloaded the latest FAH software 6.10. It created a pane in my system preferences and I activated a user name I hadn't used since mid 2006. I have 40,000+ points and 700+ workunits with that name. Upon launching, I glanced up at my cpu and it had risen from the rather mundane 40c range and was heading north FAST. It hit 86c and fan rpm was climbing when I decided I'd had enough. I hit the "disable folding" button in system preferences and will wait for a version I can re-nice down to a less burning cpu load. Yes, left to it's own devices FAH will COOK your Macbook. I'm gonna have to think about it a lot more before I run it again.

 

Okay, thanks. That's what I was afraid of. Macbook/Pro's out of the question for me.

 

For the same price as a MBP, you could buy a Whitebook and a PS3.

 

It is it better for our world to run millions of machines at near 100% CPU for folding home or is it better to shut them off and vastly reduce our carbon footprint??

 

Compromise by running F@H only when you're using your computer.
Besides, a lot of workplaces, universities and servers leave their computers on 24/7. Might as well do something with it.

 

I wouldn't mind runing fah if I could throttle it down a bit so I didn't have real concern about wear and tear on my system. If the software was designed well enough to only go after 20% of cpu, I'd run it on 5 of my systems. But since it keeps everything hot on Linux boxes, PCs and Macs, I'm forced to sit on the sidelines rather than run fah.

 

You CAN specify how much CPU power is available to F@H.

 

Neither. Presumably you're using a computer to write this, in which case you should be running Folding. Every bit helps!

Exactly.

 

And regardless, it's not at all an issue on a normal desktop, nor is it an issue on laptops that are designed for their CPUs to be used.

 

How? In the fah system preferences panel there is no such configuration option.

 

What hardware are you running it on? And what version of the client are you running? It's easy to specify a CPU % in the command line versions, but there's no reason to have it at anything but 100% unless there's a design flaw with the hardware.

 

I don't think it's a design flaw for a notebook to run it's fan or get warm at 100 cpu when the cpu's we have these days can run circles around the supercomputers of a few years ago. In my opinion, 100 cpu should be a rare event indeed. I'm very happy with my Macbook and it's ability to run cool (50c) and quiet (1700rpm) as it cruises along at 16% cpu day in day out. While I'm sitting there, I don't mind one bit if the fan spins up while I'm working with a 50 megabyte Photoshop raw image in 16 bits per channel color. But it shouldn't spin up when I'm reading email or replying to a forum post.

If I want to set fah at 20 percent, it should be easy, after all I'm donating the cpu time. Until now, I've been attempting to use the gui version on my Macbook. In the old days (on Linux), I preferred the cmd line version but if you start it from crontab you don't get a terminal. Fah doesn't like being killed and often has to re-download and re-start the entire work packet.

So I guess I'll start a terminal and run it manually rather than from the gui or from crontab. Thanks for your help!

 

Soooo has anyone actually TRIED Folding @ Home on a Penryn Macbook Pro?

I'm thinking about it again, and I REALLY want an LED backlight, because:

-I don't want to buy anything else with mercury in it, particularly not in a portable of all things.
-I don't want the extra UV exposure from florescent lights. I'm already under florescent lighting at work, and my TV and two monitors both use florescent lighting...any little bit I can eliminate has to be a good thing...

...and the Macbook Pro is the largest notebook I'm aware of with LED lighting. Dell's 1330 is basically the only other option, but it's got a 2" smaller screen, and half the graphics hardware, for around the same price...

So if I can get away with a Macbook Pro it would be great.

Someone mentioned 50° at idle on I assume a 65nm chip, but a Gateway notebook someone Folds on a 2.8GHz 45nm chip at just 56ish°. I assume it's got MUCH better cooling than the Macbook Pro...but maybe not. Maybe it's just the 45nm process really is that much cooler.

I guess I could shell out for the $240 complete care, and swap hard drives if the thing melts, and just keep doing that (but hope for the best...)

 

Personally, I wouldn't have my laptop going crazy on @home. Mostly because of heat issues and damage concerns.

On a side note: IF I was rich I would buy some PS3s and Mac Pros and try to get them to fold with close to 80% renewably energy. <--now that would be cool. Throw up a few windmills, some solar panels, geo-thermal if possible and fold some proteins.

My University leaves all their computers on overnight for no reason. Students can't get to them because they lock the labs for obvious reasons. I think that is just retarded. They should at the very least be running @home on them or turn the damn things off. So wasteful. And they wonder why they have budget problems.

 

Ask them to fold and put them in your team

 

I have to wonder how much Folding the servers we've got would get done. Tons of CPU power just SITTING there unused most of the time.

I bet there are some places that do put Folding on all their servers too.

 

I ran folding on a 1U server I had in colocation. I reniced the folding but I never could get it down to the level of CPU I wanted. This was back in 2005 and there were probably less controls over the CPU setup back then (or I munged the setup and left it wide open). I stopped folding when it kept overheating. The overheating was partly the fault that the colo provider kept having building "issues" but the folding didn't help. Folding wears out your hardware.

Perhaps I will take some old windows boxes that are collecting dust at the bottom of the basement stairs, throw linux on them and let them fold. When they die, they will get tossed. Then I'm not risking my main machine to donate CPU cycles. I've still got the old 1U boxes but they are such power hawgs I never want to fire them up. The ex-windows boxes running headless should only use about 75 watts each. Not exactly free but not as bad as letting my Macbook sit there and get itself all hot folding.

 

One guy in my team once managed to do so. He had special access to the computers at his school and they gave him the authorization to make them fold. He was in the top 5 folders in a matter of weeks .
Too bad they took back their authorization a few months later...

Folding doesn't really wear out a computer if the cooling's adequate. My desktop folded 24/7 with a stock cooler and it never went over 50C (with 30C ambient).

Although folding on laptops is another issue. I wouldn't recommend folding 24/7 on any laptop.

 

It really shouldn't. Not a normal desktop anyway. I've got multiple systems that have been Folding 24/7 for years. One since 2005 (before than an earlier project), another even older than that. I know one guy Folding on a 12" Dell laptop who's been doing that for 2 years so far, so it shouldn't even be too bad for laptops.

That's too bad they took it back. I think non-computer people are scared of it and don't understand what it is, or that it doesn't hurt your hardware (not unless there's a design flaw or defect in the hardware). Almost all computer people I know run it on everything they can, while I know very very few non-computer people, who always act scared of it (yet allow any malware that wants to free reign over their computer ).

The only hardware I don't have Folding right now is a G3 iMac, but only because it's so sloooooow that it can't finish even a work unit without a deadline in a remotely decent period of time (it was taking over a YEAR per work unit). It would have probably been able to finish a work unit okay if it was on 24/7, but it's not one that's used all that much (my mom uses it now).