Setting up BIGADV work units

[Tattysnuc]

I've been looking for a BIGADV guide here on Hexus, but one didn't STICK OUT, so apologies if this is already covered, but it seemed that it must be buried in pages of discussion - I thought I'd make it a little more accessible as we have a number of new "foldlings" coming through lately.

BIGADV
The requirement for BIGADV is stated as 8 physical cores, but with Intel's i7 900 series and the Sandy Bridge 2600K it's possible to "trick" the code check as you start the processing run by just having a minimum of 8 threads available when launching the program. The rest is then down to your system, and the amount of time you leave it dedicated folding for.

I've seen regular mention that the requirements are 3.8Ghz on a 4 core/8thread 900 series - I've found that this varies by work unit.

Why BIGADV? The number of points awarded are initially higher (60k+) but the units can take up to 3 days to process on 24/7 folding. The number of points are multiplied by a factor that is directly proportional to the amount of time before the submission deadline that the completed work is submitted, thus BIG points can be awarded.

The official install guide is detailed HERE

You need to have registered a passkey in order to rack up the bonus points! Do so HERE and read about it HERE

Example:

Core i7 950 @ 4020 is currently folding on an SMP client at 100% load while running a GPU client (GPU2) on my NVidia GTX 285.

The GTX 285 is producing 8500-10000 points per day.
The i7 950 is producing 30000 points per day (on a 77k point work unit)

The work units are assigned automatically by Stanford, and it is therefore not possible to define which ones you receive. In fact in order to do so constitutes a breach of the T&C's of the software install - read the small print! Don't worry, their software just gives you what they want processing.

Firstly download the client:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandeg...-win32-SMP.zip

This is a zip file. Simply extract to a folder under your user profile in Windows. I installed mine in the folder:

C:\Users\Mike\FAH

and renamed the EXE to "fah6.exe"

Create a short cut on your desktop to the newly created EXE file (Right click and then with the right mouse button still held down, drag the onto your desktop)

Edit the properties of the newly created short cut and add 2 parameters in the field "Target" that indicate the number of threads to use, and the BIGADV operator.

In my instance this is done by editing the Target to read:

C:\Users\Mike\FAH\fah6.exe -verbosity 9 -bigadv -smp 8

Then, execute the short cut - An example of the values to enter are shown below....

* User name [Anonymous]? [Your Folding Name]
* Team Number [0]? 69776
* Passkey []? [Your Passkey]
* Ask before fetching/sending work <no/yes> [no]?
* Use proxy <yes/no> [no]?
* Acceptable size of work assignment and work result packets <bigger units may have large memory demands> -- 'small' is <5MB, 'normal' is <10MB, and 'big' is >10MB <small/normal/big> [normal]? big
* Change advanced options <yes/no> [no]? yes
* Core Priority <idle/low> [idle]?
* CPU usage requested <5-100> [100]?
* Disable highly optimized assembly code <no/yes> [no]?
* Pause if better power is being used <useful for laptops> <no/yes> [no]?
* Interval, in minutes, between checkpoints <3-30> [15]? 3
* Memory, in MB, to indicate <xxxx available> [xxxx]?
* Set -advmethods flag always, requesting new advanced scientific cores and/or work units if available <no/yes> [no]? no
* Ignore any deadline information <mainly useful if system clock frequently has errors> <no/yes> [no]?
* Machine ID <1-16> [1]?
* Launch automatically, install as a service in this directory <yes/no> [no]?
* *The following options require you to restart the client before they take effect
* Disable CPU affinity lock <no/yes> [no]?
* Additional client parameters []?
* IP address to bind core to <for viewer> []?

Then leave it running for good old Hexus for a couple of days solid and watch us clobber 100 million!

I've just cobbled this together, so if any spots anything that needs to be tidied up or anything, drop a note underneath, and I'll tidy up as we go along.

[Golden Dragoon]

I wish I had something with 8 threads, will eventually get a proper 8 core machine built, as this q6600 is doing me fine for now, but if bulldozer is as exciting as the rumors lead me to believe then an upgrade will be very hard to resist