It’s time to kick start our very own Folding@Home squad!

The FPSLabs Folding@Home team is currently ranked within the top 700 teams out of nearly 125,000+. Although this is a great achievement, we know we can do better. So today we are pledging to revitalize our drive to place ourselves within the top 250 teams in the world. This is not an easy feat but we can do this.

What is Folding@Home?

Folding@home is a project designed to use hundreds of thousands of computers all over the planet to help calculate extremely complex molecular simulations. The project began within Stanford University’s Chemistry department and has since raged all over the globe in an effort to help find out why cells mutate and thus in turn find out how cancer works for a possible cure. This is opposed to using giant super computers and since we all know no one uses their personal computer 100% all the time, Folding@Home takes over unused CPU cycles and uses them to calculate complex simulations.

The great thing about Folding@Home is that it instantly throttles back whenever any other program demands more from your CPU. This is how Folding@Home became so popular - it’s a great cause and it doesn’t interfere with your daily PC use at all. It works even better if you have a dual or quad core processor too! In no way, shape, or form is private information sent from your PC to Stanford University, so if security is a concern there’s nothing to worry about.

How to get started!

How can you get started combating cancer? Well you’ve got two options. There is a Graphical Client and a Console Client. They both do the same thing but have differences in how they work. The Graphical Client lets you actually see Folding@Home work and displays a neat 3D molecular simulation and allows you to configure the program in a very easy way. The Console Client is a bit trickier to configure and has no visual aspect. Think of it as a MS-DOS window that simply crunches numbers. Because of it’s less BS nature more work gets done faster. It’s up to you what route you’d like to go, but for those completely new to Folding@Home we recommend the Graphical Client because of it’s ease of use. After getting acclimated to how it works it’d be great if you could use the Console Client instead since it does crunch more numbers. The choice is yours! If you have a Sony Playstation 3 then you can join the fun too! Please view this YouTube video for instructions!


Graphical Client Instructions

  1. Download, Install and Run Graphical Client v5.03
  2. Type in your unique username and Team Number 51843
  3. You’re all set! Check out the new Folding@Home icon in your systray!
  4. Got dual or quad core? Check out the instructions below!


Console Client Instructions

  1. Create a folder specifically for Folding@Home anywhere on your computer. It shouldn’t be moved or renamed afterwards so choose wisely.
  2. Download Client Console v.5.04 and place it within your new folder and run it.
  3. Answer the configuration questions. Be absolutely sure you type in your unique name and team number correctly or you will have to delete the folder and start over.
  4. You’re all set! Restart your computer and check out the Performance tab in the Task Manager to see if your CPU Usage is 100%.


Console Client Dual & Quad Core Instructions

  1. Create two or four folders specifically for Folding@Home anywhere on your computer. They shouldn’t be moved or renamed afterwards so choose wisely.
  2. Download Client Console v.504 and place four copies within each folder. For simplicity label each folder for each core on your CPU.
  3. Run Folding@Home in the folder you’ve labeled Core 01. When asked to, make sure you enter the advanced options.
  4. When asked Machine ID (1-8)? Enter in 1 for your first core, 2 for your second core, and so on. This is how Folding@Home knows which core to work on.
  5. You’re all set! Restart your computer and check out the Performance tab in the Task Manager to see if your total CPU Usage is 100%.

Now what?

Now that you’re all setup you’re wondering why you haven’t shown up on the team list? The answer is simple, you must complete your first WU (Work Unit) before your name shows up on the team list. It all depends on how fast your computer can calculate work units. Once your computer has finished calculating a WU, it is sent to Stanford University servers and then reflected a short time later on their official statistics website. If you have any configuration questions whatsoever, please ask in our dedicated Folding@Home Forum and we’ll be happy to help!

Beyond the official Folding@Home Stats page are other sites dedicated to displaying stats in a much more in-depth manner. This is great because you can track your progress, and your progress versus others as an individual and as a team. So get on board the FPSLabs Folding@Home Team #51843 and tell your friends, family and anyone who has a PC to spare to help find the cure! If you’re an advanced F@H user and have a compatible ATI video card, you may want to look into using it for Folding@Home. NVIDIA users can look forward to a beta and eventual support in the near future.

FPSLabs Folding@Home Official Team Page
Folding@Home Download Link
FPSLabs Folding@Home Indepth Team Stats

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