Please read here ( https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/ ) for all the information on the Foldin[email protected] fight to simulate druggable protein targets for COVID-19.
Snip from https://foldingathome.org/about/
“[email protected] (FAH or [email protected]) is a distributed computing project for disease research that simulates protein folding, computational drug design, and other types of molecular dynamics. As of today, the project is using the idle resources of personal computers owned by volunteers from all over the world. Thousands of people contribute to the success of this project.”
Read more here: https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/
The [email protected] GitHub project page is located here https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/coronavirus
Setup [email protected]
Warning running [email protected] on your completer all the time may cause the computer to over-heat, die (or have a shorter life). If you do not want this risk then don’t install [email protected]. Use at your own risk.
Go to https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/ and download the
Open the installer and click Next
Read the Licence Agreement and click Next
Select Custom install then Next (for more information)
Choose a folder to install to (I chose my fastest Hard Drive a PCIE-4 SSD) and click Next
Choose where to install the configuration data and click Next
Choose how to start the [email protected] client. Automatically as login, at boot time or manually. I chose Automatically at login.
I also ticked Enable [email protected] screen saver and click Install
[email protected] will install.
[email protected] has installed, click Finish
I chose to start the [email protected] app
[email protected] Screen Saver
The [email protected] screensaver displays the current scientific package simulation.
Windows System Tray icon
You can use the [email protected] system tray icon to start/stop any scientific work projects and review other settings.
Active Protein Viewer
Thew protein viewer will show the active scientific protein simulation.
Demo protein viewer.
Warning
The [email protected] app will consume a fair amount of processing power.
On my system I have processing power to use set to the default of “Medium” and it is working 11 of my 16 CPU threads heavily. I have an 8 core 16 thread AMD 3700X processor
My video card (a Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080) is about 45% busy.
The Fold[email protected] Advanced Control app allows you to reduce the CPU usage
Web Control
By opening the [email protected] System Tray icon then clicking Web Control I can see a good overview of the projects being simulated and the status.
You can dedicated your system to run projects from a specific project (e.g Alzheimer’s or Cancer etc) but to contribute directly to Corona Virus at this time, leave the project as “Any” COVID-19 work is coming
Warning
Warning running [email protected] on your completer all the time may cause the computer to over-heat, die (or have a shorter life). If you do not want this risk then don’t install [email protected]. Use at your own risk.
It is advisable to check tour processors temperature core temp (I use Core Temp)
With all processor cores busy my processor is hitting 72c (warm but not hot). I might turn up the fans on my Processor cooler.
My video card is running about 51c, this is low because it is water cooler. I use GPU-Z to show my GPU temperatures.
You can configure the [email protected] client to slow down if need be, the following settings are
- Light
- CPU is Folding at half speed, GPU Folding is off.
- Medium
- CPU is Folding at three-quarter speed. GPU Folding is on. This is the default setting, and recommended for most users.
- Full
- CPU is Folding at full speed. GPU Folding is on. This is the most productive setting. Will cause fans to run faster and may produce more heat.
- While I’m working
- Folding is enabled to run at all times, based on the slider position.
- Only when idle
- Folding starts only when the system has not been used for several minutes.
If temperatures are high you can lower the priority of the work completed.
I doubt my system will overheat outside of Summer.
Photo of my processor water cooler (radiator)
Photo of my video card water cooler (radiator)
Can I just work on COVID-19 simulations/projects (not Alzheimers, Cancer, Huntingtons or Cancer)?
No, not at this time as the interface does not allow this yet (it’s coming) but you can add a few expert settings to grab the beat projects if they are available. Most of the COVID projecds are in BETA.
Right click on the [email protected] SysTray Icon and click Advanced Control then click Configure button then click the Expert Tab, under Extra client options click Add and add these values.
Name: client-type
Value: bigadv
Click OK then Save.
It should look like this.
How does [email protected] work
[email protected] will use your CPU and or GPU in the background to do science.
I will let [email protected] work in the background while I work 🙂 I will keep and eye on the Temperatures and make sure my completer does not get too hot.
COVID-19 [email protected] Word Packages
I now have COVID-19 work packages processing on my computer
[email protected] Project Description
> Cause: covid
>CORONAVIRUS PROJECT
>Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) protease – potential drug target
>These projects are part of [email protected]’s efforts to assist researchers around the world taking up the global fight against COVID-19. At the time of release, this is the latest news update: https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/
>These projects are CPU projects to simulate the main protease of the COVID-19, a possible drug target. These supplement high-priority GPU projects of the main protease as well as the COVID-19 receptor binding domains. We hope to have preliminary drug screening simulations on CPUs released in the next week.
>Please stay tuned to https://foldingathome.org/news/ for more current updates.
View all [email protected] projects
Does [email protected] work?
Yes
Happy folding.
Links
Read about other expert configuration values here
Here are some handy [email protected] links
- [email protected] GitHub page
- [email protected] Forums
- [email protected] Corona Virus blog post
- [email protected] power slider options
- Active [email protected] projects
- Common [email protected] Expert values
- View all [email protected] projects
v1.3 Now Receiving COVID-19 [email protected] projects
v1.2 Title Typo
v1.1 Updated Web Interface and Water cooling photos
v1.0 Initial Draft