Folding @ Home

Hi. Sorry if this thread isn't in the appropriate section...

I've seen where this question has been asked before, but all the responses I was able to find were of the "just go for it" variety.

I have an HP dv9700t with a Penryn T9300 running Ubuntu 8.04 beta. How much am I shortening the life span of my laptop by allowing Folding@Home to nearly max out both cores for, say, 20 hours a day? What components am I endangering? The processor itself? The hard drive? Finally, in your opinion, am I an idiot for doing this?

Thanks
Mike

 

As long as your notebook doesn't overheat I doubt it has any noticeable effect.

Ive treated my quite old P4 processor like ****, overclocked it, maxed the core for extended periods of time and it still works fine.

In my opinion by the time the life of your notebook dies youl already have bought another.

Whether your an idiot or not is all relative, are you being forced to run FAH 20 hrs a day, or do you intentionally want to run it because you like the project?

FAH it self is a great project but if your folding is interrupting your work then yes you are one. If your fold when your not using the laptop then its a great idea.



Here is a website with more informative responses on whether FAH harms your notebook

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=120890

 

Ive seen 2 or 3 threads on this but i still havent figured it out
what exactly is Folding
and what is the point of it?

 

Lost, read up on it here

http://folding.stanford.edu/

 

Oh sweet thanks for the link
sounds pretty interesting!

 

I told no to Folding@Home when realized and read that in the same way
it can be used to develop biological weapons too.

 

So basically running Folding@Home can help cure cancer
AND
Help us kill everyone on the world with a non toxic biological gas of death?
hmm
sounds like the normal trade off

For everything this is an equal and opposite reaction

 

Thanks guys. In my opinion, dismissing FAH because it would be possible to make biological weapons isn't a very good reason. The guys at Stanford give pretty good descriptions of the work units. So far I've mostly contributed to projects dealing with the folding of certain proteins in the presence of solvents, and lately it's been focused on tumor-suppressant proteins.