Sony PS3's needed

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:06 am

We need to get a bunch of PS3's folding for us.

If you have one here is how to set it up for folding:

BASICS
How do I get a copy of Folding@home for the PS3?
If you have PS3 system version 1.6 or later, you will see a Folding@Home icon in the Network column of the XMB (PS3 menu). Just click on the icon and that's it. If you don't have 1.6 or later, please perform a system upgrade.

Which keys do what?
Press square to see what the other controls do.

How long will it take to complete the work unit (WU)?
We have set PS3 WU's to take approximately 8 hours to complete. The logic behind this was to ensure that the PS3 could be run only over night and still yield a useful result. We will likely decrease this time in the future to try to make it easier for PS3 donors to only briefly run their machines, but still make useful contributions.

How long do I have to complete it?
Note that Work Units "expire" after a certain amount of time. This means that after a certain amount of time, if the WU has not been returned, we assume it's not coming back and our server moves on from there. This is necessary due to the fact that future work units depend on old ones and so we need to eventually give the work to someone else to get it completed. The times to complete a WU for the PS3 is short (8 hours), so the deadline time is also correspondingly short (2 days).

What is the power consumption of the PS3 running the FAH client? Is it safe to run the PS3 24X7?
We expect the PS3 to use about 200W while running Folding@Home. We have several PS3's running in our lab, running Folding@Home 24/7 and have had good results so far.

What type of calculations the PS3 client is capable of running?
The PS3 right now runs what are called implicit solvation calculations, including some simple ones (sigmodal dependent dielectric) and some more sophisticated ones (AGBNP, a type of Generalized Born method from Prof. Ron Levy's group at Rutgers). In this respect, the PS3 client is much like our GPU client. However, the PS3 client is more flexible, in that it can also run explicit solvent calculations as well, although not at the same speed increase relative to PC's. We are working to increase the speed of explicit solvent on the PS3 and would then run these calculations on the PS3 as well. In a nutshell, the PS3 takes the middle ground between GPU's (extreme speed, but at limited types of WU's) and CPU's (less speed, but more flexibility in types of WU's).

Can I change the donator name and team number?
Press triangle while in the visual client to change your username and team number.

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:18 am

Mine's been up and active for a while. I don't think I've stopped it for a week straight. (It's pretty hot up there in my TV Room).

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:53 am

Thats great. Actually from what I hear, they take less power to run and are faster than most pc's. So if anyone is thinking of adding to their farm of folding pc's, buying a PS3 is probably cheaper and would add more bang to the farm than buying another pc.

Tks
Rick

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:08 am

Good points Rick. I don't know about the power side of it but I have had mine folding since day one.. If I'm not actively on the PS3, it's folding and I haven't had any issues other than the room gettins warm (but it's upstairs and summertimr). They are definitely faster than PCs and most PCs don't have a BluRay player attached... So think of it as a badass folding media center...

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:34 pm

Read where the power supply only draws like a 240Watt pc power supply so must be less power being drawn, hence less electricity to run.

And on eBay they are selling for around $400 so adding to you farm at that price with the power you get is significiantly lower than buying a high end pc to fold.

Tks
Rick

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:03 am

rickoic wrote:if anyone is thinking of adding to their farm of folding pc's, buying a PS3 is probably cheaper and would add more bang to the farm than buying another pc.

As FunK and others have pointed out, the "low-end" model offers the exact same performance when it comes to number crunching on apps like F@H, and should be found for a bit cheaper than the other one.

So if anyone is in the mood to pick one up for the purpose of folding, try to find one of the discontinued 20gb models.

Rivas · Post by **Rivas** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:05 am

rickoic wrote:Read where the power supply only draws like a 240Watt pc power supply so must be less power being drawn, hence less electricity to run.

And on eBay they are selling for around $400 so adding to you farm at that price with the power you get is significiantly lower than buying a high end pc to fold.

Tks
Rick

Can you see how fast you are processing/completing frames on PS3 ?
If so what's the average ?

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:59 pm

Last I remember checking it was one WU about every 8 hours.
Got more points for them at the beginning...

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:47 pm

This should really be a stickey...

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:12 am

Ken wrote:This should really be a stickey...

I love my PS3 Ken but not the point of "sticky"... You must have me confused with MadDoc or something.

cajundon · Post by **cajundon** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:08 pm

rickoic wrote:We need to get a bunch of PS3's folding for us.

Thanks rickoic for the information.

I have one on order from Buy.com, PlayStation 3 System Movie Pack (40GB HD, Spider-Man 3). Total Price: $399.99, with free shipping and no taxes.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?s ... caid=17194

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:25 am

One thing I forgot to mention is power consumption.

A PS3 uses a 125-150 Watt power supply.

Most newer PC's require around a 500 Watt power supply.

So save on electricity as well.

Tks
Rick

cajundon · Post by **cajundon** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:08 am

rickoic wrote:One thing I forgot to mention is power consumption.

A PS3 uses a 125-150 Watt power supply.

Most newer PC's require around a 500 Watt power supply.

So save on electricity as well.

Tks
Rick

I have done some research on the power consumption of PS3, who did actually test of the power consumption of a 60 GB PS3, which all PS3 has a 380 Watt power supply and the console's consumption sold in the USA. It does not matter what size of HDD the system has in it (20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB or 80 GB,), they all consume they same wattage per PS3 console. Many felt the PS3 was an energy hog that used far too much power for a video game console. However, many on the Web seemed to misinterpret the consoles specs after reading that the PS3 had a 380 W power supply, thinking that the system uses 380 watts - it doesn't. They compared it unfavorably to the PS2, which at its height uses just 45 watts, and the Xbox 360, which uses about 160 watts.

As it turns out, the latest PS3 console uses less energy than previously reported. The PS3 was connected to a Gateway HD FPD2485W flat panel monitor to the Extech power analyzer. With the PS3 at idle and no games being played, the console and monitor drew 280 watts. With the monitor and its speaker unplugged, the PS3 itself drew approximately 184 watts (meaning that the Gateway display drew around 100 watts).

After turning the monitor and speakers back on, it was engaged in some multi player action on Resistance: Fall of Man. The maximum draw during the two-player multi player mode came to 284 watts. So it seems that, sans the Gateway HD display, the PS3's power consumption isn't that far off from the Xbox 360's maximum use.

So, while the PS3's power consumption greatly exceeds that of the PS2, it isn't too far above what the Xbox 360 consumes with similar hardware.

The PS3 PSU has a 380 W limit, but the console's maximum draw doesn't even come close to approaching it.(184 watts) .

Sony's internal PSU is formidable, considering the console's hardware, which includes the 3.2 GHz Cell processor and the RSX graphics chip jointly developed by Sony and Nvidia. The PS3 is still a powerful piece of hardware, as the recent folding@home tests have shown.

The PS3 does provide strong graphics and an extremely solid online game play performance consuming 280 watts during game play with monitor and speakers on.

The only problem with this review is that the power consumption was not tested while running Folding@home client, which uses 100% of the Cell processor and the RSX graphics chip, unlike most games that does not command 100% usage of the Cell processor and the RSX graphics chip all the time.

cajundon · Post by **cajundon** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:00 am

I'm now crunching with 3 PS3s.

I bought 2 AS-IS consoles with the Blu-ray Disc drive not working, for under $195.00 each with shipping on eBay.

That is 3 crunching rigs for less than $790.00.

IT PERFORMS 1.8 TRILLION CALCULATIONS PER SECOND

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:03 am

Way to go Cajundon.

Blowing my doors off again.

Go baby croc go.

Rick

master7 · Post by **master7** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:31 am

Does it make itself relatively known? i graduated high school almost 5 years ago and they have long taken off the some 80 boxes i had running there for a good couple years.

*eyes a few friends units....*

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:16 am

Doesn't seem to work the same as on a PC. With the PS3 you have to manually restart F@H each time, it doesn't continue running in the back ground.

Sorry
Rick

master7 · Post by **master7** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:52 am

OSULLY · Post by **OSULLY** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:16 pm

OK, I picked one up because I couldn't decide on a system.I'll try to get it folding tonight.

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:18 pm

Congratulations. I think you'll be extremely happy with it. PS3's average around 1,000 points per day if folding full time. So expect a big boost in your daily average.

Tks
Rick

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:09 am

Downloading the update now. Also got my PC back on F@h and will get my work PC on too. (I'm never there, but it's always on.)

OSULLY · Post by **OSULLY** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:40 am

I understand there is a new organization to folding on the PS3. I haven't downloaded it yet so I'm curiouse as to what you think about it.

http://folding.typepad.com/

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:14 pm

yea. the new update makes your ns/day go down but they upped the points so it works out. they also renamed it but i forgot what they called it. it looks the same except they also added a globe with weather updates and changed the ps3 core to the same on gpu2 uses

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:20 pm

Yeah - WTF is that globe thing? Is that F@h? Is it running as long as the globe is on? I couldn't find anything on how to associate my name/team to it in any of the menus.

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:25 am

After some Google research and playing around on the PS3, I don't think there's a way to add your name/team # to the new F@h embedded with the "Life With Playstation" application.

LAME!!!

http://www.playstation.com/life/en/index.html

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:24 pm

while in the folding channel hit triangle?

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:06 am

No options ANYWHERE to change it. (Or I could be slightly retarded and completely missing it.)

Is it there?

OSULLY · Post by **OSULLY** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:39 am

I found it, it already had my settings from before. triangle shows current channel then x on current channel will give a list that has Identity, x on identity will let you change those settings

triniwasp · Post by **triniwasp** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:25 pm

I'm running mine at night when I go to bed.

cajundon · Post by **cajundon** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:16 pm

It has been confirmed by Sony, a price drop for the PS3 to $299. The PS3 Slim will come out in September, and will run cooler and with less power, with a 120MB hard drive.