Well I might be of some help. Although am a bit tired (or maybe a bit "crabby" :lol
after spending 5 to 6 hours catching about 4 to 5 dozen blue crabs. So if something doesn't make sense, you'll know why.
😉
1. Does it matter that my CPU is an unlocked Phenom II 555 and not a true quad?
No it doesn't matter. Although the Phenom II x2/3's are true quads with cores disabled due to different reasons.
😉
2. Monitoring the cores while folding shows loads on each cores but this varies and goes up and down. Is this normal or should it be loading the cores 100% if not being used for anything else?
For smp, that isn't normal. it should be 100% unless you configure or mis-configured it a in one of the few ways...
1. Easy to do of mis-configured, didn't add both "-SMP" flags to there proper locations. Although it may sound like you did that correctly.
2. Set the CPU usage in the setting of F@H client lower the 100%. SMP has a few issues with this setting as it does not function properly.
3. You've limit the number of cores that the F@H client can use. Like if you want to use 3 of 4 cores for example, You would type "-smp 3"
There maybe a few others but there slipping my mind ATM.
3. Do the other components of a machine make a differance if folding on a GPU.
sometimes but not always. Although the client are more of the issue than the hardware when it comes to other component.
ATI gpu client does (for some reason) need some cpu power to feed data to the gpu to keep everything running smoothly. If you have a ATI gpu, I would do 2 thing,
First set your 2 clients for the priority setting (idle/low): Set SMP to idle and GPU client to low. This will allow the ATI gpu client to have a the higher priority over the SMP client, Meaning the gpu client will not be starved of data.
Second, set your SMP client to "-SMP 3". that way, gpu has it's own core and the SMP wont be slowing down/bothered by the gpu client and/or anything else you maybe running (email, word, Ect).
For Nvidia cards, this issue isn't very common.
Although i have seen it happen over on the F@H help forums. One user on there has a few rigs folding but his primary two are a Core i7 920 with a gtx 460 and a 260+ folding and a core 2 quad (forget the model #) with 3 gtx 460s.
Well the one with the Core 2 quad need at least 2 cores open for the 3 GTX 460s to keep all the clients happy and running smooth. Although when all 3 gtx 460s where in the core i7, that cpu could at run full power and run the gtx 460's without any slow downs. Although other users with nearly the same core 2 quad setup dont face these issues. He just guessing it's a motherboard issue.
Beyond that. there not much about hardware affecting others. :/
Ram and Vram speed, bandwidth, and anything about 512MB and over have little to no affect on F@H performance.
PCI-e bandwidth/speed has no affect on F@H.
For the GPU client, cpu speed as no affects.
well i hope i answered the all questions in enough detail for you.
Welcome to the Toms Hardware F@H team and Welcome to the Fold.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram