Competition: The TBCS Folding@Home Team

[drupal=638]Competition: The TBCS Folding@Home Team[/drupal]

By Colin M. Ormsby

Hello and welcome to another TBCS competition. This time we're going to use a little hardware goodness to try to push all of you computing maniacs to donate all those spare CPU/GPU cycles to a good cause. Thermaltake have stepped up to the plate to offer a prize for the winner in the form of one of the new Azurues gaming mice with a $50 value.

Here at TBCS it's always nice to see people do something for a good cause. We had a truly awesome turnout for our recent fundraising effort for partylikearockstar, so we already know how great you guys can be when it comes to putting in that little extra effort for someone in need.

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project which aims to use computers all over the world to simulate protein folding, all of which, in it's own way, can contribute to potentially world-changing medical and scientific research, and the best thing about it, is that it can effectively work in the background of your computer only using that power which you aren't already using for something else.

TBCS has it's own official folding@home team, specifically team number 191053 and we want your CPU and GPU cycles to push our team even further up the ranking tables. Since we started, we've already completed over 5500 work units for a total score well in excess of 4,000,000 points and now we want, with Thermaltakes help, to give you guys the chance to get something back for your time, effort, and power bill!

This competition is going to be a random draw type of affair. Team members will be able to qualify for up to 7 entries in the draw, and at the end of the 4 week period for which we'll be running the competition, a single winner will be drawn "out of the hat" and will recieve an Azurues Optical Gaming Mouse, courtesy of Thermaltake.

The Azurues Optical Gaming Mouse features, among other things, removable weights, rubber coating, up to 1600dpi sensitivity, a low-friction base, a braided cable with a full speed USB connection, topped off with some subtle illumination. Rest assured, this is NOT your average $5 mouse :D

The rules are fairly simple, and the competition has been designed to give pretty much anyone a chance at winning, while still showing a little extra appreciation to those members who are really churning out high numbers.

How to "earn" entries in the draw....

If you produce a single workunit at any point in the 4 weeks of the competition, you will earn one entry into the draw.

You will also receive an additional entry for each week in which you produce 5 or more workunits.

Finally you will receive an additional two entries if you produce over 100,000 points during the full competition period.

Now for the rules....

1. You must be a member of the TBCS forums.
2. You must notify slaveofconvention if your folding username differs notably from your forum username.
3. If you want to have friends and or family fold for you, by all means go ahead but they MUST use YOUR folding username - saying "Oh by the way, this user was actually folding for me" will not matter.
4. For the purposes of tracking and qualification, the only acceptable proof of production is going to be the individual statistics provided by the Extreme Overclocking page (see, there was a good reason I was pushing so hard to get us into the top 1200).
5. This competition will run from Midnight on 30th April/1st May until Midnight on 28th/29th May based on the times used by the Extreme Overclocking page.
6. There is NO previous folding requirement, so even if you haven't folded for TBCS in the past, you can still qualify for all seven chances to win.
7. As is the norm in TBCS competitions, this is NOT open to members of staff.
8. Finally, because the prize isn't going to cost a small fortune to ship, we're pleased to announce that this competition is open to everyone irrespective of location. (well ok, we DO require that you be a resident of the planet Earth, but that isn't asking too much, is it?)

For those of you not familiar with the Extreme Overclocking page, you can find it here

The stats we'll be watching are those under "weekly production" at the bottom of the page of individual stats as produced by Extreme Overclocking. If you want to check yours out, this is the set of stats in question....

You could potentially have as many as 7 entries in the draw if you're one of our power-producers. At the same time, we have also taken the time to make sure that those of you with lower powered machines will still have a real chance at a prize.

100,000 points may seem like a lot, but bearing in mind we're running this competition over a 4 week period, that only equates to a ppd of 3572 which is within the reach of most modern computers. The 5 workunit qualification should be within reach of pretty much everyone, especially when you bear in mind that there is no rule stating that you can only have the folding software running on a single PC.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the forums or my sending slaveofconvention a PM and he'll get an answer to you as quickly as possible.

What about those of using BIGADV to pump out higher value work units 1 WU takes 3 days

Any WU counts, they don't have to just be CPU WUs so GPU units will help - I don't think there's anyone only doing bigadv units on the only pc they're using, is there?

Sweet.

Now, will extreme overclockings 24hr thing level out within the next couple days, as there is no way it is keeping track of the right value as it is. The points went up the correct amount today, but the 24hr value hasn't. Probably just have to wait it out another day or so I suppose.

I keep checking things every hour, lol. For whatever reason, it is exciting to me to watch my numbers go upward. I don't know why. Then again sometimes I sit and stare at progress bars slowly going up for no reason. I don't know what is wrong with me sometimes.

Edit: Okay, things look right in the weekly/daily section, but for whatever reason the 24hr one seems way off for everyone. I'll just wait things out, lol.

We were only tracked from 6pm onwards on the first day so we have an artifically low first day production - the second day isnt yet complete so again, its artificially low. Your average will improve rapidly over time but for the purposes of this competition, it won't matter. I'll be looking at actual weekly output, not averages :)

Aww, MAN!

I push 100PPD MAX :(


I have NO graphics cards capable of GPU folding, so I can't reach that high!


*Wait. Didn't read completely, that's the powerproducers. I can get entered *phew!*


**User list, fyi ;). Plus, at our current rate, we'll reach top 100 in 7 years., and be in 1000s in a week.

Sweet! im going to oc my 950 to 4ghz and run it 24 seven for big advantage. dont know if my graphics cards will help or not, as ati dont work as well as nvidia

Well according to that I'm only managing a little over 260 a day with my 3870x2 and cpu going 24/7. Does that seem right? I know my cpu isn't worth much though. I don't really know what I'm doing just thought I'd join in since it was sitting here idle most of the time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by msmrx57

Well according to that I'm only managing a little over 260 a day with my 3870x2 and cpu going 24/7. Does that seem right? I know my cpu isn't worth much though. I don't really know what I'm doing just thought I'd join in since it was sitting here idle most of the time.

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No, that isn't right. Yesterday was the only day that average has counted...and it wasn't a full day, only a handful of hours. Since today hasn't finished, that handful of hours is all the average is comprised of...which isn't technically an average. You earned 1,584 points in the last 24 hours, so the average will start rising to accurate levels in the next few days.

Well, this gives me the excuse I've been needing to start on Project Origami...just as soon as Fuganater's board & RAM he sold me arrives. Stay tuned for a worklog, coming to a monitor near you.

Meh... You would start this before my mod is finished....

But count me in. I'll just keep going on my wife's PC untill mine is finished.

Shhhh - don't tell anyone I told you so, but a little bird just told me there might be another prize to go along with the mouse - it'll most likely still be a single prize for the purposes of shipping, but it may well be more than the Azurues mouse..... ;)

Not gonna think about it.......

Have it as a bonus prize, but the winner has to take pictures of what it is.

Heheh, count me in. :D

Well remember guys, anything you get between now and the end of the month does count towards the competition - all the points count in the long run, of course.... Consider the next few days your "warm up" heh

mwhahahahaha warm up, that's a great cover story. JK

Since today is the first official day of the competition, I'm bumping this thread. If you aren't folding already, what are you waiting for?

Lets hope I get lucky. It is nice though that this is random and not just for the top performer.

And in less than 2 days we will be in the top 1000!!!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fuganater

Lets hope I get lucky. It is nice though that this is random and not just for the top performer.

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When I was planning all of this, I spoke with some of the other staff members and said something like "If we make the prize for the top performer, we may as well just stick a "Thanks Thermaltake" banner on the front page, then toss a coin between Dil and x88x".

I figured this way we'd be able to really get people involved and NOT force them to spend hundreds of dollars to have even a chance at being competitive - that's why there are a few ways to earn entries in the draw - some very easy to achieve, some which take a little more work/hardware.

Everyone who helps should therefore have a chance, but we DID want to give a little extra thankyou to the big producers :)

FOLD ON PEOPLE!!!!

well, im related and in the same house as staff. so i dont know if that disquals me or not, but i havent been folding cause i think it might. trace said he was gonna check, and i havent heard back, so im thinking the worst.:down:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cale_Hagan

but i havent been folding cause i think it might.

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Bah! Just because you might not be eligible for the competition is no reason not to fold! :D

Shameless competition bump! Woot-woot! Get to folding!

Don't worry; I've pumped out enough heat to cook a dozen eggs!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmEv

Don't worry; I've pumped out enough heat to cook a dozen eggs!

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Yeah, but how much bacon?:think:

Also, everyone should be folding! It's the law.

It's officially half-time in this contest - effective midnight last night, we have completed 2 weeks of the 4 week qualification period for entries into the draw.

In total, we have 66 qualfied entries in the competition - broken down into 1 for entering, 1 for completing 5 wu's per week in week 1, and again in week 2, and 2 for getting over 100,000 points during the month

At the moment, things stand like this....

The following members have qualified for everything possible - they completed a WU for entry, have completed more than 5 WU's per week in both of the first two weeks, and have already completed over 100,000 points during the competition, and as such, all qualify for the maximum entries so far, totalling 5....

x88x, diluzio91, pcclan, mdust, DynamoNED, 985323 and Bsmith10102

The following members have qualified for entry by completing a unit, have completed more than 5 WU's in both qualifying weeks, but have yet to hit that 100,000 target (which isn't to say they won't before the end of the month) so are currently sitting on 3 entries each...

NighttrainSRT, Technochicken, Billygoat, Fuganator, ChaosTheory and msmrx57

In addition to these confirmed entries, the following have qualified for the competition and completed 5 or more work units in ONE of the two weeks so far for a total of 2 entries each...

evgapes and fpmachine

And last, but definitely not least as EVERY POINT COUNTS!!! - the following have qualfied for entry into the draw and will recieve 1 entry each

Nutz1228, jpmeyer, amev and collinstheclown

Congratulations everyone and remember, it isn't too late to enter - the only thing you CAN'T do at this point is earn those bonus entries for the week 1 and week 2 5 WU totals - someone entering at this stage of the competition can still qualify for up to 5 of the 7 possible entries....

Fold on my brothers (and sisters, of course!!!)

Oh by the way - did I mentioned that Thermaltake have added a Shock Headset to the prize bundle? Thats right - the lucky winner will get both a mouse AND a high quality gaming headset as a prize so what are you waiting for - get those clients downloaded, installed, and running!!!

lol...that would be ironic if I won another Tt Shock headset and still hadn't received the one I won months ago. :P

I could go for a new headset...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cale_Hagan

well, im related and in the same house as staff. so i dont know if that disquals me or not, but i havent been folding cause i think it might. trace said he was gonna check, and i havent heard back, so im thinking the worst.:down:

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Hey Cale,

Since this competition is performance based and not up to some sort of a vote. I consider you eligible. I don't think there is anyway someone can call foul since we aren't keeping track of the stats, I don't see an unfair advantage.

If anyone else wants to contest this please PM me, but I don't see a problem.

well, this is unfortunate. the last couple days, i've been using my laptop, disassembled my desktop to swap a motherboard, and do routine maintenance. the really sad part is, i have 2 5870's and 2 6870's. my core i7 board i just purchased has 2 pci-e x16 slots. i have been busy, and just got it back together, and now im having reboot issues with the brand new freaking msi board. im going to run a few tests, its funny though, because the evga gave me crud, i put in an asus gene ii no problems, reinstalled it onto the ssd again for the msi board, and am having issues. good news is tomorrow is my day off, so i can trouble shoot it. im also in the process of moving my electronics from my "man-cave" aka the garage into my room, as it is gonna get really hot here soon. hopefully i can get the i7 up with big adv., and i have a quad core athlon on loan to a friend, i just bought a foxcon mobo with dual x16 slots. ill try to get up and running tomorrow, but no guarantees.:think:

ugh so close to 100,000 pts I can taste it!

Ya same here. I'm like 30k away I think.

Well I'll update, time allowing, when week 3 is over - you guys have LOADS of time to hit the 100k :)

100k :D

whistles i have 342k points

103k for me! :D give me 3.4 weeks and I'll be at 500k :p

OK guys - last week is now upon us - and it's still not too late to enter. The maximum number of entries a new starter can earn has now dropped to four - one for qualifying, one if they complete 5 WU's by the end of the week, and a bonus 2 if they manage 100k in this one week.

Those of you already qualified - there's still that 100k target and the 5 WUs for this week to get that one last entry :)

so is the competition over tonight ?

no, the competition ended last night - I just have to check and double check my figures, then I'll post a full list of everyone in the draw, and the number of entries each of them have earned :)

Wow, 4 weeks went by fast!