Folding@Home team members: Why you want a passkey.

[techfreak85]

When configuring the Folding@Home client, many people see the passkey field, read that it is optional, and then forget about it. But using a passkey in Folding@Home has some pretty great benefits! Aside from Stanford being able to verify that you are the only one folding under your name, using a passkey can get you *bonus points*!

That's right, using a passkey can help you get more points per work unit! The faster you process and return the unit, the more bonus points you will receive. This works especially well if you are configured to run -advmethods or -bigadv WUs on a fast computer, but these are not for everybody.

Using a passkey on a fast Mac Pro, i7 PC or Hackintosh has the potential of turning a special 8,955 point work unit into a 70,000 point work unit! (Note: This is an extreme example. Most computers can not run that large of a work unit. Your mileage will vary.)

So, if you fold for our team, would you please consider using a passkey? It would be great if you could help us increase our team's point output. (Even though the most important reason to fold is for medical research, higher points are always good )


To get a passkey, enter your Folding@Home username and your email address at this link:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py
They will email your passkey to you, which you will then copy and paste into your client configuration as seen here.

Or in the console version

After you configure this, you will need to return 10 work units, and also keep up a return rate of at least 80% of work units to receive bonus points.

As always, make sure you have the latest client installed.

If you have any questions regarding passkeys, bonus points, or client configuration, just ask here in this sub-forum.

What is Folding@Home?: http://folding.stanford.edu/
Passkey FAQ: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-passkey
Some more info on Bonus points: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Points#ntoc15
A Dashboard widget to help keep tack of your progress: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashb.../fhwudget.html

[twoodcc]

excellent guide! thanks techfreak85!

[Dreadnought]

Have left the -bigadv ones behind me. Back on -advmethods. Finished one and thought I would get bonuspoints, but probably don't have a return rate yet of 80%. Was fooling around with my girlfriends computer with the passkey. So I got a couple of new WU and WU's where broken off. So there goes my trackrecord...

Does anyone know if your return rate is calculated for the computers that have your passkey or also on all of your systems? It make sense if this is only with computers that are folding with a passkey.

The Bigadv unit P2684 on my i7 2.93 iMac was doing an hour and 6 minutes per frame, so it would finish it in a little over 4.5 days folding 24/7. Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

BTW other Advmethods units:
P6702 is doing 11 minutes and 5 seconds per frame (over 4200 points bonus)
P6062 and P6069 is doing about 4 minutes 52 seconds per frame (over 2900 points bonus)

[twoodcc]

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

Have left the -bigadv ones behind me. Back on -advmethods. Finished one and thought I would get bonuspoints, but probably don't have a return rate yet of 80%. Was fooling around with my girlfriends computer with the passkey. So I got a couple of new WU and WU's where broken off. So there goes my trackrecord...

Does anyone know if your return rate is calculated for the computers that have your passkey or also on all of your systems? It make sense if this is only with computers that are folding with a passkey.

The Bigadv unit P2684 on my i7 2.93 iMac was doing an hour and 6 minutes per frame, so it would finish it in a little over 4.5 days folding 24/7. Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

BTW other Advmethods units:
P6702 is doing 11 minutes and 5 seconds per frame (over 4200 points bonus)
P6062 is doing 4 minutes 52 seconds per frame (over 2400 points bonus)

remember that P2684 are the hardest units to fold. but if you get some 6900 units, the time frames should be below 50 minutes.

what temps are you getting with the iMac?

[Dreadnought]

About 67/68 degrees celsius on the proc, GPU, memory controller and harddisk are all between 50-55 degrees celsius. But have my brightness all the way down and also use the app Shades to get the screen totally black. This helps the fans to stay quiet and the screen doesn't burn in. CPU fan is now about 1300/1400 rpm, harddrive 1300, Optical bay fan less than 1000 rpm (normal), so still pretty quiet from 80 cm from the screen. Hmm, just noticed that the cpu fan is now 1600 rpm and going up, because I'm checking the stats and posting this message (have the brightness up).

Still no bonuspoints and have finished 4 advmethods units already. Really messed up my returnrate... So, this is a wise lessons for all of you; first get your machine stable and up and folding, then enter your passkey. After that, no experimenting!
BTW, when do you get the bonuspoints? Instantly when you get the normal points for the WU or in a later stage?

[SciFrog]

You get the bonus instantly. The 80% rate of return is per passkey, which is why you are not getting it most likely. Just keep doing some small ones, then try bigadv in a week or so. If you get some 6900, your PPD should jump a lot. As reference my Mac pro does the 2984 in about 50 mins, vs 40.5 on the 6900...

[lozanoj83]

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

What I do is I just go into system preferences, expose and spaces and make a hot corner be 'put display to sleep'.

Seems to work for me.

[Dreadnought]

Originally Posted by lozanoj83

What I do is I just go into system preferences, expose and spaces and make a hot corner be 'put display to sleep'.

Seems to work for me.

Yeah I know, read already tons of forums about this, but it keeps going out of sleep. ctrl+shift+eject does the same, put the monitor to sleep, but after a few second it goes on again. also pulled the USB plug of the mouse, so it isn't that. It's something different, maybe the 100% load of the proc that is prohibiting my iMac to go to sleep or a faulty connector somewhere. Are you also folding; is your iMac also under a 100% load when putting the screen to sleep?

Anyhow I think this is not the right thread/forum for it, will figure it out after my holiday next week. That reminds me guys, my iMac is going to rest for a week. And I think I just have a trackrecord of 8 WU with passkey, so let the bonuspoints begin!

[Dreadnought]

Hi guys,
I was wondering about the points you'll get when finishing a WU on time with a passkey. Apparently you only get the bonuspoints, not the normal points of the WU. Is this correct? It seems odd to me, I would figure you'll get the normal WU points and, for finishing it so fast, also the bonuspoints.

[twoodcc]

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

Hi guys,
I was wondering about the points you'll get when finishing a WU on time with a passkey. Apparently you only get the bonuspoints, not the normal points of the WU. Is this correct? It seems odd to me, I would figure you'll get the normal WU points and, for finishing it so fast, also the bonuspoints.

i was under the impression that you got both points, though i'm really not sure. but here is a calculator for bigadv bonus points