Help understading folding@home in a nutshell

[T41CK]

Basically the title says it all

I am interested in doing this but I just don't understand the purpose of this and why do it? I have read all the sticky's up top but still I am having a hard time.

I know my computer is not the best but I am building a custom gaming computer in about 6 months. I know this will be plenty fast because I am getting i5 or an i7 cpu(these are top of the line)

Can someone help me?

 

[ninfreak]

we the people of the world are basically being turned into one giant supercomputer that rival that of google/facebook server farms(these farms are massive massive buildings) in terms of computing power. this is being implemented by scientists all over the world to execute research that would take a very very long time to compute with the best tech you can grab your hands on, into a shorter time frame.

i'll use the example of genomes. with say an university server farm it may take several years to compute it. with the world doing it in small fragments on millions of pc's, you have taken years of work and shrunk it down to a few weeks to a few months.

so in a nutshell with your question as to what, the purpose is that of time....we are fast tracking scientific exploration into diseases, cures, and the fundamental understanding of everything.

and your question about why do it? for the betterment of humankind

 

[T41CK]

Nice... Now I need to figure out how to get started

Thanks for the quick reply NIN

Oh yeah great band by the way

 

[Thrasher]

its the beginning of the matrix, want to try the red pill?

 

[ninfreak]

i prefer the blue....

and no it isn't the matrix, skynet is starting to become self aware

 

[SilentScreams]

Nice... Now I need to figure out how to get started

Thanks for the quick reply NIN

Oh yeah great band by the way

Getting started is easy.

1 download the installer
2 Install
3 use your ECF username as your F@H username
4 put the ECF team number as your team number
5 help mankind

It will run itself and you can close it if you need to so you can game and not have your game lag.

 

[T41CK]

Yay... I am officially folding... Ahh it feels nice to do some good after all the bad

Now I just need the

folding@home title

 

[b0redagain]

I understand that it makes my laptop overheat and shut off...so...there's that.

 

[T41CK]

That is worst case though

What is your rig?

I have an old Dell, xpsp3, Pentium 4 @2.80Ghz and 2GB of ram

I think should be fine