Useful Tools for DC Projects

Tobit

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - March 2010/May 2011
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
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Listed below are links to various utilities and applications to enhance your DC experience. The tools are organized by category. Please report broken links in this thread or via PM to me. I will try to keep this updated as often as possible.

Statistics

HardFolding - This is our own statistics server, maintained by King_N, and is a great way to compare your scores to other [H]orde members.​

EOC Stats - Hosted by Extreme Overclocking​

Kakao Stats - Another great, full featured, stats site.​

Free-DC Stats - Free-DC tracks statistics for Folding@Home and several other DC projects.​


Folding@Home Monitoring Tools

HFM.NET - {Win/Linux**} HFM.NET is a monitoring application similar in design to FahMon - coded in C# and running under the .NET framework - but which gives more information than the current version of FahMon (2.3.99.1 at the time of writing) displays. It is currently under development, but works for many people. Only a Windows binary exists, however it works well on Linux desktops via emulation.​

FahMon - {Win/Linux/Mac} FahMon is a small open-source tool. It allows you to quickly find out the progress of your client(s) without having to open different files and/or to go to the Internet.​

FAHSpy - {Win} This program is very similar in function to HFM.net and FahMon but the data is presented in a way that some people prefer over the others. Newly updated to version 2.0.0.​


Affinity Managers

WinAFC - WinAFC is a configurable program for controlling CPU affinities and priority settings of Windows applications.​

Bill2's Process Manager - Offers a very intuitive approach to managing affinity and priority settings.​


Client Optimization Scripts & Utilities

BigAdv Bonus Calculator - Web-Based calculator to determine the amount of bonus points. Requires you to provide TPF (time per frame).​

Langouste - {Linux} Langouste's intended purpose is to make WU download and return processes asynchronous (in other words to enable simultaneous downloads and uploads). Processed SMP and SMP -bigadv WUs are usually large (25-100MB). When WU processing is complete client sends back the results but new WU is not retrieved until after upload is complete. As langouste decouples upload and download processes a new WU can be downloaded while WU upload continues in background thus saving time. Time that can be spent on simulation. Linux only at this time, use with caution as this is a very new utility currently under testing.​


Hardware Stability Testing/Overclocking

CPU-Z - CPU-Z is a freeware utility that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system. This is an overclockers #1 tool as it allows you to quickly view your clock speed, Vcore, and memory settings to see how well your OC is working.​

GPU-Z - GPU-Z is very similar to CPU-Z above but is for video cards.​

Memtest86+ - Memtest86+ is a comprehensive, standalone, memory diagnostic utility.​

MemtestG80 - MemtestG80 is a dedicated memory tester for NVIDIA CUDA-capable GPUs. Binaries for Windows, Linux, and OS X are all available, as is (LGPL-licensed) source code for those of you interested in doing additional development work (for example, GUI frontends). Mirrored Downloads @ Stanford

RealTemp - {Win} RealTemp is a temperature monitoring program designed for all Intel single Core, dual Core and quad Core processors. It's compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit.​

LinX - {Win} LinX is a graphical front-end for Linpack. Linpack is a benchmark designed to measure performance on Intel CPUs in GFlops but it's also a very useful tool for checking the stability of a CPU. LinX includes Linpack.​

StressCPU2 - {Win/Linux} StressCPU2 is a small program to torture-test your CPU in order to make sure that you don't have overheating problems. It will only run on SSE-equipped x86 CPUs. It executes a special version of the Gromacs innerloops that mixes SSE and normal assembly instructions to heat your CPU as much as possible. This is the closest CPU torture test to running F@H that we currently know about, and as such is recommended for stress testing machines that will be running F@H. Available for Linux and Windows.​

RivaTuner - {Win} RivaTuner is a popular utility that allows you to overclock your ATI or NVIDIA GPUs and tweak settings such as fan speed. Increasing the fan speed on GPUs is highly recommending, even when not overclocking, when folding to increase the longevity of these devices.​

NVIDIA System Tools - {Win} NVIDIA System Tools with ESA Support is a suite of performance and monitoring tools for NVIDIA based MCPs and GPUs. With the performance tools, you can overclock and tweak many settings, including fan speeds, of your NVIDIA GPUs and MCPs. The system monitor allows you to monitor various voltages, clocks, and temperatures of the same chips.​

EVGA Precision - {Win} EVGA Precision is yet another GPU overclocking/tweaking tool for NVIDIA GPUs. FAQ

EVGA E-LEET - {Win} EVGA now gives you more with the EVGA E-LEET Tuning Utility. This utility allows you to easily set your QPI and Voltages from within Windows to get your system running at the highest level of performance possible. E-LEET requires an EVGA P55 or X58 motherboard.​

NiBiTor - {Win} TheNVIDIA BIOS Editor (aka NiBiTor) is a popular tool to allow BIOS manipulation of NVIDIA video adapters. Use it along side nvflash to permanently store your overclocks.​

nvflash - {Win CLI} The NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (NVFLASH) is used to update the firmware stored in the EEPROM of an NVIDIA display adapter. It can also be used to perform other tasks on the adapter such as saving a copy of the current firmware image to a file, displaying the version of the firmware image, or determining the EEPROM part present on a display adapter. This version linked is the most recent version that works from within Windows. All other version require you to boot from a DOS boot disk to run it in a clean environment.​


Linux Images for Diskless or VM Folding

Linux FAH v0.7 - An alternative to notfreds. This image is for VMWare 3.0 and seems to be very popular with folks running -bigadv.​

notfreds - The original diskless folding images. notfred has configurations for USB sticks, network boot, and a CD generator.​


Remote Access

LogMeIn - Free service that allows you to remotely connect to any device connected to the Internet. iPhone application also available for $30.​

TeamViewer - Another great free remote control service.​
 
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This is no way complete, I have many more links I will be adding throughout the evening. I'm just getting started. :)
 
Nice rundown on some useful utilities there Tobit. Is this mostly going to be a compilation of Windoze based tools or will there be some Linux based items as well (for those running native Linux)?

Very thoughtful of you to create this, especially for those that are just getting started.
thumbsup.gif
 
Nice rundown on some useful utilities there Tobit. Is this mostly going to be a compilation of Windoze based tools or will there be some Linux based items as well (for those running native Linux)?
Windoze, Linux, and Mac. There is one Linux native tool listed already and a couple others, such as FahMon and StressCPU, have Linux binaries in addition to Windoze. I will try to make the supported operating systems of each tool stand out better.

More links coming....
 
Just made some final edits for the evening. I will add some more tomorrow. Is this sticky-worthy?
 
I Would also add tools for keeping your GPU's alive through constant folding

Rivatuner for setting your gpu clocks and fan speeds, primarily those of us running more then 2 cards things get a lil warm with out this.
 
Yup, planning on it mikey. Thanks. Those will be in todays updates a little later on. :)
 
Add logmein, a great free service that allows you to tap into any running computer to monitor your rigs. Coupled with auto login, there is almost nothing you can't do to your farm from on the road. Saves me down time and makes it much easier when running headless boxen. Also, it won't crap out your GPU's like some other remote desktop applications. To top it off, iPhone users can spend 30$ and get ignition, which let's you do it anywhere on your phone (and I've got the old 2g, so it would only be better on the newer ones)

Gotta add that website, it's an essential in my farm
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Great compilation of tools, I'll link that in the [H]orde Central

Edit: Added ;)
 
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I've made several additions, bumping to the top.
 
Since LogMeIn is on the list, why not add TeamViewer. I have used it for a year or so and love it. It is free remote pc software with unlimited personal use and great customization for all speeds. Highly recommend it.

http://teamviewer.com/index.aspx
 
I think this is a fantastic guide for anyone new to folding or a veteran folder like myself. I would like to suggest an affinity manager besides WinAFC that I like the best, and that's Bill2's Process Manager. I have tried nearly all of the affinity tools out there and this is the one I keep coming back to. It is very easy to use, much easier than WFC and has tons of options. For those who prefer a more intuitive approach to configuring affinity/priority, I suggest you give BPM a try.
 
Updated to include NVFLASH and NIBITOR.
 
Quite a few new faces around here lately so I am bumping this to the top.
 
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