Friday, October 9th 2009

TechPowerUp Community Crunching/Folding Contest Announced, Score Your Way to a DC-PC

TechPowerUp's Folding@Home and World Community Grid teams, both among the top 100 teams in their own merits, have decided to give back to the community by announcing the TechPowerUp Community Crunching/Folding Contest. Organized entirely by the community, the contest gives one lucky winner, a pre-assembled, turnkey PC with optimal hardware for distributed computing (DC-PC). For starters, the PC has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 accelerator to run GPU-accelerated distributed computing applications of the likes of Folding@Home GPU, while its Pentium Dual-Core handles CPU-driven distributed computing applications, such as World Community Grid. With 500 GB of handy storage, Windows XP SP2 OS, Antec BP-550Plus 550W PSU to power it all, and In Win X-Fighter as its housing, the prize would make a perfect addition to any distributed computing enthusiast's armory.

Now open to everyone, the contest is a purely community funded and organized. It involves achieving 60,000 BOINC points and 100,000 F@H points within a contest time frame of 60 days, starting from 11:59PM EST on 10/14/09. The contest ends on 11:59PM EST on 12/12/09. Participants must 'crunch' (score) for WCG Team #22175 and 'fold' (scoring) for Folding@Home team #50711 only. The winner will be selected within five days of contest closure, and contacted by e-mail. TechPowerUp doesn't partake as the organizers of this contest, and hence do not hold any liabilities. We do however, like to commend our Folding@Home and World Community Grid teams for organizing this contest, that symbolizes goodwill and team-spirit, and wish everyone associated with it good luck. For more information, please visit this page.
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37 Comments on TechPowerUp Community Crunching/Folding Contest Announced, Score Your Way to a DC-PC

#26
BUCK NASTY
4P Enthusiust
FreedomEclipsewell. thats me out of the contest, not gonna get any where near 60,000 points unless I make a call to arms & get my AMD X2 3800+, FX-55, Intel Q9550, ATi (x2)4870's running...F@H even then im probably not gonna make it.
You would have to average 1000 BOINC and 1667 ppd in F@H per day. This is completely obtainable for 75% of the Tech community.
Posted on Reply
#27
PaulieG
AphexDreamerWait so what if we already have 90000 points in folding does it mean we can't qualify since we already started?
Not at all. We calculate the points you have beginning from the contest date. You are in the running unless you are a top 10 overall producer in either teams prior to the beginning of the contest.
Posted on Reply
#28
Flyordie
I wonder if my X2 system is still doing BOINC.
edit-
Yep, I pulled the X2 online on Sept 28th and its been folding with both cores @ 100% since then... Its running Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. It has the option to use the X1800GTO for GPU assistance also. Which it pulled from on Oct 5th as noted in the 4x fold increase in point production that day.
edit2-
Putting out about 1,000ppd with BOINC on my X2.
Posted on Reply
#29
JrRacinFan
Served 5k and counting ...
PauliegNot at all. We calculate the points you have beginning from the contest date. You are in the running unless you are a top 10 overall producer in either teams prior to the beginning of the contest.
Gotcha! How will the winner be determined? Random drawing?
Posted on Reply
#30
dustyshiv
People,

Whats it with being in the top 10? Why arent these guys allowed to take part in the contest?
Posted on Reply
#31
Chicken Patty
dustyshivPeople,

Whats it with being in the top 10? Why arent these guys allowed to take part in the contest?
Shiv, this contest serves as motivation for the lower running folks. That can be one of the reasons. i'll let the rest of the peeps shime in on this one.
Posted on Reply
#32
MilkyWay
its a good idea i just dont fold or crunch, i dont like to leave the pc on (electricity bill) and i wouldn't fold during pc use

i would fold and crunch if i could afford the bills but i cant and to me its just more numbers a bit like benchmarking but sure it might help research in the years to come or something like that so do it if you want to

its supposed to get people who dont fold or crunch to do it maybe after the competition they would stick to it or something i dunno
Posted on Reply
#33
n-ster
I would so do this if I had a desktop lol... My laptop single core DDR and sucky integrated chip will not even be able to reach those points per year even on 24/7 lol

I wished I could fold or crunch... If I had that desktop, I would leave it 18hrs/6days crunch and folding for sure :D
Posted on Reply
#34
mlee49
Well if this isn't motivation enough I'm sure one would get a fancy badge as well.

Any one want to place bets? I've got an I7 uber clocked and dual 275s ready to pump out some killer ppd.
Posted on Reply
#35
oily_17
dustyshivPeople,

Whats it with being in the top 10? Why arent these guys allowed to take part in the contest?
Chicken PattyShiv, this contest serves as motivation for the lower running folks. That can be one of the reasons. i'll let the rest of the peeps shime in on this one.
Yeah as CP said and also motivation for new members to join and hopefully stay with such great teams ;)

Also being Top10 is more than enough reward :toast:
Posted on Reply
#36
dustyshiv
Chicken PattyShiv, this contest serves as motivation for the lower running folks. That can be one of the reasons. i'll let the rest of the peeps shime in on this one.
I agree...that this would be a great motivation booster for our folks...
The reason that I asked is that this would make the guys in the top 10 to produce more and not drop down their production. U know theres a tendency to slow down once u reached a certain level. But it doesnt matter if you are strongly motivated....again..we are speakin of humans...and not all of them are the same:D

The real award is the feeling you get knowing that you have contributed for a good cause!!:rockout:
Posted on Reply
#37
bogmali
In Orbe Terrum Non Visi
dustyshivPeople,

Whats it with being in the top 10? Why arent these guys allowed to take part in the contest?
Dusty-If we included peeps from the top ten it won't be fair as most of them can meet the requirement way ahead of schedule plus we want the winner to have had earned it;)
Posted on Reply
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