Folding with Pentium 1/2's??

I have recently acquired a few older pc's. I believe I could make about 4 complete computers out of them. The processor's are pentium 1's, 2's, and a few AMD's from the same era (1998ish)

Are these going to be able to fold anything worthwhile??

 

It's all worthwhile

 

lol one wu a month isn't worth my time, is anyone using these older processors?? what kind of output do they generate?

 

Did this as an experiment.
Sony Vaio PCG-F340 Notebook
PII 364 Mhz 192 MB RAM
CPU @ 80% 24/7
5.04 Console as Service
Approx. 11 Hours 30 Minutes per Step
Extrapolating out to be 1 WU per 48 Days

 

i don't know if that justifies the power consumption

 

If you don't need the pc's for anything else, then you could run them 24/7, until they burn out. Or run them at half speed, 24/7 for a long time, I think they would do quit abit of work over time. Clean the power supply untits out, if you have done so (the fan).

 

It all does help, but the stats provided by lbmest indicate that it would not justify the power usage

Just as an indication, using my 2 computers (both at 100%):

XP 2.8
Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista text-only console 5.04
1 step = 31 minutes
or a total of 51.667 hours per Work Unit (2 days & 3.667 hours)

ME 1.4
Windows 98/ME Graphical client 4.00
1 step = 64 minutes
or a total of 106.667 hours per Work Unit (4 days & 10.667 hours)

 

that's slow as dirt.

 

Just an update on that Sony.
16 days at 80% CPU.
29 days at 100% CPU.
Total 45 days for 1 WU.
Impressive, wouldn't you say?
:cry:cry
(I think I'll try a linux distro next. See if I can really mess it up.)

 

Just an update
Swapped out the 1.4 for a 2.0 today

ME 2.0
Windows 98/ME Graphical client 4.00
1 step = 38 minutes
or a total of 63.334 hours per Work Unit (2 days & 15.334 hours)

 

Yeah, when I saw how much time this takes I basically set a minimum specs of around 800 Mhz or so for folding, for what it's worth. XP is pretty decent, it will pick up on a bookmark, but with 98 if you loose power you've lost the job, and it has to start from scratch (major bummer!).

 

Oh by the way, if you change your CPU it forces the Work unit to restart

not a huge surprise, was kind of expecting it.
the WU was only at 14% so i will still finish it faster anyway