When I first heard about this, I thought it was pretty cool; it was an actual application of the Playstation 3's computing power that wasn't devoted to games.. and given that I'm majoring in biochem, it caught my eye (yeah, big science nerd here).

Long story short, when I got my PS3 back from Sony, this was one of the first things I installed and I generally try to let it run in my spare time.

For those who are unaware, here's the overview from Wikipedia
"Folding@home (sometimes abbreviated as FAH or F@h) is a distributed computing (DC) project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics (MD). It was launched on October 1, 2000, and is currently managed by the Pande Group, within Stanford University's chemistry department, under the supervision of Professor Vijay Pande. Folding@home is the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world, according to Guinness, and one of the world's largest distributed computing projects. The goal of the project is "to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases."

So, are you a part of the some 1.7 million users contributing with their PS3? And do you think we'll be seeing more applications like this for the Playstation 3? It'd be cool to see what other "good" can come from a game console.

I do it, and I love it. Someone should make a group!

And if your a fan of F@H, your gonna love 'Life with PlayStation', prob heard about it before but its an interactive globe, like the current one but with Google Earth like quality, that displays real time weather reports world wide (clouds, rain etc), as well as world wide news reports. You zoom in on an area and the news and weather will be displayed, sounds pretty sweet. Best part is, you can F@H while doing this! AND listen to music from your HDD. Free too.

So this will be major news, especially for people use F@H a lot.

Supposedly out before the end of July, so they only have a week or so left. Bet it will be delayed but we'll see.

I do use folding@home on occasion. It's a great feature that provides great long term benefits (with participation). I used to leave my Ps3 on during the night to fold or while I was at work, but later stopped because WU were in the 8 hour range and I hated constantly leaving my Ps3 on 24/7 (yes I do baby it like that =/). The stat tracking they provide can make it enjoyable as well (if your into that). I doubt there will be more applications like this in the future though. Stanford was interested in this concept from the first moment they understood the Cell Processor's ability and could utilize it. It would be a great idea if more were included in the future, unfortunately I just can't fathom any other concepts or educational organizations that would be interested.

I use it some of the time. My ps3 makes a wierd buzzing noise while using it anyone else get that?

Anyway yea its a nice feature good to know we could be helping in someway (probably).

I would use it more if I could play my own music. Their music isn't bad, but it gets annoying after a while.

no, because I'm afraid it will jack my performance

I do it sometimes if I remember.

"no, because I'm afraid it will jack my performance"

"I would use it more if I could play my own music. Their music isn't bad, but it gets annoying after a while.
"

"I do use folding@home on occasion. It's a great feature that provides great long term benefits (with participation). I used to leave my Ps3 on during the night to fold or while I was at work, but later stopped because WU were in the 8 hour range and I hated constantly leaving my Ps3 on 24/7 (yes I do baby it like that =/). The stat tracking they provide can make it enjoyable as well (if your into that). I doubt there will be more applications like this in the future though. Stanford was interested in this concept from the first moment they understood the Cell Processor's ability and could utilize it. It would be a great idea if more were included in the future, unfortunately I just can't fathom any other concepts or educational organizations that would be interested.
"

I put mine on when I get bored of playing games. I've only completed like 2 work units

I do it on occasion. Usually between play sessions in the evening and until I go to bed. I don't leave it on overnight though.

I don't... but I will, although I don't like leaving my PS3 on without doing anything with it...

I do SETI@Home and some other stuff through my computer though...

:)

No, it just never occurs to me to turn it on before I leave for work or anything. =/

"No, it just never occurs to me to turn it on before I leave for work or anything. =/"

I couldnt be bothered doing it

I didnt know what to do.

Being a science nerd myself, just the thought of protein folding turns me on

Bummer I don't have a PS3, or I'd be all over it

Everyone knows that they can run this on a regular computer also right?

I leave Folding@Home on whenever I'm not using my PS3. I have over 1000 WUs completed. :)

Yeah I'm a constant F@H person. I also leave my PS3 on just to do it

I haven't really used it since it came out. Maybe a few times but that's it.

I did when it first came out. Not recently though. I will again if they put in trophy support :) hehe just imagine how many people would if they put in trophies on there.

I don't because it causes my PS3 to get too hot.

I used to leave my PS3 on 24/7 Folding when I wasn't using it, but I heard that Sony isn't repairing or replacing 60GB consoles that die, and I don't really want to take the chance. I might start folding again if I get another non-bc PS3 at some point, but I don't see that happening for a very long time, if at all.

However, I did just get a new video card for my computer, and I hear it can run Folding@Home, so I might try that.

Everytime when charging a controller while not being motivated for gaming ;-)

Well I heard you can also use for computer to do that Folding@home program. 

With the amount of extra pollution and electrical use all these PS3's (and PCs) are emitting from being constantly on, it's hard to decide whether to participate or not.
I wont do folding at home with my PS3, but since I keep my computer on all day anyway, I will wait for ATI's new 4870x2 card to come out with CUDA support, and use the massive dual GPUs to do the folding. 4870x2 has 2 teraFLOPS of computing power I guess folding@home will benefit massively from that, and anyone who has a current gen ati/nvidia card

nah, cant be bothered with it and i still don't know what it does really hehe

Don't use it and I'm not planning on using it

its fun looking at all the dots for about 10 seconds then you just think to yourself 'i want to beat the hell out of some french people on COD!' which in my opinion is more satisfying than curing serious illnesses :D haha

It works 100% of you CPU and the system get's too hot for my liking. I have only one complete fold.

Yes. ReTarDedFisHy likes to leave on his PS3, mainly to leave things downloading. Oh, and contribute processing power to F@H. He doesn't worry about his PS3 getting too hot because he just leaves the AC on all the time, he likes it chilly.

ReTarDedFisHy thinks we should make a GB group.

Nah, still need to understand what it does to my PS3 (I get worried to easy)

"Yes. ReTarDedFisHy likes to leave on his PS3, mainly to leave things downloading. Oh, and contribute processing power to F@H. He doesn't worry about his PS3 getting too hot because he just leaves the AC on all the time, he likes it chilly.

ReTarDedFisHy thinks we should make a GB group."

I used to... but I don't do it regularly

mines only at like 2.17% and has been for some time now

"ReTarDedFisHy said:

"Yes. ReTarDedFisHy likes to leave on his PS3, mainly to leave things downloading. Oh, and contribute processing power to F@H. He doesn't worry about his PS3 getting too hot because he just leaves the AC on all the time, he likes it chilly.

ReTarDedFisHy thinks we should make a GB group."

Why does ReTarDedFisHy speak in third person?
"

"ReTarDedFisHy said:

"Yes. ReTarDedFisHy likes to leave on his PS3, mainly to leave things downloading. Oh, and contribute processing power to F@H. He doesn't worry about his PS3 getting too hot because he just leaves the AC on all the time, he likes it chilly.

ReTarDedFisHy thinks we should make a GB group."

Why does ReTarDedFisHy speak in third person?
"

"LiquidPrince said:

"ReTarDedFisHy said:

"Yes. ReTarDedFisHy likes to leave on his PS3, mainly to leave things downloading. Oh, and contribute processing power to F@H. He doesn't worry about his PS3 getting too hot because he just leaves the AC on all the time, he likes it chilly.

ReTarDedFisHy thinks we should make a GB group."

Why does ReTarDedFisHy speak in third person?
"

Because ReTarDedFisHy has always spoken in third-person, and alway will. You don't think it's actually possible for a FisHy to talk in first-person do you?"

"Nah, still need to understand what it does to my PS3 (I get worried to easy)"

"honestly i didnt think fish could talk in first person or third"

"honestly i didnt think fish could talk in first person or third"

"...Oh."

"...Oh."

One of the first things I did once I got my PS3.  I'm a high school science teacher though, so I have no excuse not to use it.

Ipesonally dont, not becuase I am tight or anything, I just dont like leaving the console on when i am not around for hours.

I think I have, like, three folds. So no, I don't use it.

nope i dont. i havnt even installed it. i may after i get the hard drive =/

no interest in doing this even if it helps to cure cancer

Yes, I fold@home. I use to leave my PS3 on 24/7 with a couple of breaks every month. Now I have cut back to leaving it on in the day time and turning it off at night. I followed the advice of someone who left their PS3 on 24/7 (except in thunderstorms) and their PS3 fans died. He recommended I stop folding@home, but I think just running it for 12 hours a day now will help reduce the risk of the fans failing... At least I hope so.

"no interest in doing this even if it helps to cure cancer"

never!