Install Mac Folding client

In order to install the Folding@home client on a Macintosh computer, you will need to first determine what type of Mac you own. Mainly you need to know whether it is an Intel or a Power PC based Mac. You should be able to determine this by clicking on the About This Mac menu option under the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen. On the following screen that appears, it will list your processor type, being one of the Intel of Power PC variants.

If you have one of the Power PC variant processor types, you only option is the Universal Installer located on the Stanford Download page located here:

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

This client also works if you have an Intel processor, so if you want an easy setup with no hassle this will be your best option.

This client is very straight forward, as it is a graphical client that installs a preference pain for easy configuration and running. To install this client, simply unzip and double click the installer package to start the installation. Supply your password when prompted and let the installer finish. After this has completed, you will be left with a new option in your System Preferences pane entitled Folding@home. This is where you will configure your client. When you open up the preferences pain for Folding@home, you will want to enter the user name, team number, and unique user key that you have created previously, see the About Folding@home page linked to above if you need this information. If you have a Power PC processor, you can go ahead and start your client by pushing the respective button in the preference pane and entering your password. If you have an Intel processor, first go to the advance tab, and enter "-smp" without the quotes in the box that says something to the sort of "extra parameters." This allows the client to take advantage of all cores of your processor, making the performance much greater. Once you've done this and pushed the button, you are finished; the client will now automatically run whenever your computer is on.

If you wish to use the console client instead, you can download it from the same page as the the GUI client. Once it has been downloaded, you can extract the client to a folder, and run the fah executable from the command line by typing "./<name of executable>" (without the quotes). Before it actually starts folding, the program will prompt you for the information it needs, such as your user name, user key, and team number. You can then configure the rest of the options it prompts you for; the default options here are fine, but you may configure them as you wish. For added performance, I recommend disabling CPU affinity lock, adding the -smp parameter, allowing "Big" work units to be downloaded, and to allocate it all of your memory. For more advanced options, take a look at the guides/forums linked to on the first page.