BOINC

Here is the thing...I've drawn to the conclusion that my PC stays sometimes powered up doing nothing. So I thought...why not put those two cores to some action?
Then I wondered...but what should I put them to do? Yes, I could use them for converting some movies into mp4s for my iPod but I have already seen all of the movies I have so no need for that.
Then, I remembered that some years ago, there was a project were you downloaded a program and it was using your computer's power to make calculations.

And here is were BOINC steps in. To put it simply, BOINC is a manager that keeps track, provides settings etc for projects of those type.
For example, project number 1: Rosetta@home
-it determines the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases.
Project number 2: World Community Grid
-improve the results of protein X-ray crystallography, which helps researches not only annotate unknown parts of the human pretome, but importantly improves their understanding of cancer initiation, progression and treatment
-it identifies promising drug leads to combat the related dengue, hepatitis C, West Nile and Yellow fever viruses.
- to find new materials for the next generation of solar cells and later, energy storage devices
etc

Most of them, if not all are non-profit organizations.

In short, there are certain projects that require tremendous calculations and powerful computers. And instead of one super-computers there is a world-wide network of computers connected.
And I am donating a part of my PC's time for these projects.

The good news is that I am in control of everything. I decide which projects I want to help with, what is the amount of time and resources I am willing to donate etc.
I have opted for a few already. And I don't like playing with grey zones if you know what I mean so when I'm not using it(the computer) it(Boinc) runs at 100%, when I am using it, it shuts down. Simple as that.
Another good news is that the program is flexible and for example, right now it's working on two project and my CPU stays at 100% for hours, but, if I open my computer, of firefox or something somehow light, Boinc adjust and give enough power for what I want. Therefore my system is responsive all the way. I can even let it run projects while surfing the internet.

The bad news is that since I left the stock AMD cooler...my pc makes a lot of noise.

Time for some numbers now: Core #1 stays around 56-58 degrees and core #2 at 51-53 while Boinc is running. Also my old processor is capable of making 2140 milion float operations per second and 3900 milions integer operations per second.
I will probably bump the frequency from 2.2 GHz to 2.4GHz next time I reboot thus being absolutely sure that my sistem is stable.

So, I can always use this program as a stress program for overclocking as well :))

V