system idle and seti@home
 

hi,
i've been looking at the task manager and i see that while running the command line version of seti@home (didn't test the gui ver) it only uses 50% of the cpu, while system idle process uses the other 50%. i have a hyperthreading p4 @ 2997mhz. how do i get 1 instance of seti@home to use most of the cpu? i've tried setting priority. does it have to do with ram speed? is it the hyperthreading? it's a laptop, so i don't want to crank up the bus or any overclocking.
thanks.

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

i can get 100% cpu usage only by using 2 instances (processes) of seti. could someone with the tech knowledge explain why? my best guess is that seti@home isn't optimized to use 2 cpus, or smp. - edit

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

Seti is dumb drop that piece of software time to be more productive.

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

That's not much help, Jimmy. It's a person's own choice if they want to contribute to the seti@home project!

Mace, I don't run SETI - I run folding@home myself. But I've had a look at the documentation for SETI and it seems to me like the software can't be configured to use the full capacity of a dual-processor system, and should be 'forced' to use only one processor under those circumstances.

Used on a 'hyper-threaded' processor, I'd imagine it would get even more confused. Perhaps an experienced user of the software might pop up to offer more advice, or perhaps you could chase up more assistance at SETI's bulletin board:

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/bb/bb2/index.cgi

(Please let us know how you 'fixed' it if you get success from there)

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

doh! the bulletin board! i must be mental.
i've looked at a few threads and it seems you're right. nobody is running 1 process of seti with a multi cpu system.
thanks.

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

lol Seti, my moms been running that on her extra computer for years now, every day, day in and day out that program runs, its actually quite funny. i think in the several years of her running it shes only got a couple of wopper sized signals. she has lots of awards though for how many things shes done though.

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

I got a project you should try. It's called SETI2@HOME

Turn off your computer and look out the window you might find aliens that way faster. hahaha

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

and wow your a real funny guy, i almost laughed then i realized it wasnt funny.

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

you are right it isn't funny, whats funny is loading a program like SETI on you computer and wasting you rescources !:)

Re: system idle and seti@home
 

i dont load it on my computer or any computer that i actually use. only computers that are not used any more and are taking up space so i find somthing for them to do. and seit just happend to be one of those things.