new to seti and have a question about which program to use

greetings, finally getting my computers/network up to where i can do some folding and seti but wanted to ask a question or 2.

i keep hearing that the screensaver version is slower then the command line one but can i run games or other programs while it is running like the screensaver ?? normaly 2 of my 3 computers are in use during the day and they cannot be bogged down by seti....

Using the command line client on low priority won't bog any PC down while you're working. It only uses those CPU cycles which are left idle. For instance, if you are doing work that requires 25% of your CPU usage, SETI will use the remaining 75%...if that changes to 50% usage by you, then SETI will only use the remaining 50%. It will go idle if you are using all of your CPUs cycles so you will take no performance hit.

The screensaver takes up more CPU cycles than does the command line client when active so it can produce the graphics. It is much slower and you will get worse times...not quite as bad if it's left minimized but it will still be slower.

Go here for instructions on how to set up the command line client, SETI Driver and SETISpy. It's the simplest way for best performance and none of your PCs will take a hit when working on them.

Welcome to SETI!

I was running the Screensaver for about 2 days and did approximately 3 work units in that time. Then I set up the command line client and am now doing 5+ a day. Plus with the cache program running I dont have to connect to the internet (dial-up ) as often to send & receive new WUs. And set to low priority I can still frag some Counter-Strike with SETI in the background

Welcome to SETI and good luck

I generally turn off SETI when gaming (which isn't too often) to get the best performance possible. But its up to you.

You can get SETI driver and spy along with instructions for setup here http://www.ocsetiteam.com/other/Instr1.htm

thanks for the help guys i now have the command line verison running

Welcome to the team

yes...welcome to the best team to crunch for