"Roger Halstead" <newsgroups@rogerhalstead.com> wrote in message
news:5u43mvk8niuj2smq82qd78jnvfk2qcg7l4@4ax.com...

 My dedication is not set. So it uses all the available cycles it
needs which means the computers are almost always running 98 to 100%
CPU utilization.

Except when it's off and gets 0%.   Hypothetically, if your system always
runs at 98 to 100% processor utilization _when it's running S@h_ but is
turned off 8 hours a day, that  system's "dedication" will be only approach
65 to 66.7% =>

There still seems to be some confusion in this thread -- it's mixing two
completely different measures of system utilization.

The first is the measure of how much processor time is being used by S@h at
any given instant.  This will will vary depending on how powerful the system
is and how much processor time is being used by the software it's competing
with.  If a system is under heavy use for other software, this numnber can
be quite low.  OTOH, if that same system is idle, this measure should
typically approach 100%.  (But keep in mind, if S2h isn't running at all
it's 0% and, while it's transferring data, it isn't processing WUs.)

The second is the measure of "CPU dedication" which is displayed on the SETI
Spy User Stats screen. (If you don't run SETI Spy, you've probably never
seen this particular stat -- I don't know of any other SETI add-on that
calculates it.)  "Dedication" looks at the total time a S@h account has been
registered and how many hours it has actually spent crunching WUs.  A system
that has run S@h exclusively and continuously from the moment it was
registered will show a "dedication" of near 100% while one that has run S@h
only part-time or along with other software will show proportionately less
"dedication."  (An account with more than one system contributing WUs can
show a dedication in excess of 100% approaching 100n% where n is the number
of systems or CPUs.)