ggroups2 wrote:

I am wondering whether an idle computer and one running seti draw the
same amount of power.

No. A CPU running at 100% (SETI) will draw it's maximum power (perhaps, in
my my case, 85 watts) whereas an 'idling' CPU will draw maybe a third to a
half of that.

Also, can you notice if seti is running while
you go about doing your daily routines on your pc?  Like is the pc
quick enough to respond to a higher priority task so that there isn't
any "lag" when you say start up an application and so the cpu has to
stop seti and start processing the application.

I have SETI classic and BOINC on several PCs, ranging from a Celeron 500 to
an Athlon XP3200+ runing SETI. (And I've had it on slower). I have never
been able to notice it's running, the PC responds as quickly as if it wasn't
running.
--
~misfit~