First, you're probably running the screen saver version.  Dump it and
install the CLI version.  It runs significantly faster.  A PIII 700 should
process WUs in under 10 hours.  You may want to consider boosting your
memory to at least 256Mb since Windows itself will consume 60-70Mb.  All
Dells of this class can handle at least two 256Mb sticks and the mini-towers
can handle three.

Mike Ober.


"Odysseus" <odysseus1479-at@yahoo-dot.ca> wrote in message
news:41CF823D.825C42DC@yahoo-dot.ca...

mycol wrote:

Howdy...I recieved my first workunit a few days ago. Computer has been
on almost constantly. Screensaver says 61% completed and CPU time is 31
hours and 45 minutes. At this rate it will about four days to complete.
I do not normally use the computer for more than a few hours a day, so
I do not believe it will be of any use to seti as there are others with
much faster computers than a dell p3 700mhz with 128mb of ram running
om win 2000. Is this a normal amount of time for a workunit to be
completed?

Sounds like your system may be doing a lot of swapping between RAM
and HD, due to a shortage of the former. I'd expect a 700-MHz system
with adequate RAM to be at least twice as fast as that, depending on
the size of the L2 cache and various other factors. Installing the
CLI instead of the screensaver should shave off another 10-20% from
your times. As for taking too long, as long as you can return WUs
within a week or so (of real time elapsed, not CPU time) so they
won't be considered 'lost', your results should still be helpful,
although they'll mostly be used to cross-check earlier submissions of
computations on the same WU.

-- 
Odysseus 21# @ 44Y