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Performance Tips:

If you are running the SETI@home GUI client, keep the following in mind:
  • Displaying graphics uses resources.
  • Keep the client minimized in the taskbar.
  • Don't use the client's screensaver.
    • Use the windows Blank Screen screensaver instead.
    • Or use the energy savings features of the monitor to turn off after a few minutes of input inactivity and no screensaver at all (since it's just a program more that runs in the background using system resources).

For the GUI client there is a nice caching program SETI Monitor, programmed by Lior Fainshill

SETI Monitor site has moved to http://www.consultuspc.com/setimon/
Please change your links. The old website might or might not continue
operating. It is very unclear at this moment. I moved to the new site
for the case that the old server might be shut down without notice,
which will leave the users in the dark.

Lior Fainshil


That is all on the GUI client side.

But then there is the Command Line Interface SETI@home CLI.
For the different clients & Operating Systems supported and links see the table below. For OS version compatibility check this table.
The CLI doesn't display graphics and doesn't provide a screensaver. Lets say, it doesn't use resources for fancy stuff. It crunches faster than the GUI client. (I cut my crunching times in more than half by switching to the CLI... 15 - 25 hours averaging on 20 down to 5 - 12 averaging on 8 hours).
Since the CLI doesn't have any fancy interface at all, there are programs written by users like you and me to help starting and stopping the CLI, caching WU and displaying the analized data.

The two I use on my Windows systems (and best supported IMHO) are
Michael D. Ober's SETI Driver
to Start, Stop and control the CLI and WU cache
and 
Roelof J. Engelbrecht's SETI Spy
to view the analyzed data, user stats, CPU performance and other useful stuff

hmmm. Both programs above (after two years of support and updates) have been left in a last version.
SETI Driver: 1.6.3.4
SETI Spy: 3.1.0

For the CLI on UNIX/Linux systems running KDE 2.x there is KSetiSpy, a nice clone of SETI Spy.
It has cacheing ability and other goodies.
It has been tested on Linux (Mandrake 8.x, RedHat 7.2, Debian Woody, SuSE 7.3) and FreeBSD (4.5).

SETI@Home has been developed for almost all available Operating Systems.

 
GUI
Graphical
User
Interface 		The Windows version requires at least 32MB RAM and the ability to display 8-bit color in 640x480 resolution (though 800x600 or higher is recommended in order to fit all the graphics on the screen). The software will not work if your PC does not meet these requirements
The SETI@home software for Mac requires at least the following to run:
  • The ability to display 8-bit color in 640x480 resolution (though 800x600 or higher is recommended in order to fit all the graphics on the screen)
  • Mac OS X public beta operating system
This SETI@home client is designed for use with the OS X operating system which was released by Apple Computer on March 24, 2001.
The SETI@home software for Mac requires at least the following to run:
  • 32MB RAM (it could run with as little as 24MB RAM, but would be quite sluggish)
  • The ability to display 8-bit color in 640x480 resolution (though 800x600 or higher is recommended in order to fit all the graphics on the screen)
  • PowerPC processor
  • System 7.5.5 or later

 

CLI
Command
Line
Interface 		(Windows 95 requires the Winsock 2 upgrade)

Download the i386-winnt-cmdline.exe.
Runs on all mentioned Windows platforms.

For Alpha Servers download alpha-winnt-cmdline.exe.

 

 
For Linux systems on the AMD K6 processor, only the binaries
i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1 and
i386-pc-linux-gnulibc1-static should be used.
The binaries 
i686-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1 and 
i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1-static will not function on the AMD K6 processor.

The version 3.04 clients for the platforms mips[34]-sgi-irix6.2 are merely the 3.03 versions of these clients, but with less dependence upon the runtime environment. Therefore these version 3.04 clients will function on older platforms without requiring upgrades of the runtime libraries.

Intel versions run on the given processor and higher. For example, i386 version run on 386, 486, and pentium. The binaries have been compiled with a blended optimization to give good performance on all versions of the Intel chipsets. 

 
Client Operating System Compatibility
Client File Name Known to work on OS versions
i386-winnt-cmdline Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT
(Windows 95 requires the
Winsock 2 upgrade)
i386-pc-sco3.2v5.0.x OpenServer 5.0.*, UnixWare 7.*.*
i386-pc-sysv4.2uw2.1 UnixWare 2.1.*, UnixWare 7.*.*
i586-sequent-sysv4 Symmetry or STiNG system ptx v4.4.x, 4.5.x
i386-unknown-freebsd2.2.8 FreeBSD 2.2.5, 2.2.6, 2.2.7, 2.2.8
3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.0
i386-unknown-openbsd2.7 OpenBSD 2.6, 2.7
powerpc-ibm-aix4.1.5.0 AIX 4.1.5.0, 4.2.* 4.3.*
sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1 Solaris 2.6, 2.7, 2.8
sparc-sun-solaris2.6 Solaris 2.6, 2.7, 2.8

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