In addition to what Jord said, we should remember that SETI@Home is no longer just a screen saver program but a full fledged application that happens to offer screen saver functionality. Running the screen saver is not required to crunch data.

BOINC can run perfectly without the screen saver, so why not disable it in Windows (set screen saver to None). Then if you want to look at the graphics at times, use the Show Graphics button. When not using the monitor, use the power button on the front to power it down. Saves some on the environment.

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In current, as well as the old days, OpenGL screen savers, like Boinc, Pipes, Marquee Scrolling Text, etc.. were and are, all designed to eliminate the potential for "screen burn", more common of yesteryear. They are EXTREMELY memory and CPU intensive on their own. If you, like myself, have set the BOINC CPU allocation of 80% or more, running constantly in the background, you're probably choking yourself out ? Easy 2 check, do the <alt><ctrl><del> and open Task Manager, goto the Performance tab and look at your CPU Usage monitor.. I, like you, are probably maxed out at 100%, 100% of the time, even though I'm running BOINC at 80% ? Sorry, but I have had to remove the screensaver and have had to go beyond the 3 finger salute <alt><ctrl><del> and perform a 1 finger, cold, hard reboot, constantly since I installed it. I did not relate it to the WU because I am used to the OpenGL issues. BOINC can suck the Life out of your syetem if you let it.. I never had the problem with the old SETI, nor this current version, until I turned on the screensaver.

A+ Computer Tech since 1999.