user243: I am using Arena with Stockfish-222-64-ja-intel. It thinks about 50 moves deep and heats up my laptop processor. All I was interested in, was a depth of about 12-13 moves and for the best line to be shown on the top. I am not able to find the options to configure the gui is such a manner. Let me know if you have an answer.
Update: I know how to limit the level for computer strength. That's plain - it's Levels>>Adjust>>Fixed Search Depth>>8 half moves. The problem still persists though. When I click the Analyze button, the computer starts thinking really deep (and yes, the heating problem is a bit irritating and drains the battery).

user1382: What you want to do is limit the number of cores Stockfish has access to. I'm sure your computer/laptop has more than one core, but if improperly set, a UCI engine can eat up all of your processing power and leave your computer sluggish. There are two ways to fix this.
Arena should have a "Lower than normal process priority" in Engine Management Options. You should check this off.
Also, I know Chessbase lets you allocate a certain amount of cores (or threads) for the engine, and I'm sure Arena does as well. However, I'm not entirely sure how to do it with the specified software.

243: <p>I am using <code>Arena</code> with <code>Stockfish-222-64-ja-intel</code>. It thinks about 50 moves deep and heats up my laptop processor. All I was interested in, was a depth of about 12-13 moves and for the best line to be shown on the top. I am not able to find the options to configure the gui is such a manner. Let me know if you have an answer.</p>

<p>Update: I know how to limit the level for computer strength. That's plain - it's <code>Levels&gt;&gt;Adjust&gt;&gt;Fixed Search Depth&gt;&gt;8 half moves</code>. The problem still persists though. When I click the <code>Analyze</code> button, the computer starts thinking really deep (and yes, the heating problem is a bit irritating and drains the battery).</p>
 1382: <p>What you want to do is limit the number of cores Stockfish has access to. I'm sure your computer/laptop has more than one core, but if improperly set, a UCI engine can eat up all of your processing power and leave your computer sluggish. There are two ways to fix this.</p>

<p>Arena should have a "Lower than normal process priority" in Engine Management Options. You should check this off.</p>

<p>Also, I know Chessbase lets you allocate a certain amount of cores (or threads) for the engine, and I'm sure Arena does as well. However, I'm not entirely sure how to do it with the specified software.</p>
