Are there any measures I can take to minimise CPU usage of cpuminer on a Windows 8 machine? Without affecting performance? (don't ask for much do I?)

Elsewhere, I read "You can also try limiting the number of cores it uses with the -t option" but I don't think that applies to Sandor's fork?

I know I should be using a Pi/controller to mine, but I am not. I'm using the only PC I have (an i7 laptop) - its old and probably dirty inside, frazzled the cpu/gpu ages ago. @idle the fan does not come on. But with cpuminer running 24/7 the fan is on constant about 20% speed even though the process is reporting as using less than less than 1% cpu.

I have found the teardown guide for my laptop and in 30 simple steps I can crack it wide open to give a proper clean and repaste the cpu/gpu. Hopefully that will help! I regularly hoover out the ports too.