What settings to use when playing against Engines

What settings such as time control, search depth, permanent brain etc should i use when playing against engines.

Im new to playing against them and have a rating of around 1300. 

I have tried games against stockfishDD, Tarrasch toy engine, Critter and rybka and shredder classic 4.

Ive set most games so far at 30mins time control with a search depth of 5.

Does the 30mins time control conflict with a search depth of 5.

Thanks for any help

I'm not familiar with the settings on those engines, but I know that it is better sometimes to weaken the engine with time rather than search depth. Since if you turn the search depth down to much it will play some pretty silly moves. I would give the engine 1-2 min and give yourself 30min to start. Then adjust the other settings down as needed

I tend to play engines that have built-in dumb-down features, since they often limit the nodes searched (which I think is better than plies searched), and they even sometimes add a randomness feature to simulate occasional blunders.

 In no particular order, some engines I like are Shredder, Stockfish, Ufim, Hamsters, Crafty, HIARCS, Phalanx Reborn, and Pupsi2.

When you're playing these dumbed-down engines, just pick a time control that's good for you; The engine will probably only use a small portion of its time to actually calculate, and the rest of the time it will just be waiting idly. Permanent brain isn't important at these levels - just turn it off.

Another fun thing to do with engines for practice is to play it at full strength try your best, but eventually you will screw up and get a losing position, once the computer is completely winning (but there still is play left) switch sides and try and finish the game off. That way you can learn from your middle game mistakes, but also you get to learn technique and how to win won games. Just an idea, hope this helps.

thanks lads.

if i understand correctly , i should give myself 30mins time control but dont set a time control for the engine.

instead just give it a certain time to think on every move.

i do playy shredder and set the slider to my level and play 30mins time control.. i find though that it makes very weak moves and it only searches 2 ply at my level

I was suggesting to give it 1-2min per game to your 30min. If your engine has a rating adjustment that is the easiest way to dumb it down. Some engines also have a friend mode that automatically plays to your level

These are all UCI engines, so look at the list of UCI options they expose.  Look for something like "Skill Level" or "UCI Elo" and set that option.  Using those options are better than artificially stopping the search depth or calculation time, as they are specifically tweaked to make more natural considerations.  They usually finish a line of thought and not pursue more obscure lines, trimming their search at more consistent boundaries.  It doesn't always mean the differences can be seen, but when they can, it is usually better through these settings.  If you do not see any setting that effects level, then time is usually the more appropriate to set before depth.  Setting depth level is good for post game analysis and evaluation of the progress of a game (calculating centipawns consistently, for instance).