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Re: building performance

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In article <c8cog7piqu9t7gvgdemmo34d3n7t5ok5g2@4ax.com>, 
see_website@mindprod.com.invalid says...
> 
> I am in a slow  process of upgrading my machine to a 6-core CPU.
> 
> I was wondering how this might affect build speed.

Yes it does make a huge difference here.

I have two computers with 4-core hyperthreading CPU (so 8 virtual cores 
each), both are Intel core i7s, one running at 2.8(desktop) and one at 
2.5 Ghz (notebook).
Sitting at my desktop computer, I have just tried to bind all Java 
processes and eclipse.exe to one virtual core and do a clean build of 
all projects in my private workspace, which took about 25 seconds.
Allowing it to run on all cores, the clean build time drops to about 4 
to 5 Seconds. I've tried that back-to-back to prevent caching effects 
from skewing the outcome.
Indeed the taskmanager showed that during the single-core-tests only one 
core was busy and during the multi-core-tests all 8 virtual cores have 
been loaded with work.

However, I can assure you, that probably the best thing that you can do 
for your build-performance is to buy a Solid State Disc. My last 
customer has a huge project that takes some minutes to build from 
scratch even on a solid state disc and when I had been new to the 
project, and just had a common mechanical drive in my notebook, it took 
some ten minutes or more.

I would recommend an Intel X25m "Postville", which has proven to be 
solid in the real world, while I've seen 4 OCZ-Vertex and one Crucial 
drive fail at my last customers' office (drive not showing up/not 
mounting properly, or taking half an hour to open a directory, data 
loss, etc), while the Intels have had no problem whatsoever (all running 
the latest firmware of course), most of them runing under Windows XP, in 
the course of about one year.

For my notebook I had bought a OCZ Vertex 2 before I have heard of these 
problems and luckily had no problem so far. 
For my desktop computer I own an Intel x25m Postville with Windows' File 
compression switched on, which feels a little snappier than the OCZ on 
my notebook, but then again - the notebook as a slightly slower CPU and 
is lower on memory, so handkle this statement with care.

The Intel SSD will give you the best bang for the buck and has not 
caused any problem at my customers', so it's a clear recommendation.
Use one of these as your system drive and you'll have problems getting 
rid of the smile on your face in the first few days until you've grown 
accustomed to it.

> 2. Is there anything reasonable simple to take advantage of the extra
> cores?

What do you mean? A list of applications?
Video editing software and video transcoding software loves multicore 
systems in general. I don't need to point out Application Servers and 
stuff, I think. Some games make use of it, but I don't think that's what 
you had in mind.
 
Kind regards,
Wanja


-- 
..Alesi's problem was that the back of the car was jumping up and down 
dangerously - and I can assure you from having been teammate to 
Jean Alesi and knowing what kind of cars that he can pull up with, 
when Jean Alesi says that a car is dangerous - it is. [Jonathan Palmer]

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Thread

building performance Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-10 04:41 -0800
  Re: building performance Wanja Gayk <brixomatic@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-21 11:41 +0100
    Re: building performance Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-23 17:58 -0800
  Re: building performance Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-21 16:02 -0500

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