Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 15:22:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com> To: Brian McGroarty <BMCGROARTY@high-voltage.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The $500 Performance Question Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95.990806151714.4162E-100000@current1.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <E064D2FFB44AD31186D40008C7333C82@high-voltage.com>
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ensure that all output is to different drives and a different controller from the source. use soft updates, (or async if the output drive is expendable). use -current. possibly modify each makefile at a medium level to preread the sources so they are in cache (and use the money to add more RAM). The disks should be DMA and the trick is to make sure that everything is already in RAM. On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Brian McGroarty wrote: > I've got a PC used primarily for programming. Projects tend to be large (8-12 > megs of C++ source), so build time is a concern. I'd like ideas on where the > best place to sink $500 would be to boost performance. > > Relevant in the current configuration: > > o (2) Celeron 300a (on socket converters, overclocked to 500mhz) > o Tyan Tiger 100 motherboard (Dual CPU) > o 512mb 100mhz RAM > > EIDE controller: > o 14 gig 7200 EIDE (/usr,/,swap) > o 28 gig 7200 EIDE (/tobackup,/cvs) > > EIDE controller 1: > o 14 gig 7200 EIDE (/home) > o 2/8x CDRW/CD-ROM > > For a familiar benchmark, a FreeBSD 'make world -j 40' takes about an hour > and ten minutes. This may be slewed against your ssytem by the inclusion of > -O3 optimization. > > The CPUs realize a lot of idle time; upward of 60%. I expect then that I/O is > my main bottleneck. > > The drives are Ultra-66 capable, but I don't believe FreeBSD supports this at > current. Thus, I don't see a way to enhance what I've got. (I'm already > enabling 32-bit and DMA on the controllers via flags). > > So what's my best bet? Is there a fast and economical SCSI-2 controller and > drive I should try? Any supported IDE RAID controllers? Or is there an > Ultra-66 controller FreeBSD merely sees as really fast EIDE? > > Or is this time being spent in the huge kernel lock? Would CAS2 capable RAM > then perhaps speed the buffer transfers noticably and get the CPUs back to > unmanaged portions more quickly? > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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