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Date:      Fri, 06 Aug 1999 10:16 -0600
From:      "Brian McGroarty" <BMCGROARTY@high-voltage.com>
To:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   The $500 Performance Question
Message-ID:  <E064D2FFB44AD31186D40008C7333C82@high-voltage.com>

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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?


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