On Wed, 9 Oct 2019 at 23:09, Sam Varshavchik <mrsam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My C++ compiles are getting longer. It's time to get new hardware, but I'm
having some difficulty finding Fedora-friendly hardware, that's slightly
above average grade, such as dual CPU and spinning rust (I haven't gotten
quite aboard the SSD train, with its built-in expiration date).
SSD should greatly reduce compile times for large codes.
You can greatly extend the SSD expiration date by not allowing them to fill
up. Before I retired I working with a group that did remote sensing, which
involves large amounts of data. Mechanical drives routinely failed on or
about the end of warranty, showing that the manufacturers have very good
understanding of the lifetime under heavy use. This makes stripped disk
arrays for better thruput very reliable during the warranty. SSD's should
be even better understood, and the failure modes should be easily monitored,
so self-testing and reporting should be better than for mechanical drives.
In general, multiple CPU's only make sense if you need more cores than you
can get (or afford) on one CPU. The exception might be cases like compiles
where there are lots of independent processes and you benefit from double
the cache, but you can also get CPU models with more cache. There are
extra costs for sockets, cooling, etc for 2 CPU systems, so in most cases
you will be better off with at least one SSD and a higher-end (more cores and
more cache) single CPU. Intel is like automakers who try to get you to buy
features you don't really need. They can charge more for higher CPU clock
speeds than the increase thruput warrants. For the remote sensing workloads
it was better to buy cheaper CPU's and spend more on mass storage.
Phoronix.com has lots of linux benchmark results that include compiles.
George N. White III
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