Re: [gentoo-user] processor speed

[R0b0t1]

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 9:49 AM, Daniel Frey <djqfrey@×××××.com> wrote:
> On 08/29/2017 08:09 PM, R0b0t1 wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 12:07 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> Rich Freeman wrote:
>>>
>>> Isn't it amazing how efficient and fast newer computers are?  It's
>>> almost worth the energy saving to upgrade.  If a person runs their
>>> system 24/7, that is even more reason.
>>>
>>
>> It's something I used to bring up in #gentoo when people would come in
>> and ask or complain about compilation times. The amortization period
>> for computers is generally 3 years. If you use them longer, you are
>> (in theory) losing money relative to your competitors.
>>
>> As a home user, your time and energy budgets might not be so tight,
>> but the lack of stress is worth a nice desktop for compiling your
>> software.
>>
>>
>
> I'm sort of on the fence for now. I bought my computer in 2008 (but an
> expensive processor, QX9650, with 8GB of RAM, very $$$ in 2008) and it
> still is running fine today. It still compiles reasonably quickly, as I
> use distcc with one other computer) and am still on spinning rust, but
> in RAID. My mythtv frontends have SSDs and every one has had the SSD
> replaced at least once.
>

A decade was about how long I expect my i7-4770k based system to last,
assuming I have absolutely no money to upgrade before then.

> My main frontend in the living room has shown problems (hanging while
> playing back recordings, and I mean a hard-lock... no ssh, no response
> at all, and the backend had in its logs "where'd it go? closing
> connection") and so I think the hardware may finally be at the end of
> its life. That was also built in 2008.
>
> I'm not going to throw a working computer out (well, recycle it) if I
> don't have to. Power is cheap here.
>
> I have concerns about the backend (Q6600) and frontend (E7500), as they
> were both built in 2008, but the thing is, they're just as fast as I
> remember them when built new.
>
> For the frontend replacement I think I'm going to jump to one of the
> Ryzen products. I don't need ThreadRipper there, but one of their other
> processors will work. The backend will get a faster processor but it's
> part of my distcc cluster.
>
> I think Dale posted a libreoffice build speed, mine isn't so bad either,
> but I'm using RAID and distcc:
>
> $ genlop -t libreoffice
>  * app-office/libreoffice
>
>      Tue Aug  1 08:45:28 2017 >>> app-office/libreoffice-5.2.7.2
>        merge time: 1 hour, 22 minutes and 53 seconds.
>
> I *really* hate the climate nowadays of toss it out when it acts up/gets
> slow.
>

Like I mention in another thread (and like Rich touches on) power
savings can be an incentive to upgrade, besides the increase in speed.
Power efficiency and speed generally increase in multiples greater
than one, so you are reducing the cost and time of compilations or
general use by a lot in the end.

Look at Alan's quoted build times for an example.

R0b0t1.