[gentoo-user] Changing compilers

[Andrew Lowe]

Hi all,
     Has anyone played around with the various "better known"  
compilers on Gentoo? By "better known", I'm referring to gcc, Intel,  
llvm, pathscale. My situation is that I've just started my PhD which  
requires me to do Finite Element Analysis, FEA, and Computational  
Fluid Dynamics, CFD, and I want to find the "best" compiler for the  
job. Before anyone says "Why bother, XXX compiler is only 1 - 2%  
faster than gcc", in the context of the work I'm doing this 1 - 2% IS  
important.

What I'm looking for is any feedback people may have on ability to  
compile the Gentoo environment, the ability to change compilers  
easily, gcc-config or flags in make.conf, as to whether the  
compiler/linker can use the libraries as compiled by gcc on a  
"standard" gentoo install and so on. Obviously there is much web  
trawling to be done to find what other people are saying as well.

Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
        Andrew Lowe