# which piece of hardware is gcc's bottleneck?

## yoshi314

sorry if it was already discussed. i can't seem to find it. if there was already such a topic, please provide me with a link, and erase the thread.

i'm planning to do a small HW upgrade soon. my question is : does RAM timing/amount affect gcc performance?

these are my options: replace 266mhz 256mb ddr ram chip with two 256mb 400mhz ddrs so i can use dual channel and boost them up to 800mhz, or buy a new CPU (i have P4 celeron 1.7 GHz for now - celerons have very little cache :/ )?

i can't afford both right now, so i can only choose one of the two.

currently my system performs worse than expected - X.org compiles in 2 hours, and glibc in ~4hours. people say it should compile faster than that on this hardware. (no crazy CFLAGS there, just -march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe )

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## ansient

If anything, get more ram.  But I think you should save all your money for a new machine...

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## crazycat

Go for ram if you dont plan to game often. Also I think gcc will run better with better cpu but i also think 512 is minimum for good desktop experience.

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## bravo911

i've got a gig of DDR400 and it's lightning, however the processor is AMD athlon xp 2800 so there is a noticable difference. I understand the monetary concerns, as I share the same pains. Personally, i'd go with the new processor first. The reasoning for this is that the Celeron 1.7 is a 333mhz frontside anyhow, so you'll have a hard time getting your shiny new DDR400 ram to actually run at 400mhz. Then, buy a SINGLE stick of 512mb DDR400, leaving you that other slot for another 512 down the road. Us poor men must live a humble life. It just doesn't make sense to spend money replacing ram with the same amount, that only runs at the same speed. You'd barely notice a difference. Essentially you will indeed notice a gain in speed with the processor, and then when you get the ram it will speed up even more. If you can be patient, you'll have a fast assed box.

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## ansient

No, a single 512mb 400mhz will help the most and be the best buy right now.  Run it at 266mhz with your current ram untill you can afford a new motherboard/processor.

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## yoshi314

wow, thanks for your help. didn't expect such response :]

so i'll go for motherboard (so i can put better cpus/ram inside), ram and finally cpu.

so i guess i'll buy one 512/400mhz and then second one (some time later) :]

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## bollucks

gcc mostly depends on cpu cycles. The rest is irrelevant.

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## Illissius

Go for the CPU. Northwood-core Celerons are so dog slow, they're like the speed of a P3 or Duron with half the GHz.

Get a 2.4+GHz P4 (absolutely *not* a Celeron), preferably a Northwood core with 800MHz FSB (P4C), but mostly anything that isn't a Northwood Celeron will be a whole lot faster.

The amount of RAM won't matter unless whatever you're using needs more than you have (in this case, I rather doubt it unless you're compiling KDE with --enable-final or something), and the speed doesn't matter nearly as much as you think, you can double it and the actual improvement in performance might not be more then 5-10%.

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## yoshi314

now that you mention it...people say that to use kdeenablefinal flag you need a lot of ram. how much exactly is that?

will try first with the cpu then. if my MB can handle it. :]

thanks.

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## bollucks

 *yoshi314 wrote:*   

> now that you mention it...people say that to use kdeenablefinal flag you need a lot of ram. how much exactly is that?
> 
> 

 

Depends on which package. The kdebindings package is the worst needing 900MB in my experience.

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## Akaihiryuu

No kidding...the computer I have to use at work is a Northwood P4/Celeron 1.7 GHz.  It is without a doubt the slowest computer I've ever used.  Even my K6-3+ 450 at home is more responsive.  My Duron 750 runs rings around it.  I'd get a much better CPU first, that will make more difference in this case than RAM would, since the Celeron 1.7 is so incredibly slow.  This computer (Win2k) feels like it's a 486 most of the time, at best.

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## zieloo

Don't know if you really need to change your motherboard... There're P4's around that run on socket 478, right? Anyway, a new CPU is essential if you still want to run Gentoo  :Wink:   My ^*$&$^($#& cacheless celeron is slower in compiling stuff than old PIII 650MHz (ok - comparable mainly due to faster ram...). Ram is not so important, though - I rarely exceed a 256mb limit even when emerging. When it comes to kdeenablefinal flag it really, really does suck off the ram, it may be 500Mb or more depending on a package. Oh, i forgot to mention the new outstanding line of celerons, I mean - Celeron D - with its revolutionary construction and enourmous cache:P Lil bit sarcastic here but benchmarks show it happen to work like a CPU is supposed to, at last...

Pozdrawiam i ¿yczê udanych zakupów :Wink: 

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## Illissius

Yeah, Prescott Celerons are not so bad. They're only somewhat slower than P4s of equivalent GHz, as opposed to twice as slow. I'd still get a P4 though.

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