Alan McKinnon wrote: > You will notice the grunt those i7s can deliver when you start to do > this (sort of typical for mine...): 3 virtualbox vms running, 1 > Windows for IE and Office 30 tabs open in firefox emerge world going > on set to -j32 -l8 30-odd konsole tabs open, often more than half > tailing a log file at more than 200 lines a minute the usual desktop > apps (mail, skype, movie playing in one corner) I sort of just keep > loading it up till I run out of things to leave open, and never notice > the difference. This is an 8 core i7 with 16G RAM and 128G SSD - > complete total overkill for any rational usage, even a busy devops > sysadmin - but we get good prices on the company corporate account It > all comes down to what you really *need* as opposed to how much > techie-bling you *want* :-)
I'll add this to Alan's reply which is good advice. I have a 4 core AMD CPU @3.2Ghz with 16Gbs of ram. For normal stuff, most of it is sitting idle. About the only time I could use more than one core is during compiling. The way I do this when I build a rig, or helping someone else buy a pre-built one, is to try to look at what you need and then get the most bang for the buck that suites those needs. If you need or must have bleeding edge speed, you will have to pay for it. If you don't need bleeding edge, drop down a notch or two and speed the money on a better video card, larger hard drive or just pocket the extra for repairs/upgrades down the road. I never buy the latest greatest CPU, mobo or other hardware because I rarely need that and by dropping down a notch or two, I can save a good chunk of change. Even with that, the system will do all I need and then some. I get about 8 years out of a build, generally. That said, when the price of those 8 core CPUs come down some more, I'll be upgrading a bit. ;-) Dale :-) :-) -- I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!
