[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-10 Thread Vít Šesták
I have to agree with cooloutac.

Btw, with new laptop, I've switched from quad-core to dual-core (with higher 
per-core performance) and I don't regret. This is not to discourage you from 
quad-core, I'd probably also go for quad-core if I could: However, with 
laptops, I was much constrainted when looking for high-end laptop without 
dedicated GPU. If it is a desktop computer, you're in a bit easier position 
with QubesOS and high-end hardware.

Regards,
Vít Šesták 'v6ak'

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/1821741d-abcc-41b1-81bd-fd32f63ed69f%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-08 Thread mojosam
All of this more or less answers my question.  I'm not planning on having a lot 
of VMs busy simultaneously.  I do expect to have a lot of VMs open for various 
purposes.  Most will be idle much of the time.  Some might be doing a thing or 
two.  It sounds like a fast quad-core processor with gobs of RAM is the best 
approach for that situation.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/d2dd7cdf-d707-4d92-a402-d32141165f1f%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-08 Thread cooloutac
I still think clock speed matters more.  If trying to budget I would focus on 
ram and i/o speed which would make a bigger difference in Qubes then how many 
cores.  faster ram and lots of it and a big ssd should be more a priority.

Also you want to make sure that the board supports iommu/vt-d in the bios.

As far as if the linux kernel utilizing more cores more efficiently in general 
for the os,  I really don't know if you would notice a difference.  I don't 
when going from my dual core to quad core.

But I do notice a huge diff when using 2 cores vs 4 cores on my system assigned 
to a vm, but thats with 2.8ghz clock speed.  On the 3.7ghz quadcore system.  2 
cores assigned to a vm is perfectly fine and runs way faster.

If you plan on maxing out your cpu all the time,  that probably still only 
means two vms running simultaneously maxing out 4 cores.  Because as the guy at 
the store said,  assigning 8 cores to a vm you prolly won't notice any diff.  



-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/9191a97c-4296-45e3-bfcf-fe76eddaf47c%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-08 Thread Foppe de Haan
On Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 9:49:05 AM UTC+2, mojosam wrote:
> My question isn't about how many virtual CPUs to assign but whether a Qubes 
> system with many cores is really faster than one with fewer cores.  Does the 
> OS know how to use many cores and do a good job of exploiting them?

Yes, so long as you use kernel 4.9.13 or newer (iirc that's the first iteration 
with Ryzen SMT support).

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/55576188-ae09-4289-a344-3740bc64662b%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-08 Thread mojosam
My question isn't about how many virtual CPUs to assign but whether a Qubes 
system with many cores is really faster than one with fewer cores.  Does the OS 
know how to use many cores and do a good job of exploiting them?

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/bfa9971f-f98f-40a5-b7bf-c1694c18854b%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


[qubes-users] Re: The more cores the merrier?

2017-06-07 Thread Foppe de Haan
On Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 6:48:57 AM UTC+2, mojosam wrote:
> I'm thinking about replacing one of my computers.  I don't know if that will 
> be my Qubes machine or one of the others.  I talked to the owner of the local 
> mom & pop computer shop.  I said that I was considering getting an AMD 
> processor, because they have a lot of cores.  He said that most applications 
> don't take advantage of more than four cores.  I said that I want to run a 
> lot of VMs.  He said even there it didn't matter much.
> 
> I'm guessing that he might be thinking of type 2 hypervisors, which are 
> basically just another application running on Windows.  I had assumed that a 
> type 1 hypervisor such as Xen with Qubes would be different.
> 
> Does anybody know if that is true?  If I buy a computer with 8 cores and set 
> up a VM to use 2 virtual CPUs, does Qubes assign 2 cores to it?
> 
> If I have 3 VMs, each crunching intense numbers, does Qubes give them two 
> cores each?  (That leaves the other 2 cores for running the OS.)
> 
> Or is this naive, because CPUs and OSes are complex things and don't work 
> that simplistically?
> 
> Or to simplify, assuming that an Intel CPU with 4 cores is roughly equivalent 
> to an AMD CPU with 8 cores, would Qubes with a lot of open & busy VMs run a 
> lot faster on the AMD machine?

The number of cores allocated in Qubes is the maximum that single VM will use, 
if it has less to do, it'll just use fewer; so it's perfectly fine to allocate 
cores to more than one VM. I have a Ryzen 1600, with 4 threads assigned to most 
VMs, 8 to some, and 10 to my dev VM for compilation. Works fine that way. But 
if you intend to constantly run 3 concurrent CPU intensive tasks/VMs, it may 
make sense to assign them slightly more conservatively.

Leaving aside overclocking, in terms of total compute performance the 1600x 
(6c/12t) is the equal of the i7-7700k (4c/8t, higher IPC + clock speed) -> 
http://techreport.com/review/31979/amd-ryzen-5-cpus-reviewed-part-two/3 the 
1500x (4c/8t) is superior to the i5-7500 (4c/4t), and the 1600 far superior to 
the i5-7600k (4c/4t) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgHnLu6k0D4 ). And due to 
the availability of the extra cores & threads, everything runs a lot smoother. 
But yeah, it'll definitely also be faster at the same price point.

Only issues atm are iommu support (which is there, but unpolished and still 
being worked on -- related to grouping/isolation), and doesn't fully work in 
Qubes 3.2), plus some other usual teething issues associated with the launch of 
a new platform (support for high speed memory, for instance).

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/bbde67d1-3088-4136-a5db-12ce9a5e2bba%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.