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PC for software development - recommendations please!

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leo938:
Hello all,

I'm doing quite a bit of software development (C/C++ stuff with Makefiles & Yocto builds) & it takes about 14 hrs currently for a fresh build on my Dell XPS. Lack of threads is the main issue. I'd like to get a box with at least 6 cores (preferably more) to make this more manageable. Ideally this machine would be upgrade-able so in future it's just a matter of changing the CPU (& if really necessary the motherboard). Something like the AMD Ryzen could be a decent option but I've no allegiance...

I've no issue building a machine if that is the way to go..

Ideally around the €1000 mark,
Thanks for any suggestions!

Leo

dobsonr741:
Are you managing the dependencies correctly? Is it a single line code change that is taking 14hrs, or is it the full build? If a single line then you need to break up the build into independently built components.

If you stuck with getting enough build power, here are two ways out:
1. Build on a CI server, get as big as you want on AWS.
2. Get a Mac Studio

leo938:
Ah no, simple changes are 'relatively ' quick.

Interesting idea of CI on AWS, do you have a ballpark on complexity & cost?

nctnico:
1) Get a desktop system that allows to have a CPU that can consume >100W continuously. A laptop is not the ideal choice.
2) Single thread performance is also important as quite a lot of time for these kind of builds is used for extracting archives.
3) Be sure to run Linux natively
4) Have enough memory. 16GB at least. 32GB is better.
5) Make sure the build process uses pipes instead of temporary files

In my experience having a fast hard drive doesn't matter at all. A couple of years ago I tested the difference between SSD and a regular hard drive and it didn't make any difference for compiling large amounts of code.

Whatever you do: buy quality hardware. These kind of builds are very sensitive to marginal hardware. Personally I only buy Dell machines and add things like more memory and bigger hard drives myself.

dobsonr741:

--- Quote ---Interesting idea of CI on AWS, do you have a ballpark on complexity & cost?
--- End quote ---

I suggest trying a Github pipeline first. For free. Then take a look at how to set up self hosted runners, to point to the AWS compute of your choice:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/hosting-your-own-runners/managing-self-hosted-runners/about-self-hosted-runners, where you go as beefy as you want.

You can use alternatives to Gihub - there are so many other choices: GitLab, CircleCI, TravisCI, AWS Code Build

Can also go 100% AWS - both repo, CI, build farm. Many getting started guides can be goggled.

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