Patrick Barnes wrote: > You are free to uninstall the SMP kernel packages. Unless you have > multiple processors, you'll actually get better performance using the > 'normal' kernel. If your processor has 'hyperthreading' or a similar > feature, you might want to consider disabling it. Hyperthreading will > look like multiple processors to the kernel, and the SMP kernel will try > to take advantage of it, but this will actually usually result in a > small performance hit, depending upon how you use your system. Without > the SMP kernel, you will get no benefit at all from the hyperthreading > technology. I'd be interested to hear what you base this on. As I understand it, performance with or without hyperthreading on a Pentium 4 depends on what you're doing to it and (to an extent) the age of the system (it took Intel a while to really tune hyperthreading). But hyperthreading is supposed to speed up a system, and often does. Many people have reported interactivity benefits (the system responds to interaction faster) even without seeing a total throughput benefit. So for example, compressing a number of sound files while watching a video might take the same time with or without hyperthreading, but (for example) screen updates might be faster with hyperthreading. Some sites that back my position: http://www.2cpu.com/articles/41_1.html http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2213&p=5 James. -- E-mail address: james | "It has taken 24 years to get the Reichstag wrapped. @westexe.demon.co.uk | Chancellor Kohl said it would only be wrapped over | his dead body, so sensing an opportunity the | Bundestag outvoted him." -- The Guardian
