PC hardware recommendation for AOSP development

[thinkmega]

What's your recommendation on PC hardware for AOSP development? I want to customize everything from framework to kernel. Right now, a complete make takes 2+ hours to finish. I'd like hear to your opinions.

Thanks.

[Disposibleteen]

What are the specs of the machine you are developing on now?

[thinkmega]

It is a p4 2.4G/2G RAM. It was built 8 years ago. :-)

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[brando56894]

edit: with a P4 its definitely gonna take awhile.

Since its linux there aren't really any minimum specs since linux runs on damn near anything. Heres what I feel would be an optimal setup:

Dual core or quad core running at at least 2GHz
2GB+ of DDR2 or DDR3 ram
Fast harddrive (WD Raptor or SSD)

that should speed up compilation.

One way that really speeds up compilation is to increase the number of threads that the make program uses. Ive compiled a full linux kernel in 15 minutes running about 70 jobs on my athlon x2 6400 (runnin at 3.2 GHz ) and my wd raptor, but then again for those 15 minutes the computer the computer was unresponsive lol

[Disposibleteen]

As Brando said, minimum requirements are really low but to bring down your compiling time a more modern cpu (Core2, I3, I5) with 2gigs (or even 4 since ram is really cheap nowadays) and a fast hard drive will cut your compiling time significantly.

[brando56894]

With a hexacore i7, 8GB DDR3, and an SSD you could probably get it down to 15-30 minutes lol but then again that setup would cost you about a grand....

[thinkmega]

Thanks for all the inputs!

I started "make" around 10:45 this morning and it was done when I returned home @ 4:00pm. The log's time stamp indicated the process finished at 2:41 pm. So it was near 4 hours.

How much memory can Ubuntu use effectively? One requirement I have is to be able to use dual monitors. What video card can be supported well for this configuration in ubuntu? Right now .... I can only get one monitor work (it has a Matrox G450/256MB and I can use both in XP).

Thanks.

[brando56894]

The operating system doesn't limit the amount off memory you can use, your pc architecture does. 32 bit processors can handled a max of 4 gb (3.5 in windows), 64 bit processors can handle something ridiculous like 128 tb.

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[thinkmega]

How much time do you think would be the normal, average time to make the entire android system, less kernel? It was 3-4 hours on froyo. How much time should I expect on a quad-core system?

[Darcnes]

With a hexacore i7, 8GB DDR3, and an SSD you could probably get it down to 15-30 minutes lol but then again that setup would cost you about a grand....

Hex-core is lga1366, thus triple channel memory. 6gb or 12gb.

The i7 800 series is still dual channel but the high end is all triple.

Re: dual monitors in ubuntu, very doable.. Did you get the drivers installed or just using native driver?