SuperMicro i7 (UP) - very slow performance

[Ian Smith]

On Wed, 22 Sep 2010, Tom Evans wrote:
 > On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Ian Smith <smithi at nimnet.asn.au> wrote:
 > > It seems far more than just CPU performance is awry.  Adam's data from
 > > his i7 shows 2.7 times Bryce's speed for the md5 -t, maybe a lower EST
 > > rate? - but that could no way account for buildworld taking 22.5 hours.
 > >
 > > Recent buildworld (albeit i386) on my Thinkpad T23 ran just shy of 3.5
 > > hours, without -j on an 1133MHz P3-M, 768MB of 133MHz RAM, 5400rpm UFS
 > > disk - with X/KDE running meanwhile (~5-7% CPU penalty).
 >
 > md5 -t is quite a small benchmark, even with his misfunctioning CPU it
 > took <6 seconds to complete.
 > 
 > If his problem is a misapplied heatsink/fan, then his CPU could be
 > throttling when it gets hot, the hotter it gets the more it throttles,
 > which could explain his massive buildworld walltime. Perhaps running
 > something like:
 > 
 >   apply -0 "md5 -t" `jot 10`
 > 
 > would display a notable difference.
 > 
 > Intel chips are quite good at running without much cooling and not
 > dieing, using thermal throttling to preserve the CPU.

I guess you mean on-package, without p4tcc or ACPI throttle support? 

>From Bryce's original message:
# Disable throttle control (and rely on EIST)
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled="1"
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled="1"

which is sensible, and seems to have been applied to all CPUs, but from 
http://www.bryce.net/files/dmesg.boot we see for each of cpu[0-7]:

est0: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu0
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (20, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2667, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (19, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2533, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (18, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2400, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (17, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2267, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (16, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2133, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (15, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2000, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (14, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1867, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (13, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1733, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (12, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1600, it may be invalid

which looks a bit ominous?  What does 'sysctl hw.acpi dev.cpu' say?

Running multiple md5s or say 'dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null bs=1M &' 
in a short sleep loop echoing "`date` `sysctl -n dev.cpu.0.freq` plus
indicative coretemp sysctls might reveal something as it heats up?  
Surprisingly (?) the dmesg shows no ACPI thermal zones (detected).

cheers, Ian