Gavin writes:
> I hear a lot of people say that they think they need a faster computer
> because their CPU utilization is at >95% or something like that.  Some
> fail to realize that 100% utilization is quite often a good thing.

True.  Of course, in my case I said "could benefit by", not "need".
That, of course, is unlike my desktop computer (200 MHz PPro),
where I *need* a faster CPU ... yeah, really!

In some cases, where you have a very busy CPU, moving to a faster CPU might
not help at all!  (E.g., you might have been at the maximum I/O rate
for your system already, but didn't that wasn't a problem until you
sped up the CPU.)

In short, "it depends"  (  (c) Bill Lancaster  )

> This fundamental conflict is why performance consultants make so much
> money.

We do?  No one told me!


BTW, Gavin reminded me of another dichotomy that affects software writers.
If you're writing a program that runs during the day, you may want it to
be "nice" and not hog 100% of the system resources.  OTOH, if its running
standalone, you *do* want it to hog 100% of the resources!

--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html