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It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

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Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#131

Post by zozbot234 »

arp242 wrote: post #127
JonChesterfield wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastest threadripper on the market is usually a good bet. Worth considering mini-pc on vesa mount / in a cable tray + fast machine in another room. Also, I've got a gmktec here (cheaper one playing thin client) and it's going to be scrapped in the near future because the monitor connections keep dropping. Framework make a 395 max one, that's tempting as a small single machine.

Threadripper is complete overkill for most developers and hella expensive especially at the top end. May also not even be that much faster for many work-loads. The 9950X3D is the "normal top-end" CPU to buy for most people.

Different class of machines, the Threadripper will be heavier on multicore and less bottlenecked by memory bandwidth, which is nice for some workloads (e.g. running large local AIs that aren't going to fit on GPU). The 9950X and 9950X3D may be preferable for workloads where raw single-threaded compute and fast cache access are more important.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#132

Post by Aurornis »

master_crab wrote: post #129
Aurornis wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every well funded startup I’ve worked for went through a period where employees could get nearly anything they asked for: New computers, more monitors, special chairs, standing desks, SaaS software, DoorDash when working late. If engineers said they needed it, they got it. Then some period of time later they start looking at spending in detail and can’t believe how much is being spent by the 25% or so who abuse the p…

There also starts to be some soft fraud at scales higher than you’d imagine: When someone could get a new laptop without questions, old ones started “getting stolen” at a much higher rate. When we offered food delivery for staying late, a lot of people started staying just late enough for the food delivery to arrive while scrolling on their phones and then walking out the door with their meal. Ehh. Neither of these a…

> the latter…is fine. They stayed till they were supposed to.

This is the soft fraud mentality: If a company offers meal delivery for people who are working late who need to eat at the office and then people start staying late (without working) and then taking the food home to eat, that’s not consistent with the policies.

It was supposed to be a consolation if someone had to (or wanted to, as occurred with a lot of our people who liked to sleep in) stay late to work. It was getting used instead for people to avoid paying out of pocket for their own dinners even though they weren’t doing any more work.

Which is why we can’t have nice things: People see these policies as an opportunity to exploit them rather than use them as intended.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#133

Post by baq »

Aurornis wrote: post #117
avidiax wrote: post #10

Employers, even the rich FANG types, are quite penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to developer hardware. Limiting the number and size of monitors. Putting speedbumps (like assessments or doctor's notes) on ergo accessories. Requiring special approval for powerful hardware. Requiring special approval for travel, and setting hotel and airfare caps that haven't been adjusted for inflation. To be fair, I know ple…

Every well funded startup I’ve worked for went through a period where employees could get nearly anything they asked for: New computers, more monitors, special chairs, standing desks, SaaS software, DoorDash when working late. If engineers said they needed it, they got it. Then some period of time later they start looking at spending in detail and can’t believe how much is being spent by the 25% or so who abuse the p…

> individuals incurring expenses in the tens of thousands range

peanuts compared to their 500k TC

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#134

Post by master_crab »

Aurornis wrote: post #132
master_crab wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There also starts to be some soft fraud at scales higher than you’d imagine: When someone could get a new laptop without questions, old ones started “getting stolen” at a much higher rate. When we offered food delivery for staying late, a lot of people started staying just late enough for the food delivery to arrive while scrolling on their phones and then walking out the door with their meal. Ehh. Neither of these a…

> the latter…is fine. They stayed till they were supposed to. This is the soft fraud mentality: If a company offers meal delivery for people who are working late who need to eat at the office and then people start staying late (without working) and then taking the food home to eat, that’s not consistent with the policies. It was supposed to be a consolation if someone had to (or wanted to, as occurred with a lot of o…

soft fraud mentality

This isn’t about fraud anymore. It’s about how suspiciously managers want to view their employees. That’s a separate issue (but not one directed at employees).

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#135

Post by apt-apt-apt-apt »

jhanschoo wrote: post #26

Important caveat that the author neglects to mention since they are discussing laptop CPUs in the same breath: The limiting factor on high-end laptops is their thermal envelope. Get the better CPU as long as it is more power efficient. Then get brands that design proper thermal solutions.

* Me shamefully hiding my no-fan MBA used for development... *

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#136

Post by Aurornis »

master_crab wrote: post #134
Aurornis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the latter…is fine. They stayed till they were supposed to. This is the soft fraud mentality: If a company offers meal delivery for people who are working late who need to eat at the office and then people start staying late (without working) and then taking the food home to eat, that’s not consistent with the policies. It was supposed to be a consolation if someone had to (or wanted to, as occurred with a lot of o…

soft fraud mentality This isn’t about fraud anymore. It’s about how suspiciously managers want to view their employees. That’s a separate issue (but not one directed at employees).

If a company says you have permission to spend money on something for a purpose, but employees are abusing that to spend money on something that clearly violates that stated purpose, that’s into fraud territory.

This is why I call it the soft fraud mentality: When people see some fraudulent spending and decide that it’s fine because they don’t think the policy is important.

Managers didn’t care. It didn’t come out of their budget.

It was the executives who couldn’t ignore all of the people hanging out in the common areas waiting for food to show up and then leaving with it all together, all at once. Then nothing changed after the emails reminding them of the purpose of the policy.

When you look at the large line item cost of daily food delivery and then notice it’s not being used as intended, it gets cut.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#137

Post by baq »

userbinator wrote: post #46

I wish developers, and I'm saying this as one myself, were forced to work on a much slower machine, to flush out those who can't write efficient code. Software bloat has already gotten worse by at least an order of magnitude in the past decade.

it's absolutely the wrong approach.

software should be performance tested, but you don't want a situation when time of single iteration is dominated by duration of functional tests and build time. the faster software builds and tests, the quicker solutions get delivered. if giving your developers 64GB or RAM instead of 32GB halves test and build time, you should happily spend that money.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#138

Post by Aurornis »

baq wrote: post #133
Aurornis wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every well funded startup I’ve worked for went through a period where employees could get nearly anything they asked for: New computers, more monitors, special chairs, standing desks, SaaS software, DoorDash when working late. If engineers said they needed it, they got it. Then some period of time later they start looking at spending in detail and can’t believe how much is being spent by the 25% or so who abuse the p…

> individuals incurring expenses in the tens of thousands range peanuts compared to their 500k TC

Very few companies pay $500K. Even at FAANG a lot of people are compensated less than that.

I do think a lot of this comment section is assuming $500K TC employees at employers with infinite cash to spend, though.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#139

Post by walterbell »

beachtaxidriver wrote: post #111
tgma wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FANG is not monolithic. Amazon is famously cheap. So is Apple in my opinion based on what I have heard (you get random refurbished hardware that is available not some standardized thing, sometimes with 8GB RAM sometimes something nicer) Apple is also famously cheap on their compensation. Back in the day they proudly said shit to the effect of "we deliberately don't pay you top of the market because you have to love A…

Google used to be so un-cheap they had a dedicated ergo lab room where you could try out different keyboards. They eventually became so cheap they blanket paused refreshing developer laptops...

Some BigCos would benefit from version numbers to demarcate changes in corporate leadership, culture and fiscal policy.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#140

Post by humanrebar »

Aurornis wrote: post #132
master_crab wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There also starts to be some soft fraud at scales higher than you’d imagine: When someone could get a new laptop without questions, old ones started “getting stolen” at a much higher rate. When we offered food delivery for staying late, a lot of people started staying just late enough for the food delivery to arrive while scrolling on their phones and then walking out the door with their meal. Ehh. Neither of these a…

> the latter…is fine. They stayed till they were supposed to. This is the soft fraud mentality: If a company offers meal delivery for people who are working late who need to eat at the office and then people start staying late (without working) and then taking the food home to eat, that’s not consistent with the policies. It was supposed to be a consolation if someone had to (or wanted to, as occurred with a lot of o…

Are you saying the mentality is offensive? Or is there a business justification I am missing?

Note that employers do this as well. A classic one is a manager setting a deadline that requires extreme crunches by employees. They're not necessarily compensating anyone more for that. Are the managers within their rights? Technically. The employees could quit. But they're shaving hours, days, and years off of employees without paying for it.

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