[plug] Slow kernel build

[Jim Householder]

Hi

I have 2 computers, A and B.  A has never had any problems that 
reseating connectors didn't fix.  B originally had XP Home on it and 
would randomly reboot.  A new power supply appeared to fix the problem. 
  It now has FC5 on it and has only one minor glitch:  I boot with 
vga=794 for 64x160 text, but about one time in 4 I get an 'invalid 
parameter' message and get 25x80.  Reboot after hard reset always gets 
64x160.

Processors:
A:  P4      2.4 GHz  512kb cache, 4823 bogomips, and 1GB ram
B:  Celeron 2.6 GHz  128kb cache, 5216 bogomips, and 768MB ram

Both machines have recently built 2.6.17.13 kernels and been yum 
upgraded in the last fortnight.  I forgot - A has FC4 on it.

The odd bit:  A kernel build takes 30 minutes on A, and using the same 
.config takes 162 minutes on B!  Memory does not appear to be the 
problem as swap is unused and there is at least 8% physical memory free. 
  Nothing else is running to compete for cpu cycles other than the usual 
services.

Would the smaller cache size account for the difference, or do I need to 
look elsewhere?

TIA
Jim