Quote:
Originally Posted by cybmole
what's the logic behind a default of 6 threads - would performance be better if number of threads = number of cores ?
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It's a semi-random shot in the dark really. On PCs the CPU is mostly I/O bound, that is to say that the CPU spends most of its time waiting for data to be fetched either from memory or the drives. While a process/thread is waiting for its data you could be doing other things, of course this assumes that there is something else that can be done that isn't also waiting on pending data.
Of course, the problem with the concept of having 6 threads to run the program is that they're not the only things running on the system, there's usually a good 100+ other things running around on a modern desktop OS (my Ubuntu system here has 197 processes at the moment).
As for the heat issue, that'll be the CPU + HDD probably, though your move to put it onto an elevated surface with an airgap underneath is a good idea, your drive will thank you by living for longer. Most things in laptops will die over time due to heat, a very big reason that I'm a lover of these Netbooks with very low power requirements
Paul.