title: Best Developer Workstation Configuration for Build Performace?
body: <p>Our developers frequently work in large Visual Studio projects and we often run command-line builds using MSBuild and Nant.  These automated processes can involve resetting local SQL Server databases, performing full builds on large hierarchical project structures, and even running automated UI test suites (through Selenium and Watin).</p>
  
  <p>There are lots of performance benchmarks and discussions around ideal machine configurations for gamers.  I'm interested in gaining a sense for an optimal machine configuration for professional developers.</p>
  
  <p>Some of the speculative musings I've had include:</p>
  
  <p>1) Can a bad enough video card reduce performance?  (I've seen Visual Studio console output slow down a rebuild process when the video card is too entry-level, for example.)</p>
  
  <p>2) Does it make sense to use a solid-state drive (SSD) for a portion of development?  Or even fill machines with extra cheap RAM and partition a 2GB RAM drive and point build activity to happen in that ultra-fast partition?</p>
  
  <p>3) Does the C# compiler take advantage of multiple cores?  Can Nant or MSBuild be rigged to take advantage of multiple cores?</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts along these lines would be appreciated.  We spend a lot of time waiting on our workstations even though they're quite beefy already.  Our OS, applications, working directories for code, and SQL databases currently all reside on the same large local drive partition and it seems ripe for optimization, but I wanted to gather insights from the community.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks,
  Jeff</p>