Kernel build performance

Kernel build performance

Your enormous hardware budget is showing :)

You are making assumptions :-)

I regularly build the kernel on stock laptops and desktops (which are typically 1-2-3 generations older than state-of-the-art) and the build times are well below 30 minutes. (usually within 10 minutes.)

The oldest system on which i still build the kernel is a 833 MHz P3 laptop with 512 MB of RAM, there a typical kernel takes 45 minutes to build. (But that's ~5 generations old and kernel developers/testers rarely use such old systems.)

I never build distro kernels though - i always use (and used) .config's tailored to the specific hardware. You can certainly waste a lot of time by building generic kernels.