Crucial PC3200 Memory Review - Why Linux Tests?
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I am introducing two tests to the mix here, and they both run on Linux. I switched to Linux for a number of reasons. First, I can trim Linux to the bone if I want to. Windows has a lot of services that need to be loaded, and can't be removed. There's also the overhead of having Windows GUI. I can drop Linux to a console to eliminate the overhead of a GUI, kill all the extra services I don't need, and run a minimal system, leaving little standing between me and the memory.
The second reason I like Linux as a benchmarking platform is that the majority of benchmarks for Linux are not only free, but open source. I can look at the source code and see if there are any optimizations that would benefit one thing over another, preventing the 3DMark fiasco from last year. If you don't trust the code in one benchmark, usually you can fork the project (create your own version based on someone else's) to suit your needs.
Why Gentoo and not Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE? Source-based distributions are good for making small, fast installations. While I have no problems with any other distribution, because I am testing just memory, I can use my own kernel. If I was benchmarking processors or motherboards, I'd use a Red Hat or Mandrake kernel to keep them constant. The Linux kernel handles all hardware interaction, so a custom made kernel may not be appropriate in that case. In the case of a memory review, I turned off all swap use while Linux was running.
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