So I guess these are pretty good then 
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A good starting point is the /about page; you can also refer to the memory stats I quoted in my earlier reply.
I tried on a High CPU Digital Ocean droplet:
sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=40000 --num-threads=8 run
| Ali Express mini-pc | High CPU droplet |
|---|---|
| 21.3s | 24.4s |
| 15.7s | 31.6s |
(in case it wasn’t obvious, lower numbers are better = faster here)
That’s… quite a bit worse than I expected. You are getting a small slice of a 16 core CPU (and it’s only Broadwell, not even Skylake!) which by definition means very low clock speeds, pushing it down to the i7-7500u levels of ~ 2.6 GHz base and 3.6 Ghz turbo.
https://ark.intel.com/compare/95451,91768
Factoring in Kaby Lake’s generational improvements… it loses by a fair bit. Per the page, they also offer Skylake Xeons at 2.7 Ghz and I think at best that would put it on par (maybe)?
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That is not entirely true. I have no experience on Azure, but I have heard lots of good thing about it in terms of Perf. It is the best out of the three, Google, AWS and Azure. However it is still much more expensive then other cloud VPS provider like DO and Linode, mostly on bandwidth. Amazon lightsail is extremely slow so don’t even bother with it.
Linode has always offered much better CPU Perf, SSD Speed, and Better Network bandwidth. DO has manage to catch up in Network and SSD, but as far as I can tell Linode still wins on CPU performance, on most of the price plans.
It still doesn’t compare well do a dedicated box though.
For 2019 I am upgrading my mini colocated host to
- i7-8750h (Coffee lake, 2.2 - 4.1, 6 core / 12 thread) - $460 on Ali Express
- 32GB RAM – DDR4 (16GB × 2, $220)
- 500 GB disk – NVMe PCI Samsung 970 Pro ($200)
CPU comparison here – it’s a big jump in TDP, 2 cores to 
6 cores. Increase from 16GB to 32GB of faster DDR4 RAM. Plus a real M.2 NVMe drive, which is considerably faster than the old SATA interface style.
Full specs
Model Number: Partaker B18
Color: Black
CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H Processor (9M Cache, up to 4.10 GHz)
Platform: Coffee Lake, 8th Generation Intel Core i7 Processors
Threads: 6 Core 12 Threads
Graphic: Intel UHD Graphics 630
RAM: DDR4 2133/2400/2666 260pin，2 SO-DIMM Slots, support up to 32GB
Storage: M.2 Nvme 22x80 SSD + M.2 NGFF/Nvme 22x80 SSD + 2.5’ 'HD
WiFi: 2.4G/5G Wifi B/G/N/AC+bluetooth
Operating System System: Windows Or Linux
Network Card: 10/100/1000 BaseT LAN
I/O Port: 1xHDMI + 1 Mini DP + 1 Gigabit LAN port + 4 USB 3.0 + 1 Type-C USB port + 1 Audio Port
Power in: 5.5mm plug in
HDMI Output: HDMI Support 4K 24HZ
DP Output: DP Support 4K 60HZ
VGA Output: VGA Support 1080P
Power: In: DC100-240V AC/50-60Hz Out: DC 19V/3.42A, 90W
Operating Temperature: 0°C~80°C (32°F~140°F)
Storage Temperature: -20°C~80°C (-68°F~176°F)
Relative Humidity: 10%~90% (non-condensing)
Thermal Design: Low Noise Fan
Size: 197 x 197 x 40mm
Weight: 1.5kgs
Package Content: Partaker B18 Mini PC, Power adapter, Power Cable, VESA Bracket, Screws
@pfaffman once these are swapped out I’ll mail you my old boxes, which are still trucking along just fine.
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I hope you left the stubby WiFi antennae on, they are so cute! 
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LOL no, I strip those out. These are going in a datacenter where WiFi would only be a negative.
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I got these boxes and they are nifty designs, a great step up in every way. Burning in overnight now.
This is a really nice, extremely compact layout! One thing that confused me is that the DIMMs are split: one goes on top half, the other goes on the bottom half.
Bottom
Top
You may notice in the second pic in each series, I removed stuff as well as installing memory and SSD. I pulled out the WiFi module and antennas, as well as the SATA bottom mount, since I don’t need it. It looks like there’s another full length NVMe port on the top side as well, which is amazing!
CPU benchmarks
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
| events | |
|---|---|
| DO droplet | 2988 |
| 2017 scooter | 4800 |
| 2019 scooter | 5671 |
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=40000 --num-threads=8 run
| events | |
|---|---|
| DO droplet | 2200 |
| 2017 scooter | 5588 |
| 2019 scooter | 14604 |
Disk benchmarks
ioping -RD -w 10 .
| iops | MiB/sec | |
|---|---|---|
| DO droplet | 13.7k | 53.4 |
| 2017 scooter | 13.6k | 53.2 |
| 2019 scooter | 14.9k | 58.0 |
dd bs=1M count=512 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync
hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
| sequential | cached reads | buffered reads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DO droplet | 701 MB/sec | 8818 MB/sec | 471 MB/sec |
| 2017 scooter | 444 MB/sec | 12564 MB/sec | 505 MB/sec |
| 2019 scooter | 1.2 GB/sec | 17919 MB/sec | 3115 MB/sec |
Discourse rebuild times
time ./launcher rebuild app
| real | user | sys | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DO droplet | 6:59 | 1.4s | 0.89s |
| 2017 scooter | 3:41 | 1.3s | 0.85s |
| 2019 scooter | 3:24 | 1.7s | 1.2s |
Thanks for the tip on the timing command @pfaffman!
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This looks like a fun topic!
Are these any good?
ioping -RD -w 10 .
474.9 MiB read, 12.6 k iops, 49.3 MiB/s
dd bs=1M count=512 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync
537 MB copied, 9.0306 s, 59.5 MB/s
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
General statistics:
total time: 10.0015s
total number of events: 5289
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=40000 --num-threads=8 run`
General statistics:
total time: 10.0044s
total number of events: 13978
time ./launcher rebuild app
real 3m37.140s user 0m2.268s sys 0m0.740s
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No need to post a bunch of details, anything in the ballpark of the mini-PC numbers shown here is very good. As you can see from my 2019 update, you get to a point where even sizable increases in disk and cpu perf produce diminishing returns.
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Checking CPU scaling of the new box with i7z and stress. Reminder this is the i7-8750H with 6 cores, 12 threads, 45W TDP.
Here’s one task hogging CPU with stress --cpu 1, we definitely see 4100 Mhz as promised:
Starting with ~10w power consumption with i7z running but nothing else. Let’s exercise us some cores!
| typical clock | watts | |
|---|---|---|
stress --cpu 1 |
4.1 Ghz | 30w |
stress --cpu 2 |
4.1 Ghz | 42w |
stress --cpu 3 |
4.0 Ghz | 53w |
stress --cpu 4 |
3.9 Ghz | 65w* |
stress --cpu 5 |
3.7 Ghz | 65w* |
stress --cpu 6 |
3.5 Ghz | 65w* |
stress --cpu 12 |
3.3 Ghz | 65w* |
* It is likely more, you can really see the CPU speed limiters kick in because the watt meter will peak at 75w and then quickly dials it back down to exactly 65w.
Running current-ish versions of mprime jacks this up to 75w though, and overall clock scales down to 3.1 Ghz … those AVX2 extensions are 
Power consumption seems to be about 8w totally idle at the Ubuntu login prompt. Not bad at all!
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How are the usual timings on the mini profiler for the latest and a topic page on the new cpu?
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Not exactly apples to apples since I did not measure for the old box… but comparing the old numbers from 2017…
topic back button, 113ms avg (prev 206ms)
topic refresh, 179ms avg (prev 127ms)
latest refresh, 131ms avg (prev 140ms)
This is also unfortunately comparing 2017 Discourse with 2019 Discourse… it does look like we regressed a bit on topic refresh perf since then maybe?
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@pmusaraj recently improved our build yesterday to skip unused locale compression, here’s what I get with
time ./launcher rebuild app
now on the very same machine:
| real | user | sys | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 scooter | 2:40 | 0.2s | 0.1s |
Amazing! 
that is a 25% improvement!
(I rebuilt twice, because the timing of the first run is affected by the image download time which isn’t technically rebuild time.)
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@falco just made a new base image so I initiated a rebuild and tested build time again. Before:
| real | user | sys | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 scooter | 2:40 | 0.2s | 0.1s |
After
| real | user | sys | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 scooter | 2:34 | 0.2s | 0.1s |
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I think we have a massive regression in rebuild times currently @falco? I’m seeing 5+ minute rebuilds now where it used to be under 3, on these same machines?
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Oh since dependabot was enabled we are doing quite a bit of gem upgrades. I’d say a new images should be created in a few days after we finish the bulk of those updates. Just a nokogiri gem update can take so long.
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Just rebuild an instance using a new base image and it went from 5′6″ to to 3′11″.
New image will be tested on Meta over the weekend and released next week for everyone.
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