So I guess these are pretty good then 
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)?
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.
2019 年，我将升级我的小型托管主机为：
- i7-8750h (Coffee Lake, 2.2 - 4.1, 6 核 / 12 线程) - 在 Ali Express 上售价 460 美元
- 32GB 内存 – DDR4 (16GB × 2，220 美元)
- 500 GB 硬盘 – NVMe PCI Samsung 970 Pro (200 美元)
CPU 比较在此 – TDP 大幅提升，从 2 核跃升至：warning: 6 核。内存从 16GB 增加到 32GB 的更快 DDR4 内存。此外，还配备了真正的 M.2 NVMe 驱动器，其速度远快于旧的 SATA 接口类型。
完整规格
型号： Partaker B18
颜色： 黑色
CPU： Intel Core i7-8750H 处理器 (9M 缓存，最高 4.10 GHz)
平台： Coffee Lake，第 8 代 Intel Core i7 处理器
线程： 6 核 12 线程
显卡： Intel UHD Graphics 630
内存： DDR4 2133/2400/2666 260 针，2 个 SO-DIMM 插槽，支持最高 32GB
存储： M.2 Nvme 22x80 SSD + M.2 NGFF/Nvme 22x80 SSD + 2.5 英寸硬盘
WiFi： 2.4G/5G Wifi B/G/N/AC + 蓝牙
操作系统： Windows 或 Linux
网卡： 10/100/1000 BaseT LAN
I/O 端口： 1xHDMI + 1 Mini DP + 1 千兆 LAN 端口 + 4 个 USB 3.0 + 1 个 Type-C USB 端口 + 1 个音频端口
电源输入： 5.5mm 插头
HDMI 输出： HDMI 支持 4K 24Hz
DP 输出： DP 支持 4K 60Hz
VGA 输出： VGA 支持 1080P
电源： 输入：DC100-240V AC/50-60Hz，输出：DC 19V/3.42A，90W
工作温度： 0°C~80°C (32°F~140°F)
存储温度： -20°C~80°C (-68°F~176°F)
相对湿度： 10%~90%（非冷凝）
散热设计： 低噪音风扇
尺寸： 197 x 197 x 40mm
重量： 1.5 公斤
包装内容： Partaker B18 迷你电脑、电源适配器、电源线、VESA 支架、螺丝
@pfaffman 一旦完成更换，我会将我的旧机箱寄给你，它们目前运行得非常好。
I hope you left the stubby WiFi antennae on, they are so cute! 
LOL no, I strip those out. These are going in a datacenter where WiFi would only be a negative.
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
this newer version of sysbench produces different numbers, it is not comparable to old versions!
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!
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
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.
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!
How are the usual timings on the mini profiler for the latest and a topic page on the new cpu?
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?
@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.)
@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 |
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?
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.
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.