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by thinkafterbef 1289 days ago
Disclaimer: Co-founder of https://buildjet.com/for-github-actions

While more cores can certainly help with certain types of projects, such as those that can be easily parallelized, this is not always the case. For example, web app projects won't benefit as much from additional cores.

Another important factor to consider is the single-core performance of each vCPU. Many server-class CPUs, such as those used by GitHub, are built with a very high-core count but with a very low single-core speed. In contrast, BuildJet uses consumer CPUs, such as the 5950x, which offer slightly less core count but an excellent single-core speed.

It's quite astonishing how slow "the cloud"/server-class CPUs can be, we compared my old MacBook Pro 2015 vs. a 2vCPU GitHub actions runner and the MBP 2015 won most of the time.

BuildJet's bet is that single-core performance is critical for a fast CI, and it appears that the self-hosting comments here on HN also agree.

(We're working our own CI, DM me if you're interested in the fastest CI on the market)

3 comments

Super interesting, not seen BuildJet before, seems like a great concept. Sent it to a few friends that might find it useful. I wonder if there are other CI systems you could make runners for, maybe Gitlab/Buildkite? "The ultimate compute solution for your CI"
> BuildJet's bet is that single-core performance is critical for a fast CI, Yes, but an even larger impact often comes from caching dependencies (node_modules/vendors/lint checks/etc). Caching via GitHub actions is slow, and if BuildJet would offer a custom GHA action with _local_ SSD caching, it would give a big advantage to people chasing fast CI.
That's precisely what we will do!

You'll be able to customize the runner image however you want, and it will be running on very fast NVMe SSDs.

I came across buildjet a few weeks ago and kept it at the back of my mind. Seeing this comment I'll definitely try it now.

We use Rust, so I think a sane caching story is more important than anything else. Not sure about single vs multi core tbh, I can add both helping.

Do you have any experience with customers building rust and docker rust images?