lil-bit And speedy-1 Testing Environment

Benchmark hardwareFull-size image ↗

I run a lot of database benchmarks and constantly paying for cloud services was getting expensive. So, I purchased two Intel mini PCs and a networking switch to simulate a modern cloud environment.

I call these two PCs lil-bit and speedy-1.

CPUs

NUC CPUsFull-size image ↗

The mini PCs are 11th gen Intel NUCS. Specifically, they are:

• lil-bit is an NUC11PAHi50Z00, which has an i5-1135G7 processor.
• speedy-1 is an NUC11PAHi70Z00, which has an i7-1165G7 processor.

During tests, I put databases on speedy-1 because it has the faster processor. Reserva is less CPU intensive than the database programs, so it doesn't become a bottleneck even when deployed on a slightly slower CPU.

Both chips have 4 hyperthreaded cores for a total of 8 threads. This makes them comparable to an 8 vCPU VM that you might rent in the cloud. They also have a TDP of 28 watts, which I have measured during load. In fact, these computers are well cooled and sometimes even surpass 28 watts!

RAM / Disks

RAM and disksFull-size image ↗

I purchased high quality RAM and SSDs to get the most out of these mini PCs. They are both outfitted with:

• 64 GB, dual-channel 3200 MHz Kingston Fury RAM
• 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro PCIe 4 SSD

It is well known that databases can become bottlenecked by slow disks, so I paid particular attention to my choice of SSD. The Samsung 990 Pro is, as far as I'm aware, one of the fastest PCIe 4 disks available on the market.

Networking

Networking equipmentFull-size image ↗

I initially conducted tests using my M1 MacBook Air connected to one of the mini PCs via WiFi. However, I noticed right away how much that relatively poor connection slowed down the benchmark results. So, I went all in and purchased:

• A Netgear MS305 2.5 gigabit networking switch
• Rhino Cables cat6a ethernet cables.

This brought my network latency, as measured with ping, from several milliseconds down to around 0.65 milliseconds. This imperceptibly small difference in latency made a huge difference in my end test results. So, pay attention to networking, folks!

Comparable cloud instances

Here are a couple of comparable database servers with 8 vCPUs and 64 GB of RAM from AWS and Azure:

• AWS db.r7i.2xlarge
• Azure E8ds_v5 / E8ads_v5

Before storage, it would cost about $846.72 per month to rent a similar machine on AWS.

Despite their size, lil-bit and speedy-1 are powerful computers with resources that resemble a busy, production quality cloud system.