# adding cpus



## nedry (Feb 28, 2018)

Hi,
I am running VirtualBox with FreeBSD 11.1 and when I increase the CPUs to 8 the entire system runs as slow as a 386. It takes 5 minutes from power on to get to the login prompt and this is without x and with 8 GB of RAM. This is running on a modern Dell 1950 with 32 GB of RAM. Does anyone have the same problem? An extra point it boots fine with 6 CPUs.
Thanks
nedry


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## SirDice (Feb 28, 2018)

Which CPUs does the Dell have? You may not have 8 cores per package.


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## nedry (Feb 28, 2018)

SirDice said:


> Which CPUs does the Dell have? You may not have 8 cores per package.


ok thanks 2x intel Xeon cpu E5410 2.33ghz


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## Snurg (Feb 28, 2018)

That computer can have at max 2 xeons 4 cores each. You need some cores for the host system too


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## giahung1997 (Feb 28, 2018)

nedry said:


> Hi,
> I am running VirtualBox with FreeBSD 11.1 and when I increase the CPUs to 8 the entire system runs as slow as a 386. It takes 5 minutes from power on to get to the login prompt and this is without x and with 8 GB of RAM. This is running on a modern Dell 1950 with 32 GB of RAM. Does anyone have the same problem? An extra point it boots fine with 6 CPUs.
> Thanks
> nedry


Never assign all cores you have to the VM. Sincere.


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## SirDice (Feb 28, 2018)

I wouldn't assign more than 4 cores to a VM, even on 12 core per package CPUs. I don't have any benchmarks for it but I've found things run smoother if you spread the load onto 2 VMs with 4 cores each than 1 single VM with 8. But it's going to depend on the workload what the best solution is. What are you running in the VM that would benefit from adding more cores?


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## nedry (Feb 28, 2018)

Hi just building ports from source using the ports tree


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## giahung1997 (Mar 1, 2018)

nedry said:


> Hi just building ports from source using the ports tree


So you don't have to use VM. Poudriere can do this on the real host straightforward.


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## PacketMan (Mar 1, 2018)

I have two of the same machines and I could never get a VM to run fast.  See Thread 55870.  I blamed it on the lack of CPU hardware extension for virtualization.  I gave up, and now just use them a bare metal machines, and they run pretty darn good then.


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