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A faster compiling machine is the difference between sustaining a state of flow critical to developer productivity, or not. Paying even $5000 for a desktop that yields probably a 2x improvement in productivity for someone paid at least $10K a month is a total no-brainer.

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Compile time impact is a very non-linear thing. There's a narrow band that could be called the distraction threshold. An investment in faster hardware will give very small returns if you are already below that range and only moderate returns when so far above that the investments only gets you a little closer. But when the speedup crosses that narrow band or at least significant parts of it, it's a night and day difference.

Is there an average number for the distraction threshold or is each person pretty different?

Once it goes over about twenty seconds for me, I'm switching tasks or checking my email (or worse, HN.)

Keeping that compile time down is critical to being productive.

And the 24 Core 128G RAM machines are how we get bloated software...

(not blaming anyone in particular)

I think 2x improvement in productivity is a pretty optimistic number unless you don't write much code and mostly just compile it. In heavier workloads there certainly can be decent ROI though.

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