Optimal BUFFERS setting for performance?

[Hendrik Vermooten]

My machine is a 16MHz 386 with 4.5MB RAM, with a fast disk running XENIX-386.
I do a lot of compiles but I find that I seldom need all my RAM for my
applications. I have increased the BUFFERS setting in the kernel to speed
things up, and since switching from a 28ms to a 14ms drive my bottleneck has
changed from disk to CPU.

How much CPU overhead do extra buffers give? (Assuming we have enough RAM not
to swap a lot) Is there a limit where performance is hampered by increasing
the BUFFERS?

I'd appreciate it if anybody with answers or guidelines would e-mail it to me.
I'll place a follow ups as appropriate.

 *** ***     Hendrik Vermooten, ZEUS software
 * o o *     Bang: ..!uunet!ddsw1!olsa99!zeusa!hendrik
O|  I  |O    or hendrik at zeusa.UUCP
 | *** |
 \*****/