I have a full install of slack 10.2 on another partion .
I haven't done much with because it was put there as a back up system for my mane system .
( So I'm in no hurry to fix anything on my main system )
So there is no question that upgrading is the way to go .( no kruft )
Now if I upgrade from source I get to do a little tunning to the system libraries .
Best of all I get to match them to the CPU . ( I also have another computer to use while this one is crunching source )
as well as tunning the major sub systems like X and Kde
I the size worth the speed should I use these optomizations ?
dose any body else have other speed ups

Expect a very minimal improvement for a lot of work, since you'll be rebuilding nearly the whole system.

most likely you wont realize any performance improvement. i like compiling packages, but not because i can optimize them (however i do), but because i can customize them

What exactly do you want to speed up or optimize ? I'll assume overall system responsiveness and speed.

What window manager are you using ? If it's KDE or GNOME ... might wanna try some others.

Because gcc is truly a black box when it comes to optimizations, recompiling most things won't help much performance-wise. In certain circumstances tho, you can compile say a 3D graphics engine and then the game that runs on it from source and see a moderate improvement in performance.

Mostly you'll want to compile a kernel from source, especially taking note of processor options, I/O scheduler and a few other things. See here (also has boot speed optimizations):
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...09#post2672909

I also hope you know which CFLAGS to use. I usually stick with the same ones used for the kernel. So when you compile the kernel with the right processor selected, you'll notice it will spit out what CFLAGS it's using. I use those for anything I want to optimize, it seems to work best. Also, I would strongly recommend NOT even using the '-O3' option. It doesn't help, and it will most likely break the program you're compiling. '-O2' works just fine. Some suggest '-Os' ... you could try that, but I don't trust it.

Well, i'm trying to do almost the same thing.
I did a clean install and every changelog update is installed from packages and then recompiled (with slackbuild) almost immediately. I'm recompiling as many packages as i can or feel like. I'm comparing it to my gentoo install on the next partition (same hardware & kernel). To be honest, they almost feel the same, perhaps gentoo is 4% more responsive, but maybe my imagination. Anyway, it's fun if you feel like doing it and have the time. Otherwise, the previous posts are right imo.
I'm using -O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe
Probably helpful: http://gentoo-wiki.com/CFLAGS
I'd like to hear about your results

Try -O3 (that's my personal preference). If it doesn't work, then -O2.