For comparison, on a Banana Pi M2 Ultra I get: root@bpi-iot-ros-ai:/# time guix build hello -d --no-grafts /gnu/store/yp46hszc04dx2zy6kscy1zmjfg9y8flq-hello-2.10.drv real 0m13.481s user 0m11.230s sys 0m0.900s root@bpi-iot-ros-ai:/# time guix build hello -d --no-grafts /gnu/store/yp46hszc04dx2zy6kscy1zmjfg9y8flq-hello-2.10.drv real 0m11.471s user 0m10.820s sys 0m0.380s root@bpi-iot-ros-ai:/# guix repl GNU Guile 2.2.4 Copyright (C) 1995-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Guile comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `,show w'. This program is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `,show c' for details. Enter `,help' for help. scheme@(guix-user)> ,time (use-modules (guix) (gnu) (gnu packages base)) ;; 3.360000s real time, 3.270000s run time. 0.519000s spent in GC. scheme@(guix-user)> (define s (open-connection)) scheme@(guix-user)> ,time (package-derivation s hello #:graft? #f) $1 = # /gnu/store/cp0qvs3vxrqiyyxfi8556n52x7ax8khf-hello-2.10 14fabb8> ;; 6.829000s real time, 6.579000s run time. 1.019000s spent in GC. Processor is a Cortex A7. Note: You can do some RAM training and if RAM is connected better on your board, you can sometimes have staggering speed gains. See also https://linux-sunxi.org/A10_DRAM_Controller_Calibration