Can Gentoo be faster?

I’m getting fed up with the way Suse 9.2 is running on my Dell 600m. Things are responding slowly, there’s hangups with the Intel ProWireless 2200 BG package (IPW2200) or its installation, and I’m starting to feel an itch for a new distro.

I’ve heard pretty good things about Gentoo lately, namely that their package installer, Portage, is excellent and unique in its field. Portage relies mostly on source code package for installations, rather than binary packages. Compiling a program from its source code is a little slower, a lot harder, but much more reliable because it creates a product that is honed to your specific system. Its because of this that I’m thinking Portage might be a much better choice for me. I wrote about Gentoo when I first heard about it, wondering if Gentoo could be better than others

If I do an install I’ll likely have another computer by my side so I can record all the stuff I encounter. If it turns out not to be worthwhile I don’t want all of the rest of us to have to go through the same muck.