Compilation Speed - Runlevel 3 vs Runlevel 5

I am compiling a custom kernel for the umpteenth time and had a crazy thought. If I boot to runlevel 3 and don’t load the Xwindow and such will working from command line prove faster when compiling the builds? Has anybody clocked this?

How much difference it makes depends on how much RAM you have and whether your X server and applications consume any significant CPU. On a well-provisioned system the difference may be negligible.