4GB is barely enough. But you can limit the compilation threads to save memory. For big compilations you should reserve around 1.5GB per compilation thread.

As for celeron… You’d better use binary host, at least for big packages (or have your own binary host).

Here I have one old Chromebox for which I flashed coreboot into.

2024-03-13T09:59:14 >>> net-libs/nodejs-20.11.0: 3:36:15
2024-05-10T05:02:52 >>> net-libs/nodejs-20.12.1: 6:12:09
2024-10-01T00:25:35 >>> net-libs/nodejs-22.4.1-r1: 7:24:58
2024-12-26T01:43:48 >>> net-libs/nodejs-22.4.1-r1: 15:32:58

The three first lines show compilation times of nodejs with quite normal compilation settings. On the last line I enabled some ridiculous optimizations, like -funroll-loops and -fipa-pta but also -lto (which probably contributes the most of the compilation time increase). I’ve retired this box now, but I might give it a new life as some home automation box.

Obligatory fastfetch.

panther-box ~ # fastfetch --logo none
root@panther-box
----------------
OS: Gentoo 2.17 x86_64
Host: Panther (1.0)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.110-panther-0.3.1
Uptime: 36 days, 18 hours, 10 mins
Packages: 701 (emerge)
Shell: bash 5.2.37
Theme: Adwaita [GTK3]
Icons: gnome [GTK3]
Cursor: Adwaita
Terminal: tmux 3.4
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U (2) @ 1.40 GHz
GPU: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller @ 1.00 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 950.19 MiB / 15.50 GiB (6%)
Swap: 7.00 MiB / 20.00 GiB (0%)
Disk (/): 13.37 GiB / 14.94 GiB (90%) - xfs
Disk (/home): 133.21 MiB / 1.94 GiB (7%) - xfs
Disk (/var): 1.57 GiB / 1.94 GiB (81%) - xfs
Disk (/var/cache/pkg): 12.98 GiB / 19.94 GiB (65%) - xfs

… and because I had some 8GB DDR3 SODIMM RAM sticks I stuffed the maximum amount in there. If I was on 4GB, I’d use binhost or tune the compilation settings so that the process would use as little memory as possible.