x86_64 Vs. i386
Mark Haney
mhaney at ercbroadband.org
Wed May 30 20:59:37 UTC 2007
Jeffrey Ross wrote:
> Ok, now that FC7 is about to be released shortly I am going to upgrade
> from FC6 X86_64 to FC7. My question is, is it worth going with the
> x64_86 version? Although I never tried the i386 version on this
> hardware I found that I had a lot of grief with internet plugins on
> the 64 bit architecture and noticed that everything seemed to treat
> the hardware as a dual processor machine (eg no single process would
> take more than 50% of the total CPU).
>
> So what's the advantage of using the 64 bit OS anything? I don't run
> that many CPU intensive applications, my use consists of the vast
> majority of use being internet browsing, email, word processing.
>
> Right now I'm leaning towards the i386 version, any reason not to?
> suggestions, comments?
>
> TIA Jeff
>
Really it all depends on what you want. I run 64-bit exclusively with
Linux, on my laptop and my desktops/servers at home. The browser
plugins are much better now with nspluginwrapper which allows me Youtube
and such in a 64-bit browser with any stability issues that I've seen so
far. Is your hardware a dual core? If so, it will treat it like a Dual
CPU machine (Because is it for the most part) and a single process won't
take more than 50% of both CPUs combined unless it's SMP aware. For me
this is a plus since if I have one rogue process, I still can function
for short periods of time without noticable issues.
However, if all your doing is Internet/WP/email, it really makes no
difference. Hell, even a PII can still do that. Personally, though
video editing/mythTV is much better on 64-bit.
My $0.02
--
Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
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