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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