Hello,
On the Intel Core 2 Duo processor based systems, we have the option of installing either x86_64 or the i386 distribution. I would like to know your experiences with the x86_64 port. How does it compare with the i386 distribution in terms of stability, reliability and performance ? How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ? Keeping in mind a production environment, which port of CentOS do you recommend for a Core 2 Duo based server ? It would be great to have your opinion.
Thanks,
Manish
----- Original Message ----- From: "Manish Kathuria" mkathuria@tuxtechnologies.co.in To: centos@centos.org Sent: Monday, December 3, 2007 2:49:32 PM (GMT+1000) Australia/Brisbane Subject: [CentOS] x86_64 versus i386
Hello,
On the Intel Core 2 Duo processor based systems, we have the option of installing either x86_64 or the i386 distribution. I would like to know your experiences with the x86_64 port. How does it compare with the i386 distribution in terms of stability, reliability and performance ? How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ? Keeping in mind a production environment, which port of CentOS do you recommend for a Core 2 Duo based server ? It would be great to have your opinion.
Thanks,
Manish _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On 12/3/07, redhat@mckerrs.net redhat@mckerrs.net wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Manish Kathuria" mkathuria@tuxtechnologies.co.in
Hello,
On the Intel Core 2 Duo processor based systems, we have the option of installing either x86_64 or the i386 distribution. I would like to know your experiences with the x86_64 port. How does it compare with the i386 distribution in terms of stability, reliability and performance ? How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ? Keeping in mind a production environment, which port of CentOS do you recommend for a Core 2 Duo based server ? It would be great to have your opinion.
Thanks,
Manish
For me it comes down to 2 things;
- what are you going to use the server for ?
Typical uses like a mail server running sendmail / postfix along with amavis and spamassassin, a proxy server and a mysql database on different systems.
- how much ram do you have ?
a maximum of 2 GB.
If these answers include database, webserver and/or > 4gb of RAM then I'd definately go 64bit. From what I've seen these are the main areas where 64bit will benefit you.
on 12/2/2007 9:14 PM Manish Kathuria spake the following:
On 12/3/07, redhat@mckerrs.net redhat@mckerrs.net wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Manish Kathuria" mkathuria@tuxtechnologies.co.in
Hello,
On the Intel Core 2 Duo processor based systems, we have the option of installing either x86_64 or the i386 distribution. I would like to know your experiences with the x86_64 port. How does it compare with the i386 distribution in terms of stability, reliability and performance ? How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ? Keeping in mind a production environment, which port of CentOS do you recommend for a Core 2 Duo based server ? It would be great to have your opinion.
Thanks,
Manish
For me it comes down to 2 things;
- what are you going to use the server for ?
Typical uses like a mail server running sendmail / postfix along with amavis and spamassassin, a proxy server and a mysql database on different systems.
- how much ram do you have ?
a maximum of 2 GB.
With only 2 gigs of ram, you might not see a big difference either way.
Manish Kathuria wrote:
Hello,
On the Intel Core 2 Duo processor based systems, we have the option of installing either x86_64 or the i386 distribution. I would like to know your experiences with the x86_64 port. How does it compare with the i386 distribution in terms of stability, reliability and performance ? How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ? Keeping in mind a production environment, which port of CentOS do you recommend for a Core 2 Duo based server ? It would be great to have your opinion.
Are these server machines or desktops/notebooks? If the former, there isn't really any compelling reason to avoid the 64-bit version of the distribution. On desktops, there are occasional gotchas with 3-rd party add-ons for your web browser and other "creature comfort" nuisance level things. But those are mostly resolved at this juncture. I had problems on a few desktop machines with various firefox plug-ins so I reverted to 32-bits and the problems vanished. I haven't revisited the problem since 5.0 was released so maybe things have gotten better.
Best,
Manish Kathuria wrote:
How significant are the performance benefits gained by using the x86_64 linux instead of i386 on the same system ?
that depends on the software you'll be running I have a medium-small C project (~20 KLOC), where the x86_64 binary runs close to twice as fast as the i386 binary on the same core 2 duo hardware. speed was important, because this software is used to perform large numbers of simulations: bottleneck calculations were implemented as bitwise ops, partly in preparation for 64 bit arches, and this definitely pays! so, if you're going to be developing your stuff I'ld recommend x86_64, and otherwise you should test whatever software you'll be using the most. There are just minor annoyances to x86_64 anyways, and you can get around them by temporarily installing i386 packages until the x86_64 issue is resolved (mainly browser-related, also some bugs due to less well tested software, eg I recently had a x86_64-specific showstopper with openoffice so I switched to the i386 OOo packages)
cheers, Nicolas
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