[CentOS] i386 or x86_64 installation

Wed Jan 24 03:33:14 UTC 2007
Benjamin Smith <lists at benjamindsmith.com>

On Monday 22 January 2007 08:05, Matt wrote:
> I am upgrading a very heavilly used email server to a AMD64 dual core
> with CentOS.  I am staying with i386 since the web GUI we use lists
> 64bit support as beta and I do not want any problems.  The real draw
> back I see is the max RAM on i386 but perhaps I am wrong.  90 percent
> of our CPU load is Spamassassin.  Disk I/O is likely a big bottle neck
> as well.  Currently we run 2 gigabyte of RAM but will likely move to
> 4G of DDR2 RAM.  Moving from PATA to SATA drives as well.

SATA is better than PATA, but it pales compared to SCSI. Even with SATA, an 
rsync of a large directory tree can hammer the performance of a server, but 
with SCSI, it doesn't register enough, on a much busier server, to even 
notice! 

So, evaluate if the $500 for a *good* disk subsystem is actually worth it - in 
my case, the answer is a resounding....  YES!!!! 

-- 
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
- XEROX PARC slogan, circa 1978