[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Opinion question (Core2 Duo)



On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 04:17:26PM -0400, Zaq Rizer wrote:
> I have an Intel Core2 Duo arriving in the mail in a couple of days, and 
> I read online that these processors can run in either 32bit or 64bit 
> mode (just like Athlons can).
> 
> Thing is, the 32bit chroot and ia32-compatibility libraries, are, imo, a 
> total mess and a real pain in the rear to deal with on a daily basis.

What problems do you have?  Are you using schroot?  

> 
> I'm looking for people's opinions on whether I should stick with 
> debian-amd64, or do a reinstall of debian from the main branch (32bit)?
> 
> What, truly, are the real performance differences?  Simply support for 
> 4+G of ram, or something else?

I run amd64 on my Athlon.  It only has 1GB ram now, but the MB can take
8 GB.

The only thing I need i386 is for the odd time when I need flash.
Actually, to save download time (given the rate that iceweasel gets
updated) I only have it installed in the i386 chroot.  For normal
browsing, I use amd64 Konqueror however there are two websites that I go
to that need iceweasel.

Everything else is amd64.  I watch DVDs and listen to radio (poor
quality over a normal phone dial-up) with amd64 vlc.

The chroot didn't take much to set up, however, I found the
documentation a little fragmented and not up-to-date.  However, once
done, I have an icon on my icewm or xfce panel that runs

$ schroot -pc etch-ia32 iceweasel.

Whenever I run aptitude on the amd64 to update/upgrade Etch, I follow it
with 

# schroot -pc etch-ia32 aptitude

The only downside is the 500-ish MB that the chroot takes.

I also know, that should I move up to Lenny, that the problem is fixed
and I won't need the chroot.

As for performance, I can only get my Athlon64 3800+ to budge off of 98%
idle for more than a second with some difficulty, such as getting
DigiKam to resize a thumbnail to 1024x768.  Takes 20 seconds at 100%.
And that's with Konquerer downloading another graphics page, a DVD
playing, and vi running.  


I hope this helps.

Doug.



Reply to: