On 11/06/2012 07:20, Doug Hardie wrote: > I have a number of servers that I am about to upgrade to FreeBSD 9.0. > The processors all have the ability to run i386 or amd64. The > machines all have 2 GB memory which is more than adequate for their > intended use. Some of these are replacing very old equipment that is > being retired and did not have the ability to run amd64 so everything > has been i386 till now. The question is what are the advantages or > disadvantages of switching to amd64? I have tested all the various > applications on amd64 and they work fine. Is there going to be any > benefit down the road in a few years to being on amd64? If so, now > would be the time to switch.
In my experience I find that amd64 is the way to go. As in: the only reason to use i386 is if there is some software that requires i386 and that you can't either replace with an amd64 compatible alternative, run in 32bit mode using lib32 shlibs etc. or just do without entirely. The principle reasoning behind this is that amd64 is essentially a super-set of i386: just about anything you can do on i386, you can do on amd64, but not necessarily vice-versa. There are some differences in performance and memory usage, but these are usually minor and in practice mostly in favour of amd64. Although you're only using 2GB RAM now, amd64 does give you the possibility of expanding that to >4GB should that become a requirement in future. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matt...@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW
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