Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:38:37 +0100 From: Adriaan de Groot <adridg@cs.kun.nl> To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Cc: Henrik W Lund <henrik.w.lund@hiof.no> Subject: Re: Considering an AMD64 system... Message-ID: <200402291038.38198.adridg@cs.kun.nl> In-Reply-To: <4040A9FA.50801@hiof.no> References: <4040A9FA.50801@hiof.no>
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Hej Hendrik,
On Saturday 28 February 2004 15:47, Henrik W Lund wrote:
> I'm considering investing in an AMD64-system, mainly for home/desktop
> use (gaming, programming for fun and just generally goofing around,
> trying stuff out), and as such do not need any high-end dual Opteron
This matches my usage pattern fairly well (though I had a specific goal in=
=20
mind: making sure the KDE ports work on amd64). I ended up with an asus k8v=
=20
deluxe (mind you the wifi slot seems totally useless) and an amd64 3200+ (t=
he=20
only thing available back in november).
> Now, since I want to run my favourite OS on the system, I want to know
> if the amd64 architecture is well supported. I know it says on the
> website that amd64 is a Tier 1 architecture, but from reading this
> list and checking out docs, it seems as if it's just a teensy bit
> unstable. Or is this due to fragility of the hardware (with memory
> lockups, freezing and such)? It should be stated that I am not exactly
=46or regular desktop usage it can be rather spotty. I've not tried to run =
any=20
32-bit FBSD apps on it yet. This is said to work fairly well, and might=20
provide a workaround for those apps that don't work in native amd64 mode. T=
he=20
ones I've run across in daily use recently are:
* xpdf (though kpdf works fine)
* xfig (weird crash in libxpm, which I've got a workaround for)
As far as getting my regular work done (writing a thesis), using KDE as=20
desktop, it's fine.
> Now, if the amd64 is indeed fully supported, this leads me to another
> question: what hardware is supported? I'm mainly thinking of
> mainboards and their chipsets here, as I reckon most of the regular
> hardware (graphics cards, sound cards, etc) are compatible with both
There were issues with X not supporting anything but Matrox cards, but that=
=20
era has passed :)
> the amd64 and the i386 platform (if I got the wrong idea here, please
> tell me!). What chipsets would you recommend? I kinda have my eye on
> the nForce chipset, as I understand this is good for multimedia (and
> gaming), but I'm open to suggestions.
nForce has issues - at least, that's what I'm led to believe by posts on th=
is=20
list. Quoting a message from David from feb. 16th:
nVidia nForce3 [for AMD64] chipsets are very problematic for
Unix(BSD)/Linux. I would avoid them if you want to run a non-MS-Windows
operating system.
So there's your platform recommendation.
As for the kind of panics I've had, the only one in the past month was whil=
e=20
mounting a USB pendrive. Generally, the system seems to become a little=20
unstable after running for a while and then suddenly changing usage pattern=
s=20
(like it used to panic when ripping a CD after it'd been up for several day=
s=20
doing other things).=20
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pub 1024D/FEA2A3FE 2002-06-18 Adriaan de Groot <groot@kde.org>
Would you like a freem?
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