From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 29 01:38:41 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 759FA16A4CE for ; Sun, 29 Feb 2004 01:38:41 -0800 (PST) Received: from pandora.cs.kun.nl (pandora.cs.kun.nl [131.174.33.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5CE1043D1F for ; Sun, 29 Feb 2004 01:38:40 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from adridg@cs.kun.nl) Received: from odin.cs.kun.nl [131.174.33.33] (helo=localhost) by pandora.cs.kun.nl (8.12.10/3.64) with ESMTP id i1T9ccUY017915; Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:38:38 +0100 (MET) From: Adriaan de Groot To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:38:37 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.6.51 References: <4040A9FA.50801@hiof.no> In-Reply-To: <4040A9FA.50801@hiof.no> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <200402291038.38198.adridg@cs.kun.nl> cc: Henrik W Lund Subject: Re: Considering an AMD64 system... X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 09:38:41 -0000 =2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 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 =2D --=20 pub 1024D/FEA2A3FE 2002-06-18 Adriaan de Groot Would you like a freem? =2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFAQbMedqzuAf6io/4RAprwAJ9/k+vX2V73s/oPJ5SvEOub4iOcjQCfanOW SvcQ4W2L8jLdfnTvD+K6Rvs=3D =3DQEAQ =2D----END PGP SIGNATURE-----