From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 11 07:15:36 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3EC0F106566B for ; Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:15:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:3cd3:cd67:fafa:3d78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B85188FC16 for ; Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:15:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q5B7FVIu033966 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:15:32 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: OpenDKIM Filter v2.5.2 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk q5B7FVIu033966 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1339398932; bh=dyI+gTKvm9zXGH1XChs7phTgURHebwIbn3F3HSiCYmY=; h=Date:From:To:CC:Subject:References:In-Reply-To:Content-Type: Message-ID:Mime-Version; b=tBvBjtjuWtF6Xcbu/FP7moZEYwxVmSFETfi0qDI+XOO7sBzh4RelqoF568ZJrVDph zjZ6c9EkIGwa6PX0lNCEwvl7dSIIrhRiU3jV9S6iBW7jhg2Z9ycAkjtmR26gCpbV7Q WYUEeI+JTHz7INYU0Jdtyc2APUZ1Q4QdgpUlD96s= Message-ID: <4FD59B0D.9030802@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:15:25 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:13.0) Gecko/20120601 Thunderbird/13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Doug Hardie References: In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 1.4.2 OpenPGP: id=60AE908C Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig33492C126E3906D0579C15C1" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.4 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, DKIM_ADSP_ALL,DKIM_SIGNED,T_DKIM_INVALID autolearn=no version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Version Selection X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:15:36 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig33492C126E3906D0579C15C1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable 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 --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig33492C126E3906D0579C15C1 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk/VmxMACgkQ8Mjk52CukIyI4gCdHGmLNPX54bvn4dG2f0KuYeHZ +X4An2l02ofm22mabp6CI3oBv+bYZaNx =LHxI -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig33492C126E3906D0579C15C1--