Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:54:58 +0100 From: Ivan Voras <ivoras@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 8.0 amd64 on Nehelem Xeon? Message-ID: <hjddsk$8k9$1@ger.gmane.org> In-Reply-To: <560f92641001221524n1290e70fi51d766e8e0f488bf@mail.gmail.com> References: <560f92641001221524n1290e70fi51d766e8e0f488bf@mail.gmail.com>
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Nerius Landys wrote: > I'm in the process of purchasing a small Nehelem-based server (Xeon > L5506 CPU to be exact). I will be installing some flavor of FreeBSD > 8.0 (either i386 32 bit or amd64 64 bit, to be exact). I have no > immediate need for a 64 bit server, as none of the processes that I > will be running in the forseeable future will require more than 3 gigs > of memory. My primary use for the server (which will be in a data > center) will be to run video games servers; the exact game I'll be > running is based on the ioquake3 open source engine, which compiles > and runs fine on FreeBSD, at least 32 bit (have not tried 64 bit > FreeBSD yet, but will get around to that). > > My two concerns when making a decision between 32 bit and 64 bit are: > > 1. Performance. Will there be any difference in performance between a > 64 bit OS and 32 bit on my Nehelem? Probably not so much that you would notice (i.e. not something the users would immediately feel) - for general loads we're talking about low percentages in either direction. But installing a 64-bit OS is more like planning for the future. Maybe you will need more RAM for some application and then you will be stuck with a 32-bit OS. > 2. Availability of software. Will some software run only on 32 bit? > Only on 64 bit? There probably are some. If you are only interested in FreeBSD ports, you can make a list of which ports you need and then inspect their Makefiles to see if there's a flag disabling them on the amd64 architecture. Another option is that you bring up a 32-bit-only jail and run your 32-bit applications from it. Additional information for Nehalems is that you should stick to the more widely available models - the 4 core+HTT ones. Some of the more exotic ones (6 core) might have problems with ULE and topology guesswork. http://suckit.blog.hu/2009/10/05/freebsd_8_is_it_worth_to_upgrade
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