64-bit Advantage?

Discussion in 'Installation/Configuration' started by mimic, Aug 12, 2006.

  1. mimic

    mimic New Member

    Hey guys,

    I've built a new server and I'm just wondering if there is any advantage to running 64-bit versions of linux over the 32-bit versions?

    System Specs:

    2 x AMD Opteron 265 Dual-Core
    Tyan S2981 Motherboard
    4GB Kingston ECC Registered PC3200
    40GB IDE HDD
    400GB sATA HDD

    What sort of benefits will I get, if any?
     
  2. stamy

    stamy New Member

    My server Athlon 64 3200+ (2Ghz) with Debian amd64 is 20% faster then an opteron at same frequency on a 32 bits OS with the benchmark test from OVH (with 32 bits Linux). The bench is to decompress and recompress a kernel source file in the memory (/dev/shm)
    => http://www.webmaster-hub.com/index.php?showtopic=22971

    So i guess it can be good especially with lot of RAM (more then 2GB).

    PS: great motherboard, i hope you have stepping E for your opterons ...

    *************** my results *****************

    cd /dev/shm
    wget ftp://ftp.ovh.net/made-in-ovh/bzImage/linux-2.4.32.tar.bz2 -O linux-2.4.32.tar.bz2
    bzip2 -dk linux-2.4.32.tar.bz2

    DECOMPRESS TEST (1 process)
    for i in `seq 1 1`; do time bzip2 -d linux-2.4.32.tar.bz2 -c >> /dev/null & done
    => my results: real 0m11.497s (Opteron 150 = 14s)

    COMPRESS TEST (1 process)
    for i in `seq 1 1`; do time bzip2 linux-2.4.32.tar -c >> /dev/null & done
    => my results: real 0m47.957s (Opteron 150 = 63s)

    2 processes test now:

    DECOMPRESS TEST (2 process)
    for i in `seq 1 2`; do time bzip2 -d linux-2.4.32.tar.bz2 -c >> /dev/null & done
    => my results: real 0m23.535s (Opteron 150 = 25s)
    real 0m23.528s

    COMPRESS TEST (2 process)
    for i in `seq 1 2`; do time bzip2 linux-2.4.32.tar -c >> /dev/null & done
    => my results: real 1m34.796s (Opteron 150 = 96s)
    real 1m34.967s
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2006
  3. mimic

    mimic New Member

    Thanks,

    Yeah, they're Stepping E.

    I think I'll give the Debian AMD64 (Sarge?) install a try.

    Cheers,

    Brian
     
  4. edge

    edge Active Member Moderator

    Just make sure that all the software you will install on the 64bit OS will also work on it!

    I've got a dual 64bit system running a 32 bit OS (Debian), because some of the software I use will not install on a 64bit system.
     
  5. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

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