Xeon Quad Core (Was: Server Freezing Solid)

[Chris Maness]

Roland Smith wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 11:37:25AM -0800, Chris Maness wrote:
>   
>> Wojciech Puchar wrote:
>>     
>>>> Since a Xeon Quad Core is a 64bit processor, would it work ok with 
>>>> FreeBSD? Or would the adm64 release be better for that chip?
>>>>         
>>> don't be suggested by "amd" in port name. it's for AMD64-compatible 
>>> processor, for example your xeon
>>>       
>> Sorry, I wasn't very clear.  I am currently running FreeBSD 7.0 the 
>> regular i386 release.  I would prefer to keep it that way if migration 
>> to the 64bit release would mean rebuilding from scratch 
>>     
>
> You'll have to remove and re-install all ports to make them 64-bits as well.
>
>   
>> (there is 
>> probably an easier way to convert an i386 release to a amd64 release).
>>     
>
> Not really. You could do a cross-build to another partition, but you'd
> have to have one available.
>   
>   
>> Another poster seemed to indicate that the i386 release would run just 
>> fine on a quad core chip.
>>     
>
> It should.
>
>   
>> Would there be a major performance gain with amd64 over that of the i386 
>> build on a Xeon Quad Core?
>>     
>
> It will depend on your workload. If your machines were strapped fo
> address space on i386, switching to amd64 (with enough RAM) will help.
>
> In "long" (64-bit) mode, amd64 compatible CPUs have more registers
> available, so that will speed up things. On the other hand, pointers and
> longs are 64-bit numbers instead of 32-bit, which will make the code
> somewhat larger. Run some benchmarks that are relevant for you on i386
> and re-run them after you've switched to amd64 to know for sure.
>
> I've been running amd64 since 5.4 on both Athlon64 and recently Core 2
> Quad without problems.
>
> Roland
>   
Another thought.  Would a Quad Core chip help with compiling 
applications -- or would it be the same as a dual core or single core 
chip running at the same clock speed because the compiler is running 
single thread?  Would php processing be benefited by quad a quad core 
over a dual core.  If not, then I guess I should just purchase a dual 
core chip and save the cabbage up front and wattage to boot.

Thanks,
Chris Maness