i686 or x86_64

[Misbah]

I've decided to try Arch to learn more about linux, and I'm reading the Beginners Guide and Official Installation Guide.. and I don't know with iso to pick.

I have an athlon 64, windsor core, so I *presume* I should get the x86_64 version. I'm sure i686 will work as well, but.. is there any reason for me to get it? I'm speaking strictly performance wise, what would be more suitable for my machine?:confused:

Just want to do things right the first time around .. although I'm sure this is the first of many arch installs !

[Misbah]

Ah never mind.. I'll just stick with i686.. I hate the lack of flash.. java.. etc support, and as a new arch user I'm not inclined to get different java ie) blackdown working with arch. Small steps. Didn't notice a difference between 32 bit and 64 bit ubuntu anyways, don't think I'll notice with arch.

[Crooksey]

If you require all of your CPU's resources, e.g. video encoding / ripping a lot of the time, then you would notice the diffrence with x64, but for standard desktop use, you probably wont be able to tell.

[regomodo]

64bit, although fairly supported, still has many niggly issues i've found. Just switched from debian lenny amd64 to debian etch x86 which is rock-solid most fo the time. There is no flash for debian etch 64 and i kept getting segfaults and other random bugs in lenny. I did try Arch 64 but it kept crapping out on me on the boot up of the install cd. Plus there are a few things in Arch which do not work.

So far so good but i will miss out on encoding of video, audio, image processing, rendering, and 1.3GB of ram.

I'll use windows XP64 to get those back instead.

[Misbah]

Thanks guys. Well last night I disabled my buntu sata drive via bios, wiped my raptor, and installed arch. Following the beginners guide up until page 16, I got a clean base install running. Albeit with numerous highlights and questions scribble along the way that I need to look up and figure out the answers to. Unfortunately, as it was late night, I forgot my root password and couldn't get pass the loging screen ](*,)

I could've sword I had just typed in "123" not using the numpad, but no matter how many times I typed it in it was wrong. Go figure. No biggie, I knew I was going to reinstall a few times to play around with the install options and learn what I need, don't need, want, don't want in the rc.conf file. I'll post a few questions later, but for the most part the install went relatively painless, and I have a feeling my wireless will work as well since I saw support for the rt2500 driver my junk-o-linksys pci card uses.

I will say one thing. It boots faaaaast. :D

[regomodo]

Thanks guys. Well last night I disabled my buntu sata drive via bios, wiped my raptor, and installed arch. Following the beginners guide up until page 16, I got a clean base install running. Albeit with numerous highlights and questions scribble along the way that I need to look up and figure out the answers to. Unfortunately, as it was late night, I forgot my root password and couldn't get pass the loging screen ](*,)

I could've sword I had just typed in "123" not using the numpad, but no matter how many times I typed it in it was wrong. Go figure. No biggie, I knew I was going to reinstall a few times to play around with the install options and learn what I need, don't need, want, don't want in the rc.conf file. I'll post a few questions later, but for the most part the install went relatively painless, and I have a feeling my wireless will work as well since I saw support for the rt2500 driver my junk-o-linksys pci card uses.

I will say one thing. It boots faaaaast. :D

if you're going to use rt2500 card, may i suggest using rutilt by building from source. I've used many a wifimanager for 2 ralink cards (rt61 and rt2500) and the only "reliable" one is rutilt.

[PurposeOfReason]

Just learned about blackdown. There is no trouble with it, it's just an AUR package, not hard at all.