32 or 64 question

[points]

hello all , I have just bought a new system ..Q9400 cpu,4 gig ram 1 ati vid , 1 tb hdrive..

Plan to install xp pro ( as backup) on a 400 gig partition and a distro of linux on the other 600 gig. I have dvd ,s of Ubuntu Ultimate 32 and 64 and Ubnutu 8 on cd. I did a bit of reading and the posts I found were recommending the 32 bit Ubuntu over the 64. I am looking for any help and all recomendations
and thanks in advance

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

If you have both versions, it won't cost anything but some of your time to try both and see what works best for you and your hardware. I've been running 64-bit for the last 8 months or so, and haven't looked back.

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums points

I'd install 64 bit ... 32 bit will not recognise all the RAM in the system. Support for 64 bit has been improving. 32 v 64 bit has been debated a few times ... if you have both give them a try.

[jmadero]

I'd suggest 32 for sure. I have a pretty powerful machine as well, I have installed probably 10-15 distros, probably half of those I've installed the 64 version.....I always end up with more problems with it, some of my software need special instructions to get to work, etc...

I think in the next year or so more software will create both version and it'll be worth trying. Until then, ESPECIALLY for a new user, I'd recommend a 32 bit, otherwise....you may just get frustrated

[Bemk]

My advice is try both, and choose the one that suits your hardware best, like Ozar says.

On the RAM thing, I'm not sure but I thought the limit was 4 gigs, so it will just be able to allocate every piece of memory. If you had more RAM I'd say you should go for 64 bits to be able to use all the RAM.

[points]

Thanks peoples .... I bought three of these machines , so I think I'll try one of each distro and see which works best ... Have one more qestion .. I put Asus P5Q
motherboards in these .. and when checking the asus site for downloads I see there are 3 or 4 files for linux and about 18 for windows ... if I put all of these updates on do you know if they will mess the board up since I will use both linux and windows ?

[Jonathan183]

On the RAM thing, I'm not sure but I thought the limit was 4 gigs, so it will just be able to allocate every piece of memory.

I thought the same ... I upgraded RAM on my laptop to 4GB and 32bit systems I tried would not recognise all the RAM, but the 64bit did

[elija]

It will depend on the kernel, I believe you need a 32 bit kernel with pae enabled to see more than 3gb. 64 bit kernels usually come with pae enabled by default.

[techieMoe]

It will depend on the kernel, I believe you need a 32 bit kernel with pae enabled to see more than 3gb. 64 bit kernels usually come with pae enabled by default.

Yes, in order to use more than 3GB of RAM on a 32-bit version of Linux you'll need a specially-compiled kernel image, which will more than likely not be available on the disc. 64-bit Linux will recognize all 4GB out of the box.

[undoIT]

I have been running 64bit for almost two years now and wouldn't even consider running 32bit. There might be some specific apps that don't work, but usually somebody comes up with a way to get the 32bit packages working in 64bit.

I'd start with 64bit because of the advantages it has and if you run into problems specific to not being able to run some 32bit only apps then you can make the decision to reinstall 32bit. Chances are slim you will need to do that though.