64bit howto [help needed]

Question

# THIS SHOUD BE THE 64bit INFORMATION/HOWTO COLLECTING THREAD
i start thinking about buying a screenless computer as computing station
this is not an idea, it is a plan - something to be realized :-)
- it will be 64bit (the "future")
- it will run arch64 - it will be 100% "win-free"
- it must be low-cost (obviously, i'm a student)
now the questions:
- what will be the 64bit standard of the future (for private persons, i dont mean alpha or sparc ways, because they are too expensive)
- what arches exist? what one leads to the best performance? (i'm confused)  (also i'm a little bit affraid, that the G5 is much better than any AMD or intel 64bit in performance, because of the powerpc is rich of commands)
- how cheap can be a motherboard, a cpu and a good, not too small harddrive? (a nic is about 10CHF ~ 8US$ and powersupply was also cheap, when i looked last time)
any experts on hardare (not me) or people with 64bit systems + experience, please speak out, post links and help us 64bit-newbies understand the subject better
thanx in advance

Answer 1

sarah31 wrote:i would think that there would not be significant differences between the abilities of a G5 and AMD ... other than maybe MHz which does not mean much.
also the frequency is very close together - both are around 2-2,5ghz
sarah31 wrote:I know why you want a 64 bit and have no argument with that. I just suggest that you do not really put that much stock in benchmarks. alot can be said for handling instructions more efficiently.
exactly - actually, till now, i haven't seen any benchmark worth respecting (all are comparing stuff on 32bit OS's against 32bit cpu's)
sarah31 wrote:
my understanding is that AMDs are more efficient than pentiums (and cheaper) and some of what I heard to be available on both chips (this going on old info) i would use a AMD before a Pentium.
When it comes to G5 and AMD I would choose G5 because the last time i looked they were fairly close in price (in my part of the world which is very different than yours) and just prefer OS X.
oh ... ok - i comare selfmade amd's because a complete system using the stuff on my list costs also around 2500chf and is much closer to the g5 - however, then you get a totally displaced winXP and other hardware not needed --- and putting a system together is very simple, and saving ~1000chf is not bad :-)
sarah31 wrote:But like I say unless what I was running on it was optimized for a 64 bit arch i would not even bother too much with getting one. why spend the money on 64 bit technology now when very little is optimized for it?
that's a very good question - i hope gcc will hurry up supporting amd better --- and when having this sys i'll definitely work on arch64, the archlinux 64bit part :-)  (but also on the i686, because my laptop is P4M)
i dont plan to use windows in any case on this machine (ms intends to use 16bit code over a 16->32bit emulator and a 32->64bit emulator to run under XP64 - crazy people! - now definitely history for me)
sarah31 wrote:I say wait until later this year early next. everything should be cheaper and more software will be optimized for 64 bit. 64 bit is the way to go but waiting will not hurt.
you are right - a little bit of waiting would definitely not hurt, but help my budget :-)
the next semester will be heavy (not a lot of time for private projects) and after it, i'll for sure need a already running high-end system ... that's feb05
now, i try to get into the subject and get to know the details (last time i did research, they started making pentium pro :-) result: i buyed one of the first ATX architectures that still works - because it was future-oriented put together)
i tried to put pieces together and made a new pricelist as a draft (everything in CHF):
AMD Athlon 64 (socket 939)      AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (HT 800), Box      (cheapest available 939-amd64) 
510.00   
Mainboard ATX socket 939 AMD Athlon 64      Asus A8V Deluxe/Wifi, Via K8T800 Pro,4xDDR 400 Dual, AGP8x,  (cheapest 939 mb)   
230.00   
Case ATX      Miditower ATX Thermaltake Xaser III Lanfire black, without p     
130.00   
Harddisk Serial ATA      200 GB, Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9, 9.1 ms, 8 MB cache, 7200 rp      (MB/CHF optimized)   
185.00
Graphic card AGP      His ATI Radeon 9600, 256 MB DDR, DVI, TV out      (i have no idea if it is a good one - but as i use the radeon kernel driver and this is also a radeon, it should be supported for sure, and i know somebody having it working ok)   
165.00   
Power supply      410W Power Supply ATX, Thermaltake Xaser Silent Purepower   (cheapest >400W)   
90.00   
Total          1 310.00   
(it this are prices from www.topd.ch )
any comments? ideas?