[mythtv-users] Has anyone tried upgrading an i386 to x64?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 3/9/06, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/9/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > On Mar 9, 2006, at 8:44 PM, Jack Trout wrote:
> > > I originally installed my main MythBackend/Frontend, on an x86
> > > platform and successfully swapped motherboards and processors with
> > > no problems and no changes to my system
> > >
> > > Original System
> > > AMD XP2200+
> > > 756 MB DDR266
> > > Soltek 75DRV4 (VIA Chipset)
> > > -Using onboard sound
> > > GeforceMX440 AGP
> > > 2xPVR250's
> > > 3com Gigabit ethernet card
> > >
> > > Current System
> > > AMD64-3200-754
> > > 756 MB DDR33 (I am aware that my board and processor supports
> > > DDR400, but its what I had)
> > > Asus K8V SE Deluxe
> > > -Using Onboard sound
> > > GeforceMX440 AGP
> > > 2xPVR250's
> > > 3com Gigabit ethernet card(I disabled onboard ethernet for ease of
> > > conversion)
> > >
> > > Every thing currently works and the onboard sound of the new board
> > > is much better than the old one, the old board would put sound over
> > > the speakers when hard drives were accessed, not too noticeable
> > > with relatively slow transfers like watching tv, more apparent when
> > > copying movies, or starting a stored DVDISO,
> > >
> > > Will I benifet from upgrading to FC4 x64? or should I just stick
> > > with i386?
> > > can I just download the x64 DVDISO, and run an upgrade?
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > >
> > My understanding is that there is presently nothing to be gained in
> > MythTV from going to 64 bits. I ran a 64-bit AMD Gentoo system for a
> > while, and compiled MythTV from E-Builds, but had a lot of trouble,
> > none of which do I believe is related to 64-bittedness (is that a
> > word ??)
> >
> > AFAIK all of the MythTV "distros" (ie: releases which install a more
> > or less complete MythTV system on your machine) are 32-bit, even if
> > you install them on 64-bit hardware.
> >
> > Your AMD processor should do a good job (I'm using a 3700+ clawhammer
> > core) but running in 32-bit will not hurt you at all. You would be
> > better off upgrading your storage if you want to improve your Myth
> > system (although you don't mention what storage you have, it can
> > always be improved :-))
>
> yea, you won't gain anything going 64, and from my experience, I can't
> get xvmc working in 64bit on either of my machines.



I run an Athlon64 3200+, on an Asus K8V Deluxe board, in x86-64 mode.
Everything works for me, including XvMC (GeForce FX 5200, 7676 drivers).

64 bit mode does have some advantages, beyond expanded memory addressing.
32 bit x86 mode has 8 general purpose registers, x86-64 mode has 16, which
translates into a pretty decent performance gain in any app.   But, the
performance gains are probably not worth the effort of converting the OS to
64 bit.

On your system setup:  You mentioned you disabled the onboard ethernet, in
favor of a 3Com Gig-E.  My K8v has a 3Com Gig-E on board:   "Ethernet
controller: 3Com Corporation 3c940 10/100/1000Base-T [Marvell] (rev 12)".
You may not need to have the PCI card installed.
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