Athlon Dual Core and Ubuntu... problems or warnings?

[Darryl Clarke]

On 16/03/06, Dave M G <martin at autotelic.com> wrote:
> Ubuntu Users,
>
> I am purchasing a new computer that will be an Ubuntu Linux box. The
> store that I am purchasing from has a decent price on Athlon 64 dual
> core CPUs. It's still a little more than the Pentium 4 which is my
> original choice of CPU.
>
>  From my understanding, 64 bit may not be all that useful, as all my
> applications probably don't take any advantage of it.
>
> But dual core should provide a noticable boost in performance, shouldn't it?
>
> Are there any recommendations for or against purchasing an Athlon 64
> dual core CPU for Ubuntu?
>

This has been brought up many times on the list, I love mine and many
other people love theirs.

The only concern I had is that with Breezy's kernel (2.6.12) there are
some minor issues with the cpu in regards to timing/interrupts (which
basically means your clock will run fast, and some other little
quirks)  I use Dapper with it's kernel (2.6.15) and it works
flawlessly.  I have an X2 3800+ (2ghz).

If you do anything that will take 100% cpu, you will notice a big
difference in still being able to use your system (as these apps will
only take 100% of _one_ core).  Overall, I can't say that "yeah! it'll
blow away the p4!" on a task by task basis, but its all about the
availability and being able to continue to use your PC under fairly
heavy loads...

search the archives for a lot more...

--
~ Darryl  ~ smartssa at gmail.com
~ http://darrylclarke.com