Going from i386 AMD 64 Dual Core

[Rashkae]

Ben Edwards wrote:

> If I stick to 32bit will both cores be used, are there performance
> benefits or just memory addressing etc of 64bit.
> 

There is an oft debatable performance improvement.  I think it's in the 
area of 10% on some applications (that are cpu bound).  Other processes 
are reported to take a performance hit, and memory usage increases

> Thing is I want to use things like w32codecs and they do not seem to
> be available for 64bit.

It's possible to create 32 bit chroot environments, or to install a 
32-bit version of mplayer (and associated libraries) that can use the 
w32codecs.  Not really worth the pain if all you want is a working 
desktop with all the multimedia toys.

> 
> When I do top I was expecting to c a line for each CPU in the summary
> section.  Is there a way of monitoring each CPU separately?

Press the '1' key when your in top to split up the CPU's.  The GUI 
system monitor tools will do this as well. (I'm a big fan of gkrellm myself)