32 or 64??

[Rashkae]

Knapp wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 5:47 AM, Rashkae <ubuntu at tigershaunt.com> wrote:
>> Knapp wrote:
>>
>>> I have read a few studies that say 64 bit is far faster than 32 bit
>>> and I have seen a lot of post here saying that that is not true. I
>>> have no idea what is the truth about this but in the end does any one
>>> have a modern 64 bit PC that is to slow with any Linux system? If you
>>> do, maybe you need to boot Tiny Linux. LOL
>>>
>> Depends what you consider faster. Â Most people won't notice any
>> difference on the desktop, since your bottleneck is almost entirely
>> going to be hard drive (in particular, head seek time). Â If, however,
>> you are are performing a cpu intensive task (something that keeps your
>> processor going at 100% plus) then there is a significant speed boost.
>> I can clearly see over 15% speed increase in bzip / 7z compression as
>> well as video encoding.
> 
> So out of 10 minutes of sitting and waiting you only have to sit for
> 8.5 minutes. I know on paper 15% sounds good but when it comes to
> drinking a cup of coffee while you wait, most would not be able to
> know that it was faster. Or if we are talking seconds 10 seconds vs
> 8.5 seconds? I think most people notice things being louder, better,
> faster, slower and get excited about it when it is an order of
> magnitude (perhaps base 2).  :-) IE 2 minutes VS 4 Minutes.
> 

Obviously, from yout above comment about modern systems not being slow, 
this does not apply to you at all, but some of us use our CPU's for more 
than a space heater, and a 10+% speed boost just from installing from 
the 64-bit cd instead of the 32-bit one is a big deal.