My P4 3.0G is locking up pretty frequently and I am not too excited about putting any more money into it. I am looking at either an Intel or AMD 64-bit processor. I don't have any requirement for 64-bit other than I tend to keep computers for awhile and want to stay current. I would appreciate some feedback from 64-bit processor owners as to whether it is worth it or whether I should go for a fast 32-bit processor.
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Re: Is 64-bit worth it?
I think if you make a quick study of the available processors, you'll find there is little or no price advantage to choosing a 32-bit CPU, unless you really go to cheapest of the oldies. Here's an example of what I mean:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116064
$50 USD for a 64-bit, very capable CPU.
How about the motherboard -- are you looking to replace that too? -
Re: Is 64-bit worth it?
I think you need to get to the bottom of the lockups first instead of looking for the processor, what indicators do you have that it is related to the processor? P4 3Ghz is plenty fast, 64bit processing is only needed if you do large amounts of calculations in CAD programs or other rendering programs. If your system frequently locks up do some basic trouble shooting first, like is the CPU sink clean of dust, does anything overheat, is the memory properly seated and how much memory are you using (run memtest86 to make sure there is no issue there) then look at the hard disk, is the cable properly seated, are there any bad sectors (use spinrite to verify the drive). Then of course it is the question if all hard ware drivers are properly working.
I have ran Linux and also all sorts of other operating systems (Microsoft products and other forms of Unix). Lock ups do not occur at the processor level unless you have modified the kernel yourself or have heavily overclocked the system (> 20%).
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Re: Is 64-bit worth it?
Well, I bought a Core 2 Duo. I was impressed with the performance of 64-bit, but I still can't find an 802.11n NIC that will work, so I went back to 32-bit. When I can get wireless and 3D working, I expect I will go back.Comment
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