next »

[SectorNine50]

Hi guys,
Did a brief search, but unfortunately this topic seems to bring up a lot of threads since amd64 and i386 is used a ton in various threads.

I'm about to set up two pfSense boxes for a IPSec tunnel, and was curious about which would be a better choice from a reliability standpoint.  I remember reading a while back that the i386 release of pfSense seemed to have better package support (ie. was more stable); is that still/was it ever the case?

The Atom processors I have on the way support 64-bit, so I figured I might as well use it, unless there was a reason not to.

Thanks!

[cmb]

In general I would recommend if you have > 4 GB RAM, definitely go with amd64. Otherwise probably i386. But it really doesn't matter either way most always.

No package difference between them anymore, there was for a while since i386 was much more tested by package developers and there were missing amd64 binaries, but those issues have long since been resolved. On rare occasions, people see driver-related issues on amd64 that aren't an issue on i386.

[rcfa]

I'd say, unless you have a specific reason not to go with amd64, use it, because 32-bit computing is going the way of the dodo. Who's still using 8-bit or 16-bit CPUs? In a couple of years people will ask the same question about 32-bit architectures. Might as well get on the train now, and not have to switch later...

[stephenw10]

Not sure I'd agree with that.
It's not like there's a learning curve for switching to 64bit, so you'd better start learning now! 
There isn't you just choose another ISO. For most people you wouldn't even know which version you're running.
If there was some huge performance advantage then it would be a no-brainer but there isn't (last time I checked). Though it seems like there should be given that you can handle twice as many bits per cpu cycle.
Pretty much the only reason I can think of for running 64bit is if you need >4GB of ram.

Advantages of not running 64bit; code is more tested and hence more stable. Though it's probably marginal. 

Steve

[SectorNine50]

Thanks for the input!  Sounds like I can't really go wrong either way. 

Figure I might as well do 64-bit, just in case there is some sudden mass exodus away from 32-bit in the future... 

[cmb]

Figure I might as well do 64-bit, just in case there is some sudden mass exodus away from 32-bit in the future... 

You're probably safe with 32 bit up until Y2K38. At that point, probably won't be possible to run 32 bit anymore. But I sure hope it isn't a sudden mass exodus in early 2038.