Alright... I did my googling and after poring over several pages of forum posts, I still wasn't able to find an answer that satisfied me. I've got a server with an "AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+" running Gentoo. Everything has been compiled as 32-bit (i686). I am in the process of looking at a new server from Dell with a 64-bit Intel Processor (currently comparing the Xeon E5310 & the Xeon 5130). Questions are as follows: 1. If I plan on getting 8GB of RAM, will I need (or really want) to install 64-bit linux? Are there gains by going 64-bit or is it better to enable high ram support in the kernel, compile as 32 and call it done? 2. Will I be able to use the same binaries from the old server on the new one if I install 64-bit? I'd really prefer to copy as much of the data from the old server to the new one as I can. I am aware that a 64-bit chip can run 32-bit software, but I don't know the details. Do I need a 64-bit kernel? How about libraries? I realize these questions are probably very generalized, but I have basically zero knowledge of the subject so I don't really even know where to start. If people need more info to be able to answer, I'd be happy to provide it. Essentially, it comes down to this: Should I use 8 GB of RAM in a 32-bit machine? How much work is it to transition a machine from 32-bit to 64? I really appreciate all the help TCLUG has been in the past. A good group of solid techies. Thanks. -Matt -- <http://www.plaudit.com/> Matt Dittbenner *EMAIL* . matt at plaudit.com <mailto:matt at plaudit.com> *WEB* . www.plaudit.com <http://www.plaudit.com/> *PHONE* . 651.646.0696 *FAX* . 651.917.0600 *ADDRESS* . 2470 University Ave. W. St. Paul, MN 55114 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20070713/8b642ac8/attachment.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: logo.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1839 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20070713/8b642ac8/attachment.gif