comments regarding *nix and HP Pavilion p6510f

[Andrew Gould]

I purchased an HP Pavilion p6510f a couple of weeks ago.  After taking
some time to get acquainted with Windows 7, I began my *nix
compatibility search.  The main issue that arose was regarding the
hard drive controller "mode".  The default BIOS setting for the hard
drive controller mode is RAID (there is only one drive).  Other mode
options are IDE and AHCI.

When the mode is set to RAID (default):

     Xubuntu boots up fine.
     OpenSUSE 11.3 and FreeBSD 8.1 stopped very early in the boot up
process and begin a cycle of rebooting.

When the mode is set to IDE:
     Xubuntu, OpenSUSE and FreeBSD boot up normally.

When the mode is set to AHCI:
     Xubuntu and OpenSUSE boot up normally.
     FreeBSD 8.1 (32 bit, 64 bit) freezes very early in the process.

Hardware component compatibility after a normal boot up:
     Xubuntu 10.4 and FreeBSD 8.1 appears to detect everything except
wireless and sound.
     OpenSUSE 11.3 appears to detect everything.  Both sound and
wireless were used using the live (Gnome) CD.

WARNING:  If you change the hard drive controller mode, you will kill
your Windows installation.  (yep, I did it).  It is here that I earned
a little appreciation for HP.  The computer can be restored using the
restore partition (or restore DVD's burned immediately after my first
setup).  The restore system restores the computer to factory settings;
but a lot of registry entries are done during the process.  This means
that the new mode (I chose AHCI) was detected during the restore
process so Windows will expect AHCI instead of RAID.

Another detail I appreciate is that the computer comes with 4GB RAM
that occupy 2 slots, leaving 2 slots free for RAM upgrades without
having to replace existing RAM.

Question:  Is there any reason to install 32 bit operating system
instead of 64 bit?

Thanks,

Andrew