Pentoo comes in many flavors and it is important to choose wisely. Right now, you have two main choices: Choice 1: Full or not If you plan to install, get the Full iso. If you want all the tools, get the Full iso. If you want to update anything and need the build time tools to do that, get the Full iso. Basically get the Full iso unless you are only planning to run live and don't need any of the more rare tools. Choice 2: x86_64 or i686 Reality is, no one tests things on x86 anymore. I don't just mean us, I mean software devs, distro devs, and even kernel devs. No one cares about old hardware. If you download the i686 builds, it will run on anything Pentium M or higher, but reality is that the x86_64 builds are not only faster, but hugely better tested. Pick x86_64 unless you have a really good reason (like wanting to support ancient hardware).