How to optimize a Mac ..

Hi everyone ..

I'm a PC to MAC convert .. have had some networking/printer issues .. but on the whole, am very happy with the switch .. and, of course, will never go back to a PC ..

I just had a quick question .. I feel my MacBook Pro 2.0 Core Duo (not the Core 2 Duo) is a bit slow/sluggish .. especially compared to the windows performance I'm used to .. I'm wondering if there are any hints/tweaks to optimize a Mac .. like, for example, for the PC .. there's usually a whole bunch of things you can do .. like turn off file caching, system restore, registry tweaks and stuff like that ..

I have 1.5 GB of ram, which I figure which should be enough for what I use the computer for .. (web-browsing, and office productivity tasks) ..

Any help, in this regard, would be greatly appreciated ..

Bilal

 

You might try:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html

I've tried Cocktail and its pretty nice

 

Interesting. Mine's slightly slow-ish when it's been on for 14 hours and I have 7 different safari windows, adium, itunes, and neooffice at the same time, which is expected, but other than that, it's usually fine. Mine's on 1GB of RAM.

 

Ofcourse noone mentioned the easiest way to optimize a Mac.....

Simply throw it out your window, and replace it with a Core 2 Duo PC

 

Hrm, it shouldn't be sluggish at all. It should boot in to the login screen (asuming you reinstalled OS X upon receipt and setup admin/user accounts) in about 5-10 seconds. Then on login, it should take another 5 seconds or so to get to OS X.
Certain programs will run a bit slow if they are not UB. Otherwise, it should be blazing fast. The os is much more efficient than XP.

 

You might want to open up Activity Monitor to see what exactly is slowing you down. I think you might be running out of RAM, especially since Cmd+W doesn't shut down an app, it only closes the current window/document.

 

Yeah, I have a lowly C2D MacBook and I usually am running 10-12 applications at any given time. Several Browsers, NeoOffice with a couple Word docs and a spreadsheet or two. A DB connection tool, several mainframe terminal sessions, a screenshot utility, ConceptDraw, MagicDraw, iTunes, iCal, iChat, Mail, YIM, a terminal window, and FTP client, and Occasionally Parallels with WinXP running several apps everything is usually VERY quick. I notice an occasional slowdown when doing intensive Windows stuff in Parallels but thats about it and it seems graphics related.

I have 2gb RAM and noticed that there was a big improvement when I went from 1gb to 2gb (although even 1gb was faster than XP)

 

If you do not use spotlight, turn it off. That should help a bit. It should be fairly quick otherwise. If you are using Firefox, consider going with Safari or Camino, both of which are faster. MS Office will be sluggish because it is not Universal.

 

Awesome plan. After using one of those for a while he'll never complain about the speed of a Mac again. And he can easily replace the worn CTRL-ALT-DEL keys on his keyboard when he goes back to a Mac.

 

Err, stupid question here, but how do I shut off spotlight, Cashmonee? I don't see any obvious way to do it.

 

Er..

-I use Safari for internet browsing.
-I use NeoOffice EXCLUSIVELY for word processing.
-I use Adium for all my IM needs.
-I use iTunes EXCLUSIVELY for music.
-I deleted the MS Office Trial the minute I started mine because iWork is SOO MUCH BETTER.

However I did NOT reinstall OS X because, well, I didn't want to mess with mac OS X...and it didn't bother me, and it doesn't bother me now. And the speakers sound great. Whoever said that the speakers suck has never actually owned a macbook pro.

Oh and I'm never going back to window$ again. My printer took 5 seconds to install on my mac, on my sister's HP (well duh) it took 25 minutes. NEVER AGAIN, WINDOWS!!!! You pissed me off, now you can go f*ck yourself.

 

Thank you, everyone, for replying to my post.

I have 1.5 GBs of ram, which I figure should be enough for my usage. Here is a list of applications, running on my computer at any given time: MS Word, Firefox/Safari, Remote Desktop, MSN & Yahoo. The computer feels slow, because there's a little pause whenever I switch applications. I am going to try some of the suggestions posted, like reducing the number of widgets, turning off spot-light .. and also the tweaks suggested at www.thexlab.com

Windows, installed via BootCamp, feels considerably faster.

Thanks again everyone!

Bilal

 

What's this about reinstalling os x upon receipt of the macbook? Do Macs come with lots of bloated trialware and "free offers" like PCs?

 

They come with Microsoft Office 2004 trial and iWork '06 trial installed. Besides those, nope.

 

(a bit off topic, but) Aren't those two in direct competition?

 

No, but it's easier to clear out programs and stuff like print drivers and language support if you just do a clean install. Plus, installing OS X is about as easy as it gets and pretty idiot proof.
I reinstalled so I could get rid of the Office trial (own it) and remove the print drivers and languages I didn't need. There were a few other things I changed as well, I just don't remember what.

the speakers actually sound very good, they are just not loud enough.

 

What's this thing about OS X maintenance? .. Apparently, if your system is not kept on 24 hours a day, systems files or temp files start to build up .. which require daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance? .. I downloaded and installed MacJanitor, to help with it .. will this sort of regular maintenance also help to improve performance? ..

any other tips/tweaks will be greatly appreciated ..

thanks everyone!

Bilal

 

There are some log files that will build up, but they hardly require constant maintenance and you could let them build up for months or even years before they made a significant dent in your disk space.

As to those other, tasks, I would be interested in hearing what they are Given how much better OS X is on laptops than Window's I would have thought the Apple folks would have taken care of anything of significance, but perhaps this either slipped through the cracks or is just no big thing.

The Mac Gurus (the ones that actually make a living at it writing books) don't seem to think OS X requires much maintenance other than resetting file permissions or unless your disk gets more than 90% full. I think until my experience proves different, I am with them. I only have a couple months experience with OS X so far, so it does not mean much but... so far so good.

I used to be one of those that would spend 10% of my time researching and optimizing that last 1% out of my machines. Not anymore though, thats one of the reasons I left Windows and embraced OS X. I can really use that extra 9% of my time ;-)