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102 Comments
- VhaidraU, on 10/12/2007, -16/+93@Pathetik: Why do you capitalize the AC in MAC? We are talking about Apple Macintosh Computers not MAC addresses! And if you do not like Mac lists then just uncheck viewing of the Apple section!
- kazimir34, on 10/12/2007, -17/+78A good digger loves Apple and Nintendo.
- gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -8/+41pathetik. Never was a more appropriate username known.
- weizbox, on 10/12/2007, -10/+31omfg, you cant be serious. With as much as I dislike Mac, I still think Vista is a ton worse. Vista is an attempt to be OSX, but with a long list of bugs and other issues that Mac's are known to be free from (for the most part). Second of all... Dell or HP? You think loading bloatware that these two bundle into Windows is a performance gain? Laughable post.
- bigredgpk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23Nothing is going to make my 875mhz g4 powerbook snappy... maybe OS 9...
- mikepictor, on 10/12/2007, -6/+24then digg it down.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+26You, sirs, are two tools.
- fixyourthinking, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19Mac OS 10.4 and 1 GB of RAM paired w/ a 7200RPM HD makes that system VERY VERY fast
- swaggadocio, on 08/20/2008, -14/+25wwaaahhhhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! STFU!
- swaggadocio, on 08/20/2008, -5/+16Hows about running disk utility once in a while.
- fixyourthinking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13This is very lame - most of the things that the author suggests you turn off ARE turned off.
There's also no mention of AppleJack - which is an AWESOME free utility that works better than any of the utilities he mentioned.
Further - optimizing software is the only thing mentioned - getting a faster hard drive and maxxing out your memory is BEST way to get a faster Mac.
About the only thing I learned was XSlimmer - but you should be very careful using it - a lot of programs that are Universal, still depend on SOME subroutines in Rosetta. - KyleMistry, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Damn, just look at these comments.
I liked it better when digg wasn't swarming with incessant 14-year-old bitch-bots. - swaggadocio, on 08/20/2008, -5/+15Panther will run fine.
- ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -11/+21Really? That's all you got from my post? Guess you suck at basic comprehension.
I make a new PC every two years. Every two years new technology comes along that warrants it as I like to stay on the bleeding edge. Two years ago I upgraded my PC to PCIe graphics, 64 bit processor, faster RAM....things the computer I made 4 years ago just couldn't handle at the time at the budget I had set. The computer I made this year also couldn't be upgraded from the one I made 2 years ago as I switched processors (From AMD to Intel)...so that meant getting a new motherboard, DDR2 RAM...and since I was upgrading those things, I decided to upgrade my 7800GT to a better card, I got a deal on a nicer case than I had before so I upgraded that. So pretty much I had a new computer. The exact same thing would have happened if I was using Macintosh, a new computer every two years. Many people (take care to notice I didn't say "all") are like this. They just buy a new computer without "upgrading" the one they have. So again, saying a computer isn't upgradable is a non-issue for many people. - gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12You make no sense nalo21. Allow me to translate:
"The Only Way to Optimize Your Ferarri's Performance: throw it in the nearest dumpster and purchase a Ford or Chevy with a 4-cylinder engine." - D4N747, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7*****. I have the exact same computer and it's incredibly fast. Did you forget to empty the trash?
Anywho, the article is fairly useless and repetitive too. Be smart and use Onyx every once in a while and you'll be cool. Also, TURN THAT FIREWALL ON. - newbill123, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Voodoo article - no explanations for why things speed up, users are encouraged to just follow the recipes. This is bad because many of the items are only temporary or mask the real culprits.
Items 5 and 6 are just variations on item 10: "Clean off your hard drive". Unused languages and binaries are unused; they won't increase your computer's speed unless you're thrashing the virtual memory system due to low disk space.
Items 1, 2, 3, and 8 all say in essence, "Don't run code you don't need" but point out different areas you may not have realized code is running. If you didn't realize the code was running, shutting it down without understanding what you are shutting off is perhaps not the best idea.
Item 9 "Keep an eye on activity monitor", 7 on adjusting fan speed, and 11 on running 3rd party "optimizers" is kind of useless without some instruction on what to watch out for. Without instruction it's like Arnold Rimmer telling a Scutter robot to "Keep an eye on the roast in the oven" and the robot simply "watches" it burn (exactly following his instructions).
Restarting the computer (mentioned in the intro) is also a red herring. Things are faster when you restart because you don't have virtual memory swapping (yet), and services either haven't started (e.g. Dashboard) or they are still in the process of starting up (e.g. spotlight's low priority indexing). - bblades, on 10/12/2007, -1/+711 ways to wave the rubber chicken
- thedarklabs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6There are numerous horror stories about people running Monolingual on Intel-based Macs and needing to restore or reinstall because they used the Architecture feature on even one program and it caused Rosetta to stop functioning across the board. Also, removing languages in some cases, even languages you never use, can cause software from Adobe to stop functioning. In most cases the amount of space you will save by using this program is going to be trivial. If you absolutely have to get rid of the other languages, then reinstall and select choose not to install them then.
Don't get me wrong, I've used this program before on PPC Macs and it worked great, but I can't recommend it with Intel-based Macs. - ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -15/+21So just like a PC then? I've built my own PC's now for the past 10 years and about every two years I totally just make a whole new one. I always build to "upgrade later"...yet I never do. I don't upgrade the videocard or processor...because there's always something more I want to upgrade than just those. For instance I'll see a new motherboard with better features and I'll tack that on...then a larger HD....then a better DVD burner....oh and that new RAM for the motherboard also....don't forget that new power supply....pretty soon I have a whole new computer anyway. So in fact, for me, if I were to have an iMac all those years which I couldn't upgrade, it wouldn't have made any difference. I still would have bought a new computer every two years anyway.
Granted, everyones needs are different. But bringing up that the iMac isn't upgradable is really a moot point for many people. It's a non argument. - Jimzip, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Nice little list, especially for those that haven't emptied their trash in 4 years.. (I laughed when I read that..). Thanks wayne.
Jimzip :D - madpainter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9so now I know, on Digg, naio21 is the either Michael Dell or Bill Gates.
OK, I give up, which one? - DrivinWest, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Your idea of 'fast' must be absurd. I've got a slower CPU and half the RAM in my iMac and it flat out screams.
- tazx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Macs don't need the "old-fashioned" disk-defragmentation form of optimizing, as the OS handles this on an ongoing basis. And most Macs will run just fine without having to do any of the things listed in this article. Most people won't see any noticeable speed increase from these; it's more just something to keep us Mac geeks happy. Turning off services you don't need like Bluetooth, Internet Sharing, Universal Access *is* good advice.
In general, back up your files regularly (burn a CD/DVD or copy to another HD), and maybe run Disk Utility's Repair Permissions and Verify Disk every few months, and you'll be fine. - kazersoza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Any issues running onyx (or any maint utility)? Had this Macbook 6 months...run the Disk Utility (verify disk, repair perms) and run the daily/weekly/monthly is terminal when needed. Will a third party tool offer more?
Thanks - ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Maybe not "more" features than doing it via the terminal, but "more" convenient as all the tools are in one place.
- slundal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@christianw
No such thing as an Intel iMac with core solo. By the way it's spelled "Mac" not "MAC" for a reason, and it's because when you capitalize the letters in a name it usually means that it's an acronym.
Although it would be cool if MAC stood for Macintosh Apple Computers. - dmarques, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I find onyx does a good job for me. I was using Cocktail....till I updated to version 3.9 and the serial no longer worked :(
- tazx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree with this. Most Macs these days ship with huge drives and plenty of space. Stuff you can clear out to save room:
• Garage Band and its instruments
• Background pictures
• Clean install and omit international fonts & print drivers you don't need
• Default applications you don't need. - klamathvx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You got my thumbs up just for the Red Dwarf reference!
- ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Keeping eye on activity monitor can help if you spot an issue like that:
http://www.unsanity.org/archives/security/love_tropicana.php
In fact, besides audio/video rendering, real scientific apps and games, nothing should take 90+% percent of CPU , especially system processes.
There are some badly coded "printer button managers" etc. which are added to startup and leeches all available CPU without non techie user figuring it. - gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'll second the nod for Applejack. Very useful if something goes really wrong since it runs without a GUI, without a startup CD/DVD and is run from single user mode.
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/ - inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh, let me see if I can figure this out. I guess you're saying Macs don't allow you to change video cards. Gosh, that wasn't even true back in the mid-90s when Macs were at their least compatible with the rest of the computing world, but by all means, don't let facts interfere with your delusions.
- ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you manage to raise your CPU temperature to a certain threshold, your logic board or CPU itself will half the speed to prevent burning. It is a technology started with early Pentium 2 processors. It does exist on PPC based processors too.
- SEMW, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just because an OS comes with good defaults optimized for most people's needs, doesn't mean it isn't possible to optimise it further for your own personal needs, because your own personal needs won't match most people's needs. E.g. some Macs come with Bluetooth, whch may be switched on be default so that less technically aware people can share things between bluetooth devices and their Mac more easily; but if you know you'll never need it you may as well switch it off and gain that bit of extra resources. It's a balance between performance and ease of use. And there's another balance between security and ease of use. Everything is a balance; and Windows, OS X, and Linux have all found different points of equilibrium.
- Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I just installed 10.4 on a 700Mhz eMac with 1Gb RAM and it is great for general use.
- hansning, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i saved more than 2 gigs using xslimmer, which i thought was pretty amazing. everything seems to work perfectly still, but nothing seemed to have sped up.
- MacParrot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2if you don't use iLife or any of its apps, deleting them will save a lot of space. tazx is right but I would go one step further and say make sure you delete all the supporting files (usually in both the first tier library and your user library). They can be difficult to find and Apple doesn't make it any easier by not have uninstallers for their software. besides files in the library, also right or ctrl-click on the app to view package contents.
As cool as the iLife suite of programs is, not everyone needs or wants them. - MacParrot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks to everyone who posted at the blog concerning my son. No, I won't report the url here (just hit the buried comments just above this one). It's currently at 25 posts and my son will be thrilled to see so many messages wishing him well. Thanks to all the diggers who posted and most of that left email addresses or a site that I can contact you at have already recieved a personal thank you from me. If you posted and didn't leave a contact, let me say here that I appreciate your support. Thanks again to all.
- mikewhalley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't know why everyones replying. He can't hear you - he's got no head.
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@effedup:
Show me one Apple advertisement that makes such a claim. I'll save you some time: there aren't any. You're projecting the loudly expressed ***** of a few Mac fanatics on to the rest of us, so just knock it off. It's idiotic and you know it. - Vermifax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Waiting for what...?
- ElectricSoup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don't need to. I've got a Linux distro running on a spare ex-Windows laptop, and it's perfectly acceptable. However, OS X also gives me a Unix-like kernel/userland--and one with a slightly better pedigree if anything. The FreeBSD and Open BSD peope have been known to make jokes at the expense of Linux groupies, as well they might:
"...Simon Lok, who holds a doctorate in computer science, took a close look at the Linux source code.
" 'You know what I found? Right in the kernel, in the heart of the operating system, I found a developer's comment that said, "Does this belong here?" ' Lok says. 'What kind of confidence does that inspire? Right then I knew it was time to switch.' "
http://www.forbes.com/intelligentinfrastructure/2005/06/16/linux-bsd-unix-cz_dl_0616theo.html
But the real point of OS X is that I get to use its peerless desktop environment.
Here's Steve Jobs talking about the "objected-oriented cake":
http://rixstep.com/1/1/20060814,00.shtml
And that was _years_ ago. There's still no-one else offering anything like that. Is it likely I'd want to wipe the best solution out there and install an also-ran instead? - ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Applejack is a tool to be used when you have startup disk failure,corrupt caches and broken permissions.
Article speaks about performance optimization.
Deleting all caches needlessly will drop performance, at least 1 boot.
Applejack is installed to every mac I got access to (including friends) but it is not a performance tool unless you got a corrupt disk drive which disk repair will fix. - diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12. Turn off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing if You Don't Use Them
Everything on here are already turned off by default. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Lame article.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Half of the tips are plain wrong or (even worse) could hose your system unless you know exactly what you're doing. Running Fan Control will maximize performance? The guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Article dugg down.
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good list, but it really needs to mention running Disk Utility's disk repair and repair permissions one in a blue moon. I have iCal set up to launch Disk Utility every Sunday night (run it weekly which is totally overkill, but no harm done) so I remember to do it.
Also, some of the login items can have cryptic names. If you hover over any of them, a tool tip will pop up that shows you where it lives. Often seeing the path to the item will clarify what it is. I had something called LCCDaemon.app in my login items list which surprised me because I didn't recognize it, but it turned out it was my Logitech mouse software. - Vermifax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4He meant "Mac geeks".
No such thing as a "Mac Sheep". - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"If you manage to raise your CPU temperature to a certain threshold, your logic board or CPU itself will half the speed to prevent burning. It is a technology started with early Pentium 2 processors. It does exist on PPC based processors too."
Irrelevant. OS X already manages the fans so they will be going flat out (6000rpm) at 70 degrees Celsius, well under the threshold where the logic board decides things have gone critical and ramps down the clock. I've run both cores up to maximum (encoding videos) on a stinking hot summer day with no aircon and OS X never dropped the CPU below the maximum clock speed. The laptop was too hot to touch (couldn't even use the keyboard because the palmrests were so hot) but it never underclocked.
And even if the temperature did get beyond critical, there's nothing Fan Control could do, because the fans are already going at maximum. Fan Control can't make the fans run faster than maximum.
There's no way to apologise for this incorrect tip. The author claims the CPU runs faster when its cooler. That's not true; the CPU runs at the same clock speed regardless of temperature, so long as its below critical (which it is). If anything, Fan Control makes your machine run slightly slower because it needs CPU cycles to continually read the temperature sensor and adjust the fans. -
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