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- ieure, on 10/05/2008, -13/+129They forgot to mention upgrading your RAM.
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -19/+127There, saved you 4 clicks:
1. Clear the clutter
OS X requires around 20% of the space on its boot drive, typically called Macintosh HD, to be empty so that it can write virtual memory and other temporary files to the space. If a boot drive is very full, your Mac will slow down badly, even if it is a high spec machine, as the system thrashes the drive, overwriting what little free space is available.
A good working practice is to keep very large media files like video, image libraries or iTunes libraries either on a secondary internal drive in the case of a tower, or on a laptop or iMac, on an external FireWire or USB 2.0 hard drive.
2. Use faster drives
Portable Macs come with 5,400rpm hard drives and towers with 7,200rpm drives as standard. Faster spin speeds generally mean faster operation since data can be retrieved from the drive in less time. On a tower like a G5 or Mac Pro, replacing the startup drive with a faster model like a 10,000 or even 15,000rpm drive will have a positive effect on overall performance and should make the system snappier.
Using faster secondary internal drives is good but more important for heavy applications like working with video. Fitting a 7,200rpm drive to a portable Mac will also yield better overall performance at relatively low cost.
3. Add more ports
If you find yourself running out of ports, invest in a USB 2.0 or FireWire hub to expand the number available. Make it a powered one and it will supply current to compatible devices as well. On all but tower Macs and MacBook Pros, there's no getting around the bandwidth problem – even with a hub, you're throttled by the bandwidth available on the internal bus.
On a Mac with PCI or PCMCIA capability, you can add a card internally with more ports, which provides a signal path directly to the motherboard and so gets around the bandwidth issue.
4. Upgrade your RAM
RAM is one of the most fundamental things affecting the performance of a computer. OS X really needs about 1GB of memory to itself to run smoothly, and the more RAM you have, the better. Use the About This Mac menu to see how much is installed, and the System Profiler to see exactly how many sticks are present.
About 2GB is healthy for a normal system, and for heavy work with Photoshop, Final Cut or GarageBand you'll need more than that. Different Mac models have differing RAM capacities, with older Macs able to hold less, especially laptops.
5. Manage startup items
Some applications, on being installed, place stub or helper programs in your startup items without making it clear that they are doing so. Sometimes this is desirable, say if you always want iChat to open when you log in. But others, typically scanner- or printer-related applications, aren't always needed and can slow down the login process and hog CPU cycles unnecessarily.
Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login items. Delete any you don't need. This rarely causes problems – if it does, put it back on the list.
6. Run only what you need
Running applications uses resources including CPU cycles, RAM and disk activity. If you're not using an application, quit it while you run others. Leaving programs open when they're not needed is a resource hog and, especially on older Macs, will slow you down.
Some programs can have problems with "memory leakage", meaning when loaded but idle, over time they will consume more and more RAM, eventually slowing you down. Use Activity Monitor located in the Utilities folder to see what resources each program is using.
7. Stay lean and mean
Keep a handle on what you install. Installing tons of programs and forgetting about them results not only in clutter and wasted space, but can also slow you down. Many programs place library files and startup items into the system, some of which must be loaded on startup whether you use the program or not.
Many come with an uninstaller, or you can use AppZapper to completely remove them. Over time, systems invariably get cluttered so if you are confident in your skills, periodically backing up and reinstalling OS X from scratch will keep it lean and mean.
8. Stay up to date
Each new version of OS X is faster than the last, and each point update – say from 10.5.3 to 10.5.4 – tends to improve speed and stability. The same goes for applications, so your software and drivers up to date using Software Update and the websites for non- Apple programs. Many apps have a check for updates option. Look at the minimum specs for your version of OS X. If your Mac is barely qualified to run 10.5, you'll have a smoother experience sticking with 10.4.11.
9. Install more memory
Having bought more RAM for your Mac, checking first that it is the correct type for your model, power down and disconnect all cables, especially the mains power. Touch a metal part of the casing to earth yourself. Open the Mac's RAM slot, the location of which will differ depending on the model, and carefully but firmly press the modules into place.
On G5s and Intel Macs, RAM sticks must be installed in pairs. Close up, reconnect the power and check System Profiler to see if it's working. If your Mac won't start up, check the modules are properly fitted.
10. Know your limits
Computer technology advances quickly, but so do the minimum system requirements of software. A seven year-old G4 is unlikely to be an ideal Mac to edit HD video on, for example. But older Macs are far from worthless and can be used as servers, internet and email machines, or even for hosting wireless shared iTunes libraries.
Pick up a cheap older Mac, fill it with RAM and big internal or external drives and a wireless card and administer it using Apple's Remote Desktop (£349, http://store.apple.com/uk%29. All this can be done quite cheaply.
11. Processor performance
On some older G4 and G5 systems, you can set the processor performance to Highest in System Preferences > Energy Saver. Automatic switches between the Highest and Reduced settings to optimise energy use.
12. Stripped down
A Mac with fewer or even no peripherals connected over USB or FireWire will run a little quicker than the same Mac with loads of printers and webcams plugged in.
13. Out and about
When running a laptop off its battery, switching off AirPort and Bluetooth will save power if you're not using them.
14. Multiple accounts
Try having one user account for things like games and internet, and another that's more fine-tuned and tweaked for heavier work.
15. Graphics card
On a tower Mac, even though you can't always remove the standard graphics card, you can add a new, faster one in a PCI slot and use that instead.
16. Backup schedule
Set your backup schedule so it doesn't start to grind away in the middle of your work. A Mac is designed to stay on, so you can set it for the middle of thie night.
17. Disk doctor
Perform a disk repair and use something like OnyX to regularly clear out caches, log files and temporary items to keep the system lean.
18. Static wallpaper
Using animated desktop backgrounds look great but they use up a lot of system resources unnecessarily, so avoid it if possible. A simple, static photo of a landscape or your family is just as pleasurable.
19. FireWire is faster
Despite theory seeming to suggest otherwise, FireWire is actually faster in practice than USB 2.0 for intensive applications like audio or video capture. Give it a try for yourself.
20. Stay organised
Believe it or not, folders with thousands of items in them take a lot longer to work with, as the Mac tries to calculate the sizes of the whole folder. Practise good file management. - mr1337, on 10/05/2008, -7/+582 easy steps to upgrade your Mac:
1. Throw away your old Mac
2. Go buy a new Mac - boheme, on 10/05/2008, -1/+43I have a hard time respecting the advice of someone who repeats their own suggestions, and then contradicts themselves on others. For example:
Repeated:
4. Upgrade your RAM
9. Install more memory
Contradicting:
3. Add more ports - If you find yourself running out of ports, invest in a USB 2.0 or FireWire hub to expand the number available.
12. Stripped down - A Mac with fewer or even no peripherals connected over USB or FireWire will run a little quicker than the same Mac with loads of printers and webcams plugged in.
At a certain point I just started feeling that the author was rambling without a clear objective. - bearcat8543, on 10/05/2008, -7/+44but then what am i supposed to use when updating my blog in starbucks?
- caracter2, on 10/05/2008, -14/+48Throw it out the window. The higher the window, the faster it will get.
- pvdnyc, on 10/05/2008, -1/+32until it hits terminal velocity, then that's it.
- lorenhatt, on 10/05/2008, -2/+29lame, 4 and 9 are the same thing.
- efitz11, on 10/05/2008, -3/+29i thought that was the only way to upgrade your mac
- QsheiK, on 10/05/2008, -10/+32Entry-level Mac? Isn't that some sort of an oxymoron?
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -15/+37I LIKE MEN
- ericdano, on 10/05/2008, -2/+21This article sucks. And they, TechRadar, have been publishing crap lately.
- Turbojugend27, on 10/05/2008, -0/+18wow, my macbook is running way better now that I unplugged 15 printers and 28 webcams.
- dannyboy3020, on 10/05/2008, -0/+16Whoosh?
- CreativeGuy, on 10/05/2008, -3/+19It's actually 18 ways, since they repeated two of them, just wording it differently. Not a bad list, but a list that I suspect any average Mac user knows about if they're looking to do this. If they don't know about these ways, they probably aren't looking for them either.
- xtraa, on 10/05/2008, -1/+12Sorry but the hints in the article are pretty obvious and therefore the article is lame.
Hints would be:
1. Use Monolingual to delete PPC Code and unused languages
http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
2. Enable Quartz GL
http://pcwizcomputer.com/osx86tools/
3. On setup, make sure to uncheck the 3GB printer-drivers - badtz, on 10/05/2008, -1/+11That's like saying I should give up dating Angelina Jolie and date the Olsen Twins ...
- KloroFormd, on 10/05/2008, -2/+11"Pick up a cheap older Mac, fill it with RAM and big internal or external drives and a wireless card and administer it using Apple's Remote Desktop (£349). All this can be done quite cheaply."
Yes, a £349 piece of software for an ancient piece of ***** computer is quite cheap. - forchilli, on 10/05/2008, -1/+10Truly one of the worst "Ways To Speed Up Your Mac" stories ever.
- jonnyfatman, on 10/05/2008, -0/+9RTFSarcasm! Look at number 4 and number 9. Then look at your comment and the one you responded to. Been a long day?
- chicaneuk, on 10/05/2008, -0/+8lol - glad it wasn't just me who immediately spotted that :)
- Blademan88, on 10/05/2008, -1/+9wow, those were pretty much all incredibly obvious to i would guess 95 percent of digg...
- Canuck, on 10/05/2008, -0/+7Well that is something that I can't get right. Once I've inserted it I need to take it out and try again. It takes like 20 minutes of putting it in, taking it out, putting it in, taking it out. And during all this she keeps getting madder and madder; because she keeps screaming and the longer I take the louder she gets.
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -3/+9Captain Obvious article, it's like instructing you on how to insert a penis into a vagina.
- KMartSheriff, on 10/05/2008, -0/+6Those steps, and the one's in the article, can be applied to any modern computer.
- blackjack75, on 10/05/2008, -0/+6If you're a developer you should be wary of MonoLingual. It will delete PPC code everywhere, including in some frameworks you might be bundling with your application... Talking from experience here. And of course you won't be able to drop that same app on a friend's mac who still runs a G4.
Anyway you save a lot by stripping the languages and a lot less by stripping the PowerPC code since the large parts of applications today are resources, not cpu-specific code. - 1platypus, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5Looks like that weed is killing your brain cells elscorcho.
- Emnys, on 10/05/2008, -1/+6http://trunks.fireball20xl.com/*****/comic/comics. ...
- mr1337, on 10/05/2008, -7/+12The word you're looking for is "redundant"
- Canuck, on 10/05/2008, -2/+7Let me guess. Linux right?
Wow who would have thought that someone would suggest switching operating systems.
/Sarcasm - ethana2, on 10/06/2008, -0/+5OSX kicks the pants off windows, known fact.
~an Ubuntu user. - Spuy767, on 10/05/2008, -2/+7Buy the best mac you can afford and it will still be fast in 2-3 years. The first Mac Pro I bought is still stupid fast, The one I recently bought will be stupid fast for years to come.
- CloseYetFar, on 10/05/2008, -0/+4Yea, sympathy is very limited on Digg.
- fr34k5h0w, on 10/05/2008, -1/+5Actually Vista thrashes my hard drive worse than any other operating system, even after turning off indexing. Mac OS X for some reason doesn't, maybe because it uses FSEvents instead of constantly rebuilding the index. Either way I avoid booting into Vista on my Mac as much as possible, though I do use it ocassionally.
- KMartSheriff, on 10/05/2008, -1/+5Yeah me too, I'm so happy i removed the 14 USB hubs.
- aznhomig, on 10/05/2008, -7/+11So, pretty much stuff that PC users have been doing for years?
Who would've thought a better graphics card contributed to better gaming framerates... - kreatre2007, on 10/05/2008, -0/+4Step one should be to not expect your 6 year old Mac G4 to perform blazingly fast with Mac OS X Leopard. It might meet the system requirements but, let's be realistic here!
Always put in as much RAM as you can afford. I have a Mac G5 (one of the originals released in 2003) and it's very fast with Mac OS X Server v. 10.5. I have 6GB of RAM installed. RAM is getting very inexpensive again. I get mine from macsales.com. I've been using them for over 10 years and their customer service when something goes wrong is excellent.
Next, don't install all of that crapware monitoring software. Why do you need all of these gauges to tell you your CPU temp or network bandwidth? These things only use more of your speed -- especially on an older Mac.
Keep the clutter to a minimum. All of those files and folders on your desktop are using video memory. Your Mac uses the video chipset to draw all of those icons. Why not file these away in your documents folder?
If you're using Mac OS X v. 10.4 or 10.5, don't load up Dashboard with too many widgets. Some of these widgets continue to run when you're not actually in Dashboard.
Use the hide feature often. Most apps can be hidden with a simple key command (command H or Apple H). This gets them out of your way quickly. Look at the application menus. You'll find lots of nifty time saving key commands. Learn them and you'll be glad that you did.
Keep your software up to date. Apple has added a lot of optimization to Mac OS X through updates.
Don't use the setting that makes your desktop background change every 5 seconds.
There's my contribution :) - Subriot, on 10/05/2008, -4/+83. ???
4. Profit! - damack, on 10/05/2008, -2/+6Even the 18 on the list are kind of meaningless for some reason as a Mac convertee I've realised Mac OSX 10.5 is ludicrously fast I don't think it could get significantly faster.
- seanmx, on 10/05/2008, -2/+5I thought this was gonna tell me how to get girls quicker.
- xrv1ck, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3wha whaaaat?
- JaysonthePirate, on 10/05/2008, -2/+5You're incredible.
- inactive, on 10/06/2008, -0/+3He has a memory problem.
- macchappy, on 10/06/2008, -0/+3Why would one have more than one printer and more than one webcam hooked into their Mac?
- Clbull, on 10/05/2008, -1/+4And despite all of these speed upgrades... its still nowhere near close to running Crysis.
- greggerm, on 10/05/2008, -2/+5Saved 4 clicks but blew right through any fair use/copyright laws.
And how are #3 and #13 "Speed Up" tips?
(Awaiting my burial) - stevenyenzer, on 10/05/2008, -1/+3make sure to "earth" yourself when installing more RAM twice
- zpjet, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2yep that point is very stupid since every mac since... tiger at least comes with built in VNC server and if the controlling mac is leopard the client is also built in.
plus there's tons of shareware enabling controlling itunes by anything with a button. - Duckie502, on 10/05/2008, -3/+5This is the same list of to-do's for making a PC faster but with Mac wording. Weird eh?
- PabloMac, on 10/05/2008, -3/+5I see what you did there.
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