20 Tips Optimise your system for OS X
1. Boost memory
The simplest way to a faster Mac is by installing extra RAM. Before you buy, check the maximum RAM capacity of your Mac. You can download a free program called MacTracker that will tell you the precise technical specifications of every Mac ever produced.
2. Install RAM in pairs
Many Macs will give you a speed boost if you install matching RAM modules in pairs. G5 and Mac Pro towers actually require the installation of pairs of modules, though most other Macs will allow the use of an odd number, with the proviso that you won’t get the fastest possible performance from them. Crucial’s website will tell you the specifics for your model.
3. Faster drive
Installing a faster hard drive as the boot drive on a tower Mac will yield performance gains, especially if you go up to a 10,000-speed drive. On a laptop, installing a 7,200rpm drive (to replace a 5,400 rpm model) will also make things faster, though older Mac portables don’t have user replaceable hard drives
4. Is faster memory worth it?
When buying RAM you’ll often have the option to buy faster memory, which of course comes at a higher price. Although it may technically be faster on paper, in reality you may not notice a huge speed bump in real world, everyday use. Spending the extra money on faster hard drives would be a better idea for most users.
5. Graphics cards
On towers like G4s and G5s you may see a benefit to installing a faster graphics card, though only really if you use graphics-heavy software like compositing or video, or if you play a lot of games.
6. Firewire not USB
Although theoretically faster, USB 2.0 isn’t favoured as much by professionals as FireWire due to the speed at which it requests data. So although a USB 2.0 drive will be cheaper, a FireWire one offers superior performance.
7. Know your hardware
To understand the areas in which your Mac could be expanded or powered up, you need to know what its current hardware configuration is like. Go to the Apple menu and choose About This Mac, which shows you simple CPU and RAM details. Then click on the More Info button to open System Profiler.
8. Tweak the CPU
Some G4- and G5-based Macs have a feature called “processor bus slewing”, whereby you can manually increase or reduce the power of the CPU. This is found in System Preferences > Energy Saver.
9. Working with media files
If you’re working with iMovie, GarageBand, iDVD, Final Cut, Logic or another program that uses large media files, storing and working with them off another drive will greatly reduce the strain on your boot drive as it tries to run the system and the main application.
10. Get a faster keyboard
Logitech’s Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac is a wireless keyboard and mouse designed specifically for the Mac. The keyboard has specialised buttons to quickly open iTunes, iPhoto, Safari, Mail and other applications, while the laser mouse has a tilt wheel plus a zoom control, so you can go side to side and zoom in and out of documents.
11. Recycle old Macs
Rather than throwing away an older Mac, use it to take the strain off your main Mac by using it as a server, internet and email machine, or even for hosting wireless, shared iTunes libraries.
12. Make fewer connections
Reducing the number of devices connected to your Mac over USB or FireWire will help it run a little faster. So if you’re not going to print anything, for example, disconnect the printer.
13. Stick with an older OS X?
If your Mac is elderly, it’s worth sticking with an older version of OS X as the upgrade may bring crippling load for the sake of some features you could live without.
14. Trim the fat
Fancy extras like using an animated screensaver as a desktop background are a huge drain, especially on the CPUs of older Macs. Similarly, having extra users logged in the background and even using Dock magnification can slow down struggling older machines. If you forego these luxuries, your old Mac screen may look a little dull but it will perform to its best abilities.
15. Install less
If you’re installing or reinstalling a system from an OS X DVD, choose Custom Install and then deselect the additional printers and languages, and also the X11. and Developer Tools options. If your Mac came preinstalled, have a look in Macintosh HD > Library > Printers and sort the list of folders by size to see if one is huge, filled with PPD files. The idea in including them is that OS X will be able to recognise many printers. In truth, you only need the one driver for the printer you are running. You can delete these and reinstall the driver from manufacturer’s website.
16. Fewer languages
A free program called Monolingual lets you strip out all unwanted languages from your system. It is also able to remove unwanted architectures from your system (although this is a dangerous thing to play around with unless you’re sure what you’re doing).
17. Delete apps
In terms of applications you can safely delete more or less anything, since the apps themselves don’t contribute to the running of the system, with a few minor exceptions like System Preferences. You should leave the Utilities folder alone as well, since it contains assistants and the AirPort Utility to help you.
18. Reduce slowdowns
Set your backup schedule for times you know you’ll be away from your Mac, so it doesn’t slow things down while you’re working.
19. Minimise on music
Deleting duplicate or unwanted tracks from iTunes is also a great space saver, while clearing out obsolete photos from iPhoto will help. The Find function in OS X can be helpful here, as it lets you search using multiple criteria. So, for example, you could search for all items over 50MB in size that were last opened over one year ago, or something similar
20. Save energy
Don’t leave programs open after you’ve finished using them as they will continue to consume system resources.
Tags: apple, boot drive, configuration, CPU, graphics cards, languages, Mac, OS X, Performance, performance gains, preference, recognise, speed, speed boost, speed bump, speed drive, theoretically, tweak, Web
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