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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
H_Prestige
Banned
I think the upcoming Intel G3 drives will offer the best bang for the buck. 160gb for around $200.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Interestingly, I recently upgraded my friend's Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz iMac to Snow Leopard from Tiger. Nicely enough for him, his chipset supports 64-bit processing, so that's one advantage of SL that is working for him.Jasoco said:
Problem for him was though, with every application of Snow Leopard being rewritten and running in 64-bit mode (and therefore taking up more memory), he was completely filling and paging out his 1GB of RAM by just by having a tab of Safari and Word open. Luckily, I had a few sticks of RAM laying around and I upgraded him to 2GB, but the increased memory requirements that 64-bit Snow Leopard brings is something to think about.
Dreams-Visions
Member
I think we could all use a refresher on how OSX uses RAM if we think we're taxing 4GB. It's not as straight forward as you think. In fact, it's quite fascinating. Just...don't make the mistake of assuming "free RAM" being low as equaling a need for more ram.
Google it, fellas.
Google it, fellas.
Well, all I know is when my RAM gets low my computer actually does run slower. This is fact. Not just illusion.
Also, right now I am sitting at Barnes and Noble with Chrome running but Flash disabled and my free RAM is still pretty high, if that says anything. (Underhanded jab at the horrible resource hogging of Flash.) Actually, my computer never runs better than when I have Flash turned off. I just wish Flash wasn't almost a requirement for most video sites these days.
Also, right now I am sitting at Barnes and Noble with Chrome running but Flash disabled and my free RAM is still pretty high, if that says anything. (Underhanded jab at the horrible resource hogging of Flash.) Actually, my computer never runs better than when I have Flash turned off. I just wish Flash wasn't almost a requirement for most video sites these days.
lunarworks
Member
FTFY.Dreams-Visions said:
Dreams-Visions
Member
no, don't Google it. here you go.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342?viewlocale=en_US
http://developer.apple.com/library/...Conceptual/ManagingMemory/ManagingMemory.html
http://developer.apple.com/library/...tual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html
http://macintoshhowto.com/hardware/does-my-mac-need-more-memory.html
cliff notes:
Pro tips:
would have posted that earlier, but I didn't have my computer available at the time.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342?viewlocale=en_US
http://developer.apple.com/library/...Conceptual/ManagingMemory/ManagingMemory.html
http://developer.apple.com/library/...tual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html
http://macintoshhowto.com/hardware/does-my-mac-need-more-memory.html
cliff notes:
- free ram and "inactive" ram are basically the same thing. available to the computer for new tasks
- upgrading of RAM really isn't necessary unless you're seeing really high amounts of Page Outs that continue to grow.
- it's generally ideal to keep > 10GB of space on your boot drive.
- you know you're doing something (Photoshop + multiple print-grade projects, for example) that is going to demolish your free RAM.
- if your Page Outs get near your Page In's in number or continue to grow under normal use, it's time to upgrade. No doubt.
Pro tips:
- Close and re-open Firefox / Safari at least once/day. They're memory HOGS. Right now, my Firefox is using close to 700MB of ram. all by itself. Safari sometimes does the same.
- Close and re-open Mail at least once a day. It's also a hog and will grow over time. Mine is floating at ~200MB of memory. totally unreasonable.
- Close Photoshop after using it. I find that after closing individual projects (but leaving Photoshop open), PS will hold onto the RAM that the project you were working on was using. so if you had open a 2GB PSD...then close it...PS will still hold that 2GB until you shut the app completely down.
- Make sure that if you do upgrade, that you're not spending more than $100 on a 4GB stick. If you are, you're getting robbed.
- SSD will still be your single biggest source of speed improvement. It'll feel like you have a different computer or something. It even decreases the affect of Page Outs due to the faster speed and response time of SSD. Upgrade your SSD before upgrading your RAM unless you encounter a "can't pass this up" deal on the RAM. You'll still want the SSD though. Guaranteed.
would have posted that earlier, but I didn't have my computer available at the time.
lunarworks
Member
Word of warning on the SSD: It's pretty much the only standard upgrade you can do that will void the warranty on a MacBook Pro. I got this straight from Apple tech support. You can stick whatever RAM or whatever HDD you want in there, no problem... but stick an SSD in there, your warranty's gone.Dreams-Visions said:
Dreams-Visions
Member
that tech support person was totally wrong. in every possible way.lunarworks said:
Call their tech support now and ask someone. they fed you a heapin' helping of bullshit. I wonder if they were just horribly misinformed or if they were intentionally trying to get rid of you.
Dreams-Visions
Member
he probably asked. but yes, he got deceived.giga said:
lunarworks
Member
Nah, I was having a problem with a faulty logic board, and, to be cautious, asked about what may possibly be considered warranty-voiding. (I'd upgraded my HDD at one point.)Dreams-Visions said:
Dreams-Visions
Member
they lied. this has never, ever been true. if you change the HDD, your warranty simply won't apply to your new HDD. it won't void the warranty for the entire machine. that'd be ludicrous. take no worry to upgrading your HDD. just as long as you know your SSD won't be covered under your Apple Care warranty.lunarworks said:
I usually don't pay a lot of attention because I have so much RAM, but I restart them regularly too and love how fast they are fully re-opened. I can close Firefox and re-open it and it's 100% ready to go inside of 5 seconds.Jasoco said:
God bless this SSD.
UtadaBarkley
Member
Question. I have the spare HDD I took out of my mini, it's 320GB. I want to sell it, but I forgot to format it and erase it prior to taking it out of the Mac. Now, I want to format it to get all of my personal stuff off. But there is no way I'm cracking open the Mac mini again just to do that. :lol Is there anyway I can format it to be ready for another Mac using some boot utility on my PC?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Whoa wait...what just happened? I was moving quickly and frequently between a PDF and a document I was typing...I dragged the PDF far off to the right to look at the document again, and it like...got sucked into spaces or something. A small grid of four squares pops up whenever I switch between the two, and they slide in and out.
This is....really cool.
EDIT: Yeah, it definitely got sucked into Spaces. This is so awesome. I have no clue how I did it though, I can't replicate it. If I can figure out how to do it, I will be all over this.
This is....really cool.
EDIT: Yeah, it definitely got sucked into Spaces. This is so awesome. I have no clue how I did it though, I can't replicate it. If I can figure out how to do it, I will be all over this.
Dreams-Visions
Member
if you drag a document or window to the edge of the screen and hold it there for ~2 seconds, it will automatically move to the next space. I do it all the time when I notice I'm getting my work mixed up with my play.The_Technomancer said:
grab by the top frame and drag to the very edge of your screen: left, right, top or bottom.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Haha, alright. Now how do I switch between spaces without having to hit F8? Is there like a shift + -> shortcut to switch quickly?Dreams-Visions said:
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Hm, neither of those seem to work for me. I'm on a 2009 Macbook, so I don't have a dedicated alt key, just a superscript above Option.jts said:
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Hm...incredibly weird. I tried all three versions, Command-Direction Alt-direction and shift-direction and none of them worked...jts said:
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Oh yeah, that's what I meant I did. Went in, set a combo, closed out and tried it, repeated for all three...nothing. Hmmmmwmat said:
Dreams-Visions
Member
this is why you should restart Firefox/Safari and Mail at least once/day.
After about 30 hours open, this is the situation...
nothing about Mail should consume 300MB of memory. and Firefox eating 1.1GB+ of memory is just ridiculous. maybe 7 open tabs. one at youtube. boom.
After about 30 hours open, this is the situation...
nothing about Mail should consume 300MB of memory. and Firefox eating 1.1GB+ of memory is just ridiculous. maybe 7 open tabs. one at youtube. boom.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Heh, alright, will do.wmat said:Research indicates that you might have to do a reboot in some cases. So try that
anyone using photoshop elements 9? I've just updated from elements 6, but only ever used it as an editor (I use iphoto for organising).
Just wondering how they interact with each other, with the new photoshop organiser. Should I continue to use iphoto or is the organiser worth looking into?
Just wondering how they interact with each other, with the new photoshop organiser. Should I continue to use iphoto or is the organiser worth looking into?
Dreams-Visions said:this is why you should restart Firefox/Safari and Mail at least once/day.
After about 30 hours open, this is the situation...
nothing about Mail should consume 300MB of memory. and Firefox eating 1.1GB+ of memory is just ridiculous. maybe 7 open tabs. one at youtube. boom.
I guess that's the VSIZE, right? You should look at the RSIZE, usually it's 200M-300M for me ( 1.76G VSIZE memory), my Lightroom is using 1.04GB RSIZE, and Photoshop? 3.44G/7.71G :lol
edgefusion
Member
So my unibody MacBook Pro has been feeling sluggish for a long time, frequently getting beach balls in Safari, Finder etc. and I've been told it could be my hard drive. I downloaded SMART Utility to see if I could figure anything out and I get this:
I'm seeing a lot of "pre-fail" and "old age" under "Type" but I don't know what "Type" means. Is my hard drive about to go under? I have a backup so there's no worries there but I don't really have the cash to float on a new hard drive if I don't actually need one.
I'm seeing a lot of "pre-fail" and "old age" under "Type" but I don't know what "Type" means. Is my hard drive about to go under? I have a backup so there's no worries there but I don't really have the cash to float on a new hard drive if I don't actually need one.
Dreams-Visions
Member
not sure what "V/RSIZE" are but it says "Real Mem" in Activity monitor in the column that Firefox is using more than a GB and Mail is using damn near 300MB. :lolluoapp said:
Looks that way. I'd order a replacement right now anyway so you have it for when it happens. Or take it to the Apple Store, show them that report and see if they want to replace it preemptively now.
The sign I usually get that a HD is dying for me is when I get freezes while trying to work. Usually within a few days the HD stops dead confirming my suspicion. At first I don't realize it, then it hits me that it's about to go. I too have backups. Multiple ones as I mentioned many times.
The sign I usually get that a HD is dying for me is when I get freezes while trying to work. Usually within a few days the HD stops dead confirming my suspicion. At first I don't realize it, then it hits me that it's about to go. I too have backups. Multiple ones as I mentioned many times.
wolfmat
Confirmed Asshole
TYPE says how important it is that the value in VALUE and in WORST is over the THRESHOLD for the value.edgefusion said:
For each row that says "Pre-fail", you have to make sure that the value (and worst) is over the threshold. If it isn't, your disk is about to die and you should immediately backup + replace.
For each row that says "OLD_AGE", the value is related to the disk's age. So it goes nearer to the threshold with age, and that's expected.
Here's a table with the values and what they mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.#Known_ATA_S.M.A.R.T._attributes
(Note that it says "Higher / lower raw value is better". Don't let that confuse you, just go by the threshold as described above. Value is not raw value, and the threshold is for value so that it's not necessary to look thresholds up yourself, convert raw value to value and shit.)
The values look just fine, by the way. At least at a quick glance.
Looking at that table, it's particularly good that you have "FAILED" on NEVER for each row. Because otherwise, that would mean your drive is already fucked.
To make it easier for you, you should be able to check the general health of the drive from the application's menu, and that should suffice to figure out how the disk is doing. You should also be able to do a self-test and get meaningful output. Don't test too much though because that ages the drive just as well. The long test can hypothetically take several hours, so make sure you don't need the computer when you do a long test.
I want to upgrade my ram. I currently have 2gb. I don't do too much memory intensive stuff. Photo editing is probably the worst of it. I'm not sure if I should upgrade to 4 or 8 gb. The 4 gb actually dropped about 20 bucks since I last checked mid summer to about 80. The 8 gb stuff seemed to average at about 100 bucks more. I just don't want to spend that much money if it's not really necessary.
Can't really say yet, wait for the reviews. The previous Air shipped with 1.6ghz and was pretty slow. We'll have to see how much the new Nvidia graphics card helps with performance. the first thing you should look out for in the reviews is performance when running Flash. The previous models were notorious for basically shutting down when a Flash video started playing...skrew said:
UtadaBarkley
Member
kaskade said:
8.
edgefusion
Member
wmat said:
Thanks! That was a lot of help.
UtadaBarkley
Member
Firestorm said:
Are you running a 32-bit OS? If so, definitely stick to 4GB, but otherwise, I really don't understand why one would recommend 4GB over 8GB. I regularly make use of 8. And besides, if he doesn't use it now, he most likely will in the future. We all know how these things work over time. In the long run, getting 8 would possibly save him money, especially depending on the type of setup he has.
For instance, suppose he only has two SODIMM slots, and currently he has 2GB (1GB x 2). To upgrade to 4GB, he would have to get rid of those 1GB SODIMM's, and replace it with (2GB x 2). But if he ever wants to upgrade in the future, he will have to get rid of those, and do the same with (2 x 4GB).
In the short term it may be slightly more expensive, but ultimately could end up saving you some money and headache in the long run. If price is that much of an issue, go ahead, but I'd truly consider grabbing 8 while you can. Again though, this is going to heavily depend on your setup, and how many SODIMM's you have. If you have more than 2 SODIMM slots, it might be okay, as you can always add 4 more GB later.
Again, maybe it's just the sheer amount of apps I use, or the type of apps I use, but I regularly make use of more than 4GB. It gives me peace of mind to know that I can keep on working, and don't have to interrupt my workflow to manage my memory.