Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

What to people use to maintain good performance on their Macs? I own a 2009, baseline model (2.26 Ghz, 2GB ram) but it does seem to be lacking now after two years of use. Pressing the volume keys plays the sound and increases it, but icons on-screen appear after a second or two; the beach ball pops up randomly; widgets take ages to load even though I only have four, but are fine thereafter.

I downloaded Hazel and ran it, likewise with Monolingual. I've also cleaned up my desktop which was getting cluttered and got rid of a lot of crap from my Downloads folder. Aside from this I'm not really sure what to do. I'm using 70GB of my 160GB HD, and I am thinking about getting 4GB of ram because 2 gigs doesn't seem to really be enough. I'm wondered why the thing is so sluggish sometimes.
 
JonCha said:
What to people use to maintain good performance on their Macs? I own a 2009, baseline model (2.26 Ghz, 2GB ram) but it does seem to be lacking now after two years of use. Pressing the volume keys plays the sound and increases it, but icons on-screen appear after a second or two; the beach ball pops up randomly; widgets take ages to load even though I only have four, but are fine thereafter.

I downloaded Hazel and ran it, likewise with Monolingual. I've also cleaned up my desktop which was getting cluttered and got rid of a lot of crap from my Downloads folder. Aside from this I'm not really sure what to do. I'm using 70GB of my 160GB HD, and I am thinking about getting 4GB of ram because 2 gigs doesn't seem to really be enough. I'm wondered why the thing is so sluggish sometimes.
Click to expand...
The 2gb to 4gb should help out alot. What operating system are you on and when was the last time you did a fresh OS install?
Also, MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini??
 
guest1321 said:
The 2gb to 4gb should help out alot. What operating system are you on and when was the last time you did a fresh OS install?
Also, MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini??
Click to expand...

Snow Leopard. I haven't done a fresh install since I bought the Mac Pro in Sept '09, which I'm using.

I'm also thinking about going to 4GB because I'll probably get a bit extra when I sell for the major revamp next year.
 
JonCha said:
Snow Leopard. I haven't done a fresh install since I bought the Mac Pro in Sept '09, which I'm using.

I'm also thinking about going to 4GB because I'll probably get a bit extra when I sell for the major revamp next year.
Click to expand...
You would be surprised how much faster things run after a fresh install. It is a bit of a hassle but it is absolutely worth it. That 2.26Ghz processor is a quad core correct? Also if I'm not mistaken your Mac Pro came with Leopard on it originally right?

Edit: Loving the avatar JonCha (or should I say detective Phelps?), have you finished the game yet?
 
guest1321 said:
You would be surprised how much faster things run after a fresh install. It is a bit of a hassle but it is absolutely worth it. That 2.26Ghz processor is a quad core correct? Also if I'm not mistaken your Mac Pro came with Leopard on it originally right?

Edit: Loving the avatar JonCha (or should I say detective Phelps?), have you finished the game yet?
Click to expand...

No, it's a duo. And it came with Snow Leopard. Perhaps I should do a fresh install if it really does make a big difference.

And yes I have. I posted impressions if you want to check them out in the spoiler thread.
 
Okay well thats good. The reason for my asking was that snow leopard was either installed as an update to leopard or as a fresh install. If you installed it over leopard the performance gains were not as significant, and I imagine that increased over time.

I would just back up your stuff, do a fresh install and enjoy the cleanliness. You will notice that things are a little bit snappier. Something I use to keep my computer from piling up caches and extra junk is Clean My Mac. It works pretty well and you would be surprised at how much space is actually taken up by unnecessary crap (This probably depends on the user though)

I haven't finished yet, but I will have to have a look later this week when I finish up.
 
guest1321 said:
You would be surprised how much faster things run after a fresh install. It is a bit of a hassle but it is absolutely worth it. That 2.26Ghz processor is a quad core correct? Also if I'm not mistaken your Mac Pro came with Leopard on it originally right?

Edit: Loving the avatar JonCha (or should I say detective Phelps?), have you finished the game yet?
Click to expand...
Listen to him.

I did a fresh install and put in a faster HD in my 2005 Core Duo MBP and that thing runs really well now. I only have 2 gigs of ram on the machine as well (the limit for that particular mac).
 
Definitely increase the ram. My MBP only had 2GB in it, I put 2 more in (the limit is 4GB) and its ran so much better (until the damn GPU failed, F-U Nvidia, but its "fixed" now).

I also just had to reinstall OS X (and Windows) when the partitioning program I was using to partition my Droid's SD card (to setup Apps2SD) decided to screw up my hard drive (was planning on doing it anyways).
 
8GB is even better. With 8GB you will never run out. Never go below 0 free. Never slow down because of page outs. Add an SSD for the main OS and files and you're running super duper ultra fast. I maxxed my MBP out and haven't looked back. And I'll do it with my next MacBook. Whether it's a Pro or an Air. (If it's a Pro, I'll be able to just swap the SSD and RAM in. So there's that.)
 
I have seen some kits to swap the optical drive out for an additional storage drive of either sort. The last time I used my optical drive was to install an OS but considering that can be done from partitioned drive I don't see a huge need to hold onto an optical. Can anyone provide any insight as to why I should not do anything like this?

Also, I am considering upgrading my harddrive. I don't want to go with SSD quite yet so that's out of the question. I have looked into some stuff at Other world computing. This 750GB 7200RPM Western Digital looks pretty solid. Anyone had any luck with this or something similar?
What benefits can I expect from a 7200 rpm drive over 5400?
 
guest1321 said:
I have seen some kits to swap the optical drive out for an additional storage drive of either sort. The last time I used my optical drive was to install an OS but considering that can be done from partitioned drive I don't see a huge need to hold onto an optical. Can anyone provide any insight as to why I should not do anything like this?

Also, I am considering upgrading my harddrive. I don't want to go with SSD quite yet so that's out of the question. I have looked into some stuff at Other world computing. This 750GB 7200RPM Western Digital looks pretty solid. Anyone had any luck with this or something similar?
What benefits can I expect from a 7200 rpm drive over 5400?
Click to expand...
Do it. I have an SSD where my optical drive was and a 750GB HDD in the normal HDD bay. I'd do it again 100 times out of 100.

I did this a year ago and I never even bothered to pick up an external DVD drive. You can always get one for $30, though. And external BD drives are in the $70-$120 range, depending on if you want to write or not.

It's the best arrangement, IMO. As for the 7200 vs. 4200, the difference will be in overall speed. Startup time, application opening time, file accessing time.
 
I do not recommend 7200RPM drives. I have a Western Digital Black in my MBP and while I don't hate it, the sound and vibrations were pretty annoying at first. Get the Blue.
 
Dreams-Visions said:
Do it.
Click to expand...

Haha, well that's the confident feedback I was looking for. Thanks!

Ashhong said:
Get the Blue.
Click to expand...

I hate to be this guy, but what is the "blue"?

As for the sound and the vibrations I don't really mind. My MBP is mostly sitting on my desk and I normally have headphones/speakers on so the sound will probably be drowned out. However, if I am typing and it interferes that could be an issue, so if you have experience problems with irritation to your hands from resting them on the case that would be good to know. Also, is there a significant heat increase?

Also, how is the speed increase??? 1.5x, 2x, 3x?
 
guest1321 said:
Haha, well that's the confident feedback I was looking for. Thanks!



I hate to be this guy, but what is the "blue"?
Click to expand...

Western Digital Scorpio Blue, their 5400RPM harddrive line.

The link you posted is the 7200RPM Black harddrive. The fans are loud and make my laptop vibrate. The Blue line does not do this, and has the benefit of being faster than the stock 4200RPM drives.

I wouldn't say that the vibrations irritate my hands or anything. They just annoy me in general, but I usually use my laptop in bed on my chest or my lap. Hard to answer your question about the heat increase. My MBP gets so hot already I don't think the harddrive made any difference at all.

If I had to guess about the speed, I would say 1.5x. It's enough to make a noticeable increase, but nothing spectacular. IIRC, the 500GB Blue harddrive is comparable in speed to the Black series, even though it's slower RPM. Something about platter sizes. I'm sure there are review sites that test the speed and can better answer that though.

To sum it up, IMO, if I had to do it again I would get the Blue, but it sounds like we use our laptops differently, so keep that in mind.
 
Ashhong said:
Western Digital Scorpio Blue, their 5400RPM harddrive line.

The link you posted is the 7200RPM Black harddrive. The fans are loud and make my laptop vibrate. The Blue line does not do this, and has the benefit of being faster than the stock 4200RPM drives.
Click to expand...
Well I currently have a Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm that came stock with my 13" late 09' unibody MacBook Pro.
 
guest1321 said:
Well I currently have a Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm that came stock with my 13" late 09' unibody MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

I have the same laptop, that thing came with a Hitachi 5400? I dont even remember anymore. I can tell you that the 500gb Scorpio Blue will be an upgrade though. And I would think any 7200RPM harddrive would produce the same vibrations and noise, but I could be wrong.
 
guest1321 said:
Well I found this Hitachi 7200 rpm drive. I was hoping to pack a little more than 500GB in there but I can compromise. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

A quick review that compares the Black to that Hitachi says this

Both drives operated relatively quietly. The DM3 is a very quiet notebook and these hard drives did not really change that. Only when I really paid attention, in a completely silent room, I could pick up any sound from the hard drive. The WD seemed to have a low breeze sound, comparable to that of a low running fan. The Hitachi also had a breeze sound and made very soft rattling sounds. Neither of these sounds would stop me from buying these drives, but for people who have zero tolerance for sounds there may be better alternatives available, like 5400rpm drives or, even better, SSDs.
Click to expand...

http://www.storagereview.com/ultima...tal_scorpio_black_vs_hitachi_travelstar_7k500
 
Ashhong said:
A quick review that compares the Black to that Hitachi says this
http://www.storagereview.com/ultima...tal_scorpio_black_vs_hitachi_travelstar_7k500
Click to expand...
Nice find. Alright well I will keep that in mind. Given that sound isn't a huge issue and according to that review it was barely noticeable I think I'll go 7200 rpm. It might be a while before I pull the trigger on one of them but I will definitely let everyone know what it sounds like.

So, Hitachi or Western Digital?
 
guest1321 said:
I have seen some kits to swap the optical drive out for an additional storage drive of either sort. The last time I used my optical drive was to install an OS but considering that can be done from partitioned drive I don't see a huge need to hold onto an optical. Can anyone provide any insight as to why I should not do anything like this?

Also, I am considering upgrading my harddrive. I don't want to go with SSD quite yet so that's out of the question. I have looked into some stuff at Other world computing. This 750GB 7200RPM Western Digital looks pretty solid. Anyone had any luck with this or something similar?
What benefits can I expect from a 7200 rpm drive over 5400?
Click to expand...
If they created 3TB laptop drives I'd buy an OptiBay in a second. HDD in HD bay, SSD in optical bay. HDD for storage. SSD for speed.

The thing that sucks though is a lot of apps create caches on the drive. On a HDD this helps speed. If you delete it you can definitely notice a slowdown while the caches are recreated. But on an SSD, there is absolutely no difference between an app loading from a cache, or one having to create it from scratch for later. If you delete the cache files from an SSD, they will be recreated, but you will not notice any speed loss.

The actual problem is that the cache files have to be created in the first place. OS X needs to have a global option for SSD users to make cache files only be created (Since the app can't be stopped from creating them) in temporary RAM instead of on the SSD. You can use a RAMDisk for temporary storage, and one time I did try to set it up to have all Cache files get created in a RAMDisk, but I could not for the life of me get OS X to reliably create the RAMDisk immediately at Boot. It worked fine while booted up, but as soon as I rebooted the disk didn't recreate itself in time, so OS X was trying to create cache files in a non-existant folder since there was no RAMDisk yet. If OS X had it built-in that a hidden RAMDisk could be created first thing after the OS starts loading, then redirect the Cache folders all to this RAMDisk via hard links, it would save on the wear and tear of your SSD and keep potentially Gigabytes of data from being written for no reason.

All you need to do is figure out how to get the RAMDisk to be created immediately after boot. Can OS X run shell scripts that early on?

The most common Cache folders are ~/Library/Cache/ and /Library/Cache/. The former gets created after login for each user and the latter when the OS loads up. If there's no place for the files it recreates the folder. If you have a hardlink to a RAMDisk that doesn't exist, it ends up creating a folder with the RAMDisk's name in /Volumes/ and the RAMDisk when it does end up being created gets a different name, thus negating all your work.

OS X needs to detect when it's on a SSD and do things differently without needing to jump through hoops. I've already disabled my Swap file to save myself 8GB of data being written every bootup. As long as I never let my battery run completely dry it doesn't matter.
 
guest1321 said:
Nice find. Alright well I will keep that in mind. Given that sound isn't a huge issue and according to that review it was barely noticeable I think I'll go 7200 rpm. It might be a while before I pull the trigger on one of them but I will definitely let everyone know what it sounds like.

So, Hitachi or Western Digital?
Click to expand...

Sounds like they are both solid options. I personally would go with Western Digital, but only because I am kind of a brand whore and WD is a..bigger HDD company. But if I wasn't I would go with whatever drive is cheaper.
 
@ Jasoco that was extremely overwhelming! But down the line will definitely be helpful

@ Ashhong I hear you on that man. Thanks for the info!
 
If I buy the student discounted $30 win 7 upgrade, can I install it via bootcamp? Or is it going to give me a problem since there's no prior version of windows installed?
 
Jasoco said:
8GB is even better. With 8GB you will never run out. Never go below 0 free. Never slow down because of page outs. Add an SSD for the main OS and files and you're running super duper ultra fast. I maxxed my MBP out and haven't looked back. And I'll do it with my next MacBook. Whether it's a Pro or an Air. (If it's a Pro, I'll be able to just swap the SSD and RAM in. So there's that.)
Click to expand...

I've never considered maxing it out, but I would love to have a massive performance increase. It will certainly last me the year and then bring in a few extra quid next year when the refresh happens.

Where to buy SSD from, though? I know plenty of US suppliers, but not any in the UK. Likewise with ram I guess, but that's easy enough to come by.

How difficult is to install an SSD additionally? Ram seems easy as long as you don't rush it, but with drives I'm not really sure what to do.
 
Calibrated Chaos said:
If I buy the student discounted $30 win 7 upgrade, can I install it via bootcamp? Or is it going to give me a problem since there's no prior version of windows installed?
Click to expand...
Well since you're a student you could ask your Uni if they offer win 7 for free. However this is usually reserved for those on technical courses.
 
Well, I can't really find any options in iMovie '09 to change how it compresses videos. To clarify: it's changing a 500Mb+ vid into something of around 60Mb and I don't want it to do that.

Can't really imagine it but it almost seems as if it's not an option. Anyone able to provide some insights? Is there any other video editing software on OSX that I should rather use?
 
Sooo I finally own a Macbook Pro :D

Its a late 2008 15 inch with the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo and 256mb 9600gt. My friend bought a new i7 MBP and sold me this for $500. It looks brand new since he never took it out of his room and he even had the orignal box lol. He also gave me the 500gb HDD and 4gb memory from the new macbook since he had a SSD and 8gb memory. Did I get a good deal on it lol?

Also one question, he had a HDD caddy in instead of the DVD drive and when he put that in, he said his bluetooth stopped working. He put the DVD drive back in for me and the bluetooth still doesnt work. Does anyone have a couple pictures of where the bluetooth is connected on the inside of the computer so I could see if the cable is loose?

I may take it to the apple store to see what they say about it, but its out of apple care.

Other than the bluetooth, the computer is great! The battery is still at 96% health too lol. My friend babied this thing.

Also, whats the best DVD Ripping software for Mac?
 
So who else here is going to wait 30 days before installing Lion? I think I'l llet GAF and everyone else test it out for me before I make the jump when it releases.
 
asdad123 said:
Sooo I finally own a Macbook Pro :D

Its a late 2008 15 inch with the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo and 256mb 9600gt. My friend bought a new i7 MBP and sold me this for $500. It looks brand new since he never took it out of his room and he even had the orignal box lol. He also gave me the 500gb HDD and 4gb memory from the new macbook since he had a SSD and 8gb memory. Did I get a good deal on it lol?

Also one question, he had a HDD caddy in instead of the DVD drive and when he put that in, he said his bluetooth stopped working. He put the DVD drive back in for me and the bluetooth still doesnt work. Does anyone have a couple pictures of where the bluetooth is connected on the inside of the computer so I could see if the cable is loose?

Also, whats the best DVD Ripping software for Mac?
Click to expand...

That sounds like a great deal to me. Given it is 3 years old and was probably around 1800 when he got it, 500 bucks is relatively inexpensive.

To my knowledge the bluetooth and optical drive are not connected, but don't take my word for it. If the "genius" can't help you out or they want to charge you I would consider a reinstalling the OS. (It seems like this would obviously have been done given how you described your friend, but check for software updates).

As for DVD Ripping software I am a fan of handbrake. It is free and a relatively lightweight. I am not sure if people rank speed but to get a super high quality rip(~10gb [pointless, im aware]) for me takes about 1hr10min. I know a lot of people like toast but the times I have tried it I haven't really gotten into it. It does come with a lot of other utilities, but I suppose one might expect that for the cost of it.
 
JonCha said:
I've never considered maxing it out, but I would love to have a massive performance increase. It will certainly last me the year and then bring in a few extra quid next year when the refresh happens.

Where to buy SSD from, though? I know plenty of US suppliers, but not any in the UK. Likewise with ram I guess, but that's easy enough to come by.

How difficult is to install an SSD additionally? Ram seems easy as long as you don't rush it, but with drives I'm not really sure what to do.
Click to expand...
I got my SSD from NewEgg. If you have a unibody Mac, it's super easy to install both RAM and drives. Only 10 screws then two latch screws. Small screwdriver works.

As for DVD ripping, I am still in the process of ripping all my DVD's so I use MacDVDRipperPro which came as part of a bundle to get the DVD's into ISO files then Handbrake opens them natively and I use a batch to rip entire groups of DVD's in one swoop. It takes about 20 minutes for a half hour episode. Almost real time so it's not bad.

And as for Lion, well I'm hoping all my apps will be updated by the time it comes out. Currently I only need Chrome to be fixed, GeekTool and Bowtie. But I am probably going to completely rearrange my desktop paradigm when it comes out. Thing is I need time and date showing at all times, but in full screen apps you can't see this data, so I am hoping either GT or BT are able to place themselves over top of applications but with click-through so I can still see it but it doesn't get in the way. I dunno, maybe a new app will pop up for this stuff when Lion comes out. I just wish FS apps could be set to sltill have the toolbar and menubar visible at all times. These are things well figure out when it comes out. I will probably be upgrading day one as usual.
 
guest1321 said:
That sounds like a great deal to me. Given it is 3 years old and was probably around 1800 when he got it, 500 bucks is relatively inexpensive.

To my knowledge the bluetooth and optical drive are not connected, but don't take my word for it. If the "genius" can't help you out or they want to charge you I would consider a reinstalling the OS. (It seems like this would obviously have been done given how you described your friend, but check for software updates).

As for DVD Ripping software I am a fan of handbrake. It is free and a relatively lightweight. I am not sure if people rank speed but to get a super high quality rip(~10gb [pointless, im aware]) for me takes about 1hr10min. I know a lot of people like toast but the times I have tried it I haven't really gotten into it. It does come with a lot of other utilities, but I suppose one might expect that for the cost of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I reinstalled OSX on the drive because its the new 500gb drive that he pulled out of the 2011 mac.

The bluetooth device doesnt show up in the system profiler, so Im guessing the bluetooth card either died or got unplugged somewhere in the process of him taking the CD drive. The same thing happened with the wifi, but I managed to plug that cable back in and the wifi works perfectly now :)

I found guides for where the bluetooth card is in the 2009 model and 2010 model, but I cant find it for the 2008 one.

The bluetooth isnt really a big deal to me, but itd be nice if it worked lol.

One last question, how do I know which card is being used. The 9400 or 9600? I have istat and smcfan control. Anything else I should download?
 
I was surfing around using Safari and got a box asking me to download MacDefender. Didn't have the option to close the box so I just closed Safari entirely. Just downloaded Snow Leopard 2011-03, but nothing came up after it told me it successfully downloaded. So, I guess everything's cool.
 
Yeah. At least you were smart enough to get away from it.

What site were you on? I have not seen it yet, but then again I use Chrome. Does it only show up in Safari? Or will something still download in other browsers?

Fortunately Apple is addressing it in the next OS X update that will supposedly remove it from your system.
 
Jasoco said:
Yeah. At least you were smart enough to get away from it.

What site were you on? I have not seen it yet, but then again I use Chrome. Does it only show up in Safari? Or will something still download in other browsers?

Fortunately Apple is addressing it in the next OS X update that will supposedly remove it from your system.
Click to expand...

Can't remember. Was in Google, Justin.tv, and live-news-stream when it popped up.
 
Only Safari? It has to be a rogue Advertisement that keeps popping up every time it's removed.

How exactly does it work? Does it need to install? Does it pop up an installer window? Or does it stop before it gets downloaded?
 
Well, that's the only internet interface I'm using on my MBP.

It just popped up saying "Install MacDefender now". That's when I closed Safari.
 
Vilix said:
Well, that's the only internet interface I'm using on my MBP.

It just popped up saying "Install MacDefender now". That's when I closed Safari.
Click to expand...
Consider installing Web Of Trust (WOT). It seems to block those kinds of pages so you just get a big warning message instead of seeing the page.

If it doesn't exist for your browser of choice...I'd probably consider switching browsers. It's that handy.
 
I've been fairly disappointed with my MBP since day one less than a year ago. I dished out a couple grand on it and have had to replace the trackpad (my fault technically, but within weeks of purchase) and replace the faulty HDD (under warranty) plus some grievances I outlined earlier in this thread. I'm considering selling it and going for the MacBook Air considering I don't design as often as I used to and about as hefty as I'll get processing-wise is HD video-viewing. I would sell the iPod Touch that I'd get, plus have the student discount, so final cost would be around $850 for the MBA, and I'd hope to sell my 15" MBP for about $1200. Are these figures plausible, and do you guys think I'm making the right move?
 
Dreams-Visions said:
Consider installing Web Of Trust (WOT). It seems to block those kinds of pages so you just get a big warning message instead of seeing the page.

If it doesn't exist for your browser of choice...I'd probably consider switching browsers. It's that handy.
Click to expand...
Chrome blocks this stuff automatically. With a big red page saying "This may harm your computer". But most of the time it's because some moron uploaded their avatar to some unknown website that happens to host malware instead of a well known image host like Imgur or TinyPic. Doesn't happen on NeoGAF anymore for obvious reasons.
 
I Big JG I said:
if you do a fresh install will you loose your bootcamp partition?
Click to expand...
Not if you don't reformat the entire drive back into one piece. Just reformat the partition that your OS X is on.


Here's a question. Can I move or install the Developer tools on another HDD? I notice I rarely use them, so I wanted to move them to my "portable stuff drive" to get them off my SSD. Since they take up 11.5GB it'd be nice to reclaim that space.
 
Quick question

I realised when I was at work that if you do a normal reinstall without formatting and erasing the hard drive, the local admin account remains. So Shen Lion comes, I plan to install it clean then use my time machine to add my data back to my MBP

Will this we advisable? Will all my data be restored properly?

Thanks
 
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