Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Spotlight performance

crewkid89

crewkid89

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2011
242
24
United States
I just upgraded to a 1.67ghz 2gb powerbook 15. I was previously using a 1ghz pb12. My question involves Spotlight and overall performance. It is typically suggested that you disable spotlight to improve performance. Now that I am sporting a much faster processor, more ram, and a faster HDD, I am wondering if keeping it off is really saving me much.

Are there benchmarks anywhere comparing performance with and without spotlight enabled? I love using it on my iMac and would be happy if I could use it on my powerbook.

Well reasoned anecdotal evidence would still be helpful if there is nothing really solid.
 
Zeke D

Zeke D

macrumors 65816
Nov 18, 2011
1,024
168
Arizona
I would also like to know. My MBA is a dog and anything to improve its performance would be appreciated.
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
crewkid89 said:
I just upgraded to a 1.67ghz 2gb powerbook 15. I was previously using a 1ghz pb12. My question involves Spotlight and overall performance. It is typically suggested that you disable spotlight to improve performance. Now that I am sporting a much faster processor, more ram, and a faster HDD, I am wondering if keeping it off is really saving me much.

Are there benchmarks anywhere comparing performance with and without spotlight enabled? I love using it on my iMac and would be happy if I could use it on my powerbook.

Well reasoned anecdotal evidence would still be helpful if there is nothing really solid.
Click to expand...

Does your PB take DDR2 or DDR ram? In other words, which model of the 1.67ghz is it?

With two gigs ran in my DDR2 PB 1.67, i don't disable anything. Spotlight is fine.
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
crewkid89 said:
It's the DDR ram version (early 2005) yours is late 2005 (the last one)
Click to expand...

Just go for it, if Spotlight slows you down, you'll know it soon enough and you can disable it. If you haven't upgraded the original hard drive, I always do that, too. I've got the 320gb WD in mine.

The original 80 gbs hd from Apple can slow you down a little -- I haven't tried a PATA SSD or converting an SATA SSD for any PPC laptop yet, but that's a way to go.
 
Jethryn Freyman

Jethryn Freyman

macrumors 68020
Aug 9, 2007
2,329
2
Australia
I didn't disable it even when using Leopard on a 466MHz G4. I just pruned away searching for things like web pages or music, and put the system folders and stuff in the exclusion area in Privacy.

Quicksilver has taken over for me though since I get more control over what it sees and it is absolutely instantaneous [dual 1.8GHz G5 and Leopard.]
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
Jethryn Freyman said:
I didn't disable it even when using Leopard on a 466MHz G4. I just pruned away searching for things like web pages or music, and put the system folders and stuff in the exclusion area in Privacy.

Quicksilver has taken over for me though since I get more control over what it sees and it is absolutely instantaneous [dual 1.8GHz G5 and Leopard.]
Click to expand...

Good to know! Good luck, it's a great machine.
 
crewkid89

crewkid89

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2011
242
24
United States
California said:
Just go for it, if Spotlight slows you down, you'll know it soon enough and you can disable it. If you haven't upgraded the original hard drive, I always do that, too. I've got the 320gb WD in mine.

The original 80 gbs hd from Apple can slow you down a little -- I haven't tried a PATA SSD or converting an SATA SSD for any PPC laptop yet, but that's a way to go.
Click to expand...

Are you using a 7200rpm drive? My current drive appears to be 5400rpm. I know 7200rpm ide laptop drives exist but are they worth it? I have also heard great things about those Legacy SSDs from OWC but again the cost is incredibly high compared especially to the average SATA SSD.

Also theoretically the faster the drive the more power it sips from the battery correct?
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
crewkid89 said:
Are you using a 7200rpm drive? My current drive appears to be 5400rpm. I know 7200rpm ide laptop drives exist but are they worth it? I have also heard great things about those Legacy SSDs from OWC but again the cost is incredibly high compared especially to the average SATA SSD.

Also theoretically the faster the drive the more power it sips from the battery correct?
Click to expand...

The largest PATA laptop drive is the 320gb which spins at 5400rpm.

They also make a 250gb/5400 rpm.

But I've used both the Seagate and the Hitachi 100gb 7200rpm and because the larger drives have bigger platters, they spin almost as fast. I actually saw some refurbed 100 gig 7200 recently on fleabay, but i like have the warranty with the larger WD drives.

In my experience, it's a tossup with the 7200 drives for speed.
 
Hrududu

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2008
2,299
627
Central US
I can't say I've ever disabled spotlight. Maybe there are a few machines I should have, but its never been anything I figured was worth the time. Even my 500MHz Cube with Leopard on it has spotlight enabled. I can say that my 1.5GHz 12" PowerBook is great with Leopard and spotlight enabled, so you shouldn't have any problems with your new 1.67 at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom