Betterperformance?

[Frado]

I have a 15" mid-range macbook pro from 2009.
I have had every new OSX version since then, and I always used the 'upgrade' function(so never a clean install).
To improve performance I installed an ocz vertex2 ssd 2 years back, and I replaced the superdrive with the original hdd.

Now, I notice that performance has been dropping: slow boot times, iTunes always hangs when it's syncing and downloading updates etc..

Would a clean install improve anything? But can I use time machine to restore files, or will it make the whole thing slow again?
Maybe I could try mavericks beta (and return if it's too buggy), because it's really since mountain lion that performance has dropped.

 

[benwiggy]

You should not normally need to run any maintenance routines or do a clean install regularly. Your Mac should normally not slow down.

If you are experiencing slowdowns, then there are a number of things you can do.
First, verify and repair your hard drive. (Boot to the Recovery Partition and run Disk Utility. NB: Repair DISK, not Permissions.)
Second, look at the Console utility to see if any repeated or lengthy messages are being left when the slowness occurs. This may pinpoint a problem.

Thirdly, empty caches. You can do this by doing a Safe Boot, (restart holding <shift>), or by using a third-party utility like Onyx. Caches can become corrupt. However, you should not empty them regularly as the machine will be slower until they are re-populated.

Don't install Mavericks unless you are a beta tester, using it for testing, and reporting bugs to Apple.

A clean install will do very little, particularly if you restore all your user files. In essence, all that would do is replace everything except for cache and temp files.