Help me speed things up...

[AlBDamned]

I'm now using my 1.67GHz 15" PowerBook for work, around 10-12 hours a day and it's clogging up, bogging down and generally getting not coping – but I know I can't upgrade to a MBP and I don't think a MB would do enough. Plus I have compatibility concerns with my PowerPC software.

The 'Book is running 1.5GB of RAM, Tiger, an 80GB 5400RPM drive with about 20GB free at any one time, plus constantly running Quark 6.5, Photoshop CS, iTunes, Adium, Acrobat 7, Shrook, Safari, Firefox, Word, Mail and an also being worked over by an External 40GB F/W drive.

Should I up the RAM, improve HDD speed and size, look to buy a MacBook? What else is there I can do?

I could also look at a desktop. An iMac might be the way to go for some more oomph as I could possibly keep the PB for portability when necessary.

The PowerBook has a big chunk out of one side where it got dropped so it's not in warranty and looks a bit unsightly to sell.

Edit: Oh yeah, plus the screen keeps doing the random dimming thing. Very annoying.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

Sounds like you want to upgrade, so why not? Go ahead if you like.

Honestly though, have you done any maintainence on you system lately? Reparing permissions and running utilities like Onyx go a long way. Reinstalling the system makes most machines fly. More RAM would allow you to run more applications, and might increase speed while your multitasking, but it might not be a noticable difference for day-to-day use.

If you've [you probably have] done maintainence and you're still feeling the crunch, if you think your Mac hit the ugly branch on the way down durings its fall, the Macbooks look pretty awesome.

 

[Cybix]

sell your family members and get a MBP... setup a lemonade stand if you have to... DO IT!

 

[jamesi]

honestly, i dont think adding another 512 to max out your RAM is going to help much. with quark and photoshop, i think getting a new computer would yeild the results you want. G4 processors just are not up to handling photoshop and quark as fast as you prolly desire, but im not exactly sold on the macbook. the imac will definitely run these apps well and please you, its just a matter of whether you mind your main system not being portable. like you said, you can always use the pb when you need to hit the road. if i were you, i would get an imac or a MBP. tho the latter is not as "smart" of an option given price

 

[AlBDamned]

I would really, definitely, absolutely love to buy a new 15" MBP but I just can't do it at the moment - even with a nicely specced 2.33 Core 2 model going in the Australian refurb store for 24% off.

Saying that, I would also like the benefits of a bigger screen (a la 20" iMac).

So I take it nobody thinks a new HDD would help?

I do maintenance stuff but I really think I'm just asking too much of this machine these days. It still works well in many respects, but the lag when flipping between programs, opening and manipulating images, plus I usually have all those apps open and about 10-15 windows at any one time just makes it grind to a halt.

 

[tuartboy]

Honestly though, have you done any maintainence on you system lately? Reparing permissions and running utilities like Onyx go a long way. Reinstalling the system makes most machines fly.

Applejack saved my life. I was getting crazy amounts of beachballs and things were dogging way down. I ran the full applejack suite and after reboot things were fantastic. I really mean it. Haven't beachballed since and those 2 files that never wanted to get emptied out of my trash finally got deleted.

 

[AlBDamned]

Applejack saved my life. I was getting crazy amounts of beachballs and things were dogging way down. I ran the full applejack suite and after reboot things were fantastic. I really mean it. Haven't beachballed since and those 2 files that never wanted to get emptied out of my trash finally got deleted.

I thought AppleJack was for if you're having major problems like crashing and boot issues?

 

[tuartboy]

I thought AppleJack was for if you're having major problems like crashing and boot issues?

It does a lot of disk and file repair. It's quite thorough and has the benefit over something like cocktail or onyx because you boot into single user mode to run it. This allows Applejack unfettered access to your HD so it can do it's thing.

YMMV, but it worked charms for me. I heard Merlin Mann saying it did the same thing for him, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Edit: to answer your question, yes it does help with serious problems. But from what I gather, a lot of seemingly smaller issues are related to disk errors as well.

 

[eXan]

I'm now using my 1.67GHz 15" PowerBook for work, around 10-12 hours a day and it's clogging up, bogging down and generally getting not coping – but I know I can't upgrade to a MBP and I don't think a MB would do enough. Plus I have compatibility concerns with my PowerPC software.

The 'Book is running 1.5GB of RAM, Tiger, an 80GB 5400RPM drive with about 20GB free at any one time, plus constantly running Quark 6.5, Photoshop CS, iTunes, Adium, Acrobat 7, Shrook, Safari, Firefox, Word, Mail and an also being worked over by an External 40GB F/W drive.

Should I up the RAM, improve HDD speed and size, look to buy a MacBook? What else is there I can do?

I could also look at a desktop. An iMac might be the way to go for some more oomph as I could possibly keep the PB for portability when necessary.

The PowerBook has a big chunk out of one side where it got dropped so it's not in warranty and looks a bit unsightly to sell.

Edit: Oh yeah, plus the screen keeps doing the random dimming thing. Very annoying.

As far as I know, those apps in bold are not universal yet, which means they run at about half to 1/3 speed of how it could run on intel Macs. So "upgrading" to intel Mac now is pointless for you, since the apps with mostly work with are still not UB.

Just max your RAM at 2 GBs and I'm sure things will speed up a bit. Replacing a HD with faster and larger one will also help