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Call Me Rocket

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
5
0
Seattle, WA
Hey there guys, just purchased my first mac book and I love! I guess being a Windows user I had a very limited frame of reference, so when people told me Mac's were better, I'd brush them off. Now that I have actually used one I would have to agree, they are better in so many ways!

I purchased my mac for a couple reasons, but mainly because I've heard great things about macs and photo editing. I've put a copy of adobe photoshop cs3 as well as Office 2008. I have a small collection of albums that I have also put on the computer.

Anyway it seems to already be working a little bit slower than when I first bought it, naturally, but my main concern (if it should be) is that I don't want to experience the sluggishness of my PC. PCs are always much snappier when you first get them, and a year later they are so slow to the point of not working anymore. Maybe I'm worrying about this because I'm so used to Windows?

In any case, what tips do you have for a new mac user that wants to keep his mac at it's optimum level of performance?

Is there any software that you could recommend for defragging or for like cleaning up wasteful junk like from old applications that have been deleted? I know windows keeps traces of everything behind I just want to keep this mac cleaaaaann.

Alrite I am doing a bad job on this post as I am ranting now, so later! thanks in advance!
 
The 2 things you mentioned are not really a problem on the Mac:

Defragging and leftovers from deleted Apps

How much RAM do you have?
That will have a much bigger impact on your performance than anything

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
For Photoshop, you want as much RAM as you can handle. Check out OWC (www.macsales.com) for good deals on RAM upgrades. I believe the Macbook can take up to 4 gigs max.

Never buy your RAM from Apple - they charge an arm, a leg and your first born child... :)

-Bryan
 
Also, keep in mind that OS X runs maintenance scripts automatically. If you are like those who turn on the computer and kept it on all day/night, then you don't have to worry about running those scripts. OS X automatically does that for you when it see that the machine is idle.

If you turn on the laptop and then turn it off after a little bit of use, the scripts can't run and that could slow down the computer a bit since things aren't getting cleaned up. Take a look at "OnyX" or "Cocktail". These are apps that help you run those maintenance scripts whenever you want to instead of waiting for OS X to run them. Just keep in mind that OnyX is free and Cocktail is shareware.
 
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