How to tell the performance on a MAC and other questions...

[bowbow88]

Hi all,

Kind of new to mac...actually been using it for 2 days now. LOVED IT.

I just got the i7 and it is very fast. However, I just want to see what I can do to track down performance on the mac. Is there view the current look at threads and memory usage?

Will the following decrease performance on the mac:
-using 8 or more space window rather than none
-using wifi vs a cat-5 cable for internet (airport turnoff)
-Do I need to reboot the mac once in a while or I can leave it on for a long time (I can't do that with my pcs)

Please let me know your thoughts or if you can let me know a way to view the performances.

Thanks much...

 

[spinnerlys]

Applications / Utilities / Activity Monitor

The more Spaces the slower the machine, but it shouldn't matter with your machine.

Wifi uses more power (not CPU) than Ethernet, but otherwise you will see no decrease using Wifi, unless you look at 0.1% CPU decreases.

No to the reboot.

MRoogle will answer many more questions. Link below, in my sig.

Also have a look at the following links, as the information presented there might be helpful in your future endeavours into Mac OS X and could clear up initial confusion and may even prevent harm to your system or your files.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ - text

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ - videos

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ - text

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343-keyboard - shortcuts

 

[ARF900]

press command + space and type "activity monitor"

Wife could slightly decrease speed and ping vs wired connection. But you wont notice at all unless your a big gamer.

Software update should ask you to reboot once a week, I usually ignore it 3 times then reboot.

 

[dejo]

Wife could slightly decrease speed and ping vs wired connection.

I have the same concern about my wife as well...

 

[bowbow88]

Hey guys,

big thanks for the help. Active Monitor is pretty helpful!

Firefox always takes up a lot of memory on my pc, let's see what happens on the mac!

 

[millar876]

my mac mini has been on since around January-ish, I really should install some updates and reboot the thing, but its only running as a media server for the rest of the house and its working fine, no slowdowns or nothing. And OSX schedules maintenance tacks for the middle of the night that keep your mac in tip top shape so you really should leave it on

 

[millar876]

Hey guys,

big thanks for the help. Active Monitor is pretty helpful!

Firefox always takes up a lot of memory on my pc, let's see what happens on the mac!

Why? i mean I can understand using Firefox on windows because IE both sucks and blows. BUT safari is a faster browser, and unless you only go to sites that wont work in safari (my bank was one but its fine now) there is little to no point in using up the hard drive space Firefox takes up.

Try the acid 3 test. Safari on all my macs score 100% and safari on my iphone scores 100% whereas firefox on my mac (v3.0.6 0n mac os 10.5 on a powerbook G4 867MHz) only scores 70%. Hopefully the newer one dose better. DLing now just to see.

just my $0.02

wiki says that Current firefox scores 94% and nightly build (3.7)scores 97% IE only scores 55% boo hoo