New MBP, snow leopard, tips to speed it up?

[Manic Harmonic]

I feel like my computer just isn't as fast as it could be... Part of the problem is because I have a cloned HD, however I don't want to do a fresh install because it's too much of a PITA to be worth it.

Ram and HD are upgraded, disk and permissions repair say no issues. I honestly didn't notice too much of a diffference after upgrading.

Here's the specs:
-mid-2011 MBP
-10.6.8
-intel i7
-8gb RAM
-Hitachi 750gb 7200RPM hard drive
-4 firewire and 1 usb drive are typically mounted.
-hyperthreading is enabled.

Main issues...
-Slower since replacing the RAM, but after it's booted, it's faster but not much.
-kernal_task is using 700-900 mb of ram typically, 600 on startup. windowserver sometimes goes to 70% cpu.
-ram usage appears fairly efficent in task manager and ifreemem.

I don't know how much of this is normal, am I just expecting too much? Like I said, as of right now a fresh install is not an option.

 

[BreakGuy]

Unless you were pushing the existing RAM to its limits before upgrading you won't notice much of a difference in terms of that.

 

[Manic Harmonic]

Unless you were pushing the existing RAM to its limits before upgrading you won't notice much of a difference in terms of that.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. any idea why the starup would be slower or why kernal task is using up so much?

 

[BreakGuy]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. any idea why the starup would be slower or why kernal task is using up so much?

You could try a PRAM reset. It may resolve your issue.

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

 

[maflynn]

Main issues...
-Slower since replacing the RAM, but after it's booted, it's faster but not much.

Ram doesn't speed up your computer, that is it does not cause the cpu to be faster but rather the performance is improved if the operating system does not need to swap pages from ram to the disk. My point in bringing this up is that if you were not incurring a lot of page swaps then going to 8gb is going to have a marginal affect on your overall performance.

 

[Manic Harmonic]

naive question, this won't reset anything super important right? just startup disk, etc stuff like that? I don't understand exactly how pram works so I just want to make sure it won't delete any pref files I need or anything. also afraid my displays won't work afterwards or something like that, because I know the new MBP's have documented problems with the thunderbolt port and dvi adapters.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

naive question, this won't reset anything super important right? just startup disk, etc stuff like that? I don't understand exactly how pram works so I just want to make sure it won't delete any pref files I need or anything. also afraid my displays won't work afterwards or something like that, because I know the new MBP's have documented problems with the thunderbolt port and dvi adapters.

No it won't touch any of your files.