Pinwheel of doom

[lgwells1]

I just replaced my old Macbook with a new Pro i5 13". Does not have a SSD, and is completely stock.

The problem is I am seeing a lot of the pinwheel when just doing some normal task. I have the activity monitor up and running on my dock so I can see how much of my processor is being used. It is never full, but I keep seeing the pin wheel.

Honestly I probably keep this Pro until they release one with USB 3.0 next year. So I do not want to dump big money on a SSD when prices will probably be cheaper next year. Should I upgrade to 8GB of ram? I can do it for about 30-45 bucks with some deals I have seen online for Crucial.


I see the pinwheel anywhere from 1 to 5 times a day.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have the activity monitor up and running on my dock so I can see how much of my processor is being used.

Did you change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", so you're looking at everything running? Also, have you checked to see if Spotlight is indexing?

Honestly I probably keep this Pro until they release one with USB 3.0 next year.

You'll keep it a lot longer than that if you're waiting for USB 3.0. It's highly likely you'll never see that on a Mac.

Should I upgrade to 8GB of ram?

Look at the System Memory tab of Activity Monitor. If your "page outs" under normal workload is significant, you may benefit from more RAM. If your "page outs" are low or zero, you're not maxing out the RAM that you have. Be aware that "page outs" are cumulative since your last restart, so you may want to restart to set it to zero, then track it under normal workloads.

 

[shardey]

I just replaced my old Macbook with a new Pro i5 13". Does not have a SSD, and is completely stock.

The problem is I am seeing a lot of the pinwheel when just doing some normal task. I have the activity monitor up and running on my dock so I can see how much of my processor is being used. It is never full, but I keep seeing the pin wheel.

Honestly I probably keep this Pro until they release one with USB 3.0 next year. So I do not want to dump big money on a SSD when prices will probably be cheaper next year. Should I upgrade to 8GB of ram? I can do it for about 30-45 bucks with some deals I have seen online for Crucial.


I see the pinwheel anywhere from 1 to 5 times a day.

For the past 3-4 years, prices of SSD's have not dropped dramatically. As for usb 3.0, good luck. When I first bought my mbp 2.3 i7, I immediately noticed how slow the computer was with the stock 5400 rpm drive. You might as well buy an SSD because you can use them for the future (buy SATA III at least). Most people complaining about their speeds usually deals with a mechanical drive.

I immediately ripped the 750gb and switched it with a intel 80GB 320 and I have boot times of less than 15 seconds. I recommend the switch.

Also how much free ram do you have? Upgrading to 8gb is recommended with lion by me, as I am just running safari and Word and have 2.3gb used.

 

[lgwells1]

With only one tab open on Safari.

2.35GB Free

Page Ins: 220.9

Page Outs: 0

 

[GGJstudios]

With only one tab open on Safari.
2.35GB Free
Page Ins: 220.9
Page Outs: 0

So you're not maxing out your RAM. Did you check All Processes?

 

[lgwells1]

Yes, the item taking up the most memory is Dashboard Client at 5.0-7.9%

 

[Pentad]

I immediately ripped the 750gb and switched it with a intel 80GB 320 and I have boot times of less than 15 seconds.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time but you went from 750GB to 80GB? How can you survive on such small space? I sure the boot time is awesome but I am barely surviving with 500 GB internal and a FW800 500 GB drive.

My Documents folder is 81 GB by itself.

-P

 

[lgwells1]

I'm not trying to give you a hard time but you went from 750GB to 80GB? How can you survive on such small space? I sure the boot time is awesome but I am barely surviving with 500 GB internal and a FW800 500 GB drive.

My Documents folder is 81 GB by itself.

-P

Yeah, I would find it pretty hard to downgrade 670 GB worth of space for a SSD. NewEgg is still raping for a decent size SDD, I will be holding out a little longer.