Slow macbook

[Danando1993]

I have a early 2008 macbook 2.1GHz intel core 2 duo with 1GB Ram, my problem is that it is so slow doing everything e.g. internet browsing, using word documents, itunes. Im wondering if anyone has tips for me to speed up the macbook? Would a ram increase help? also the fan is constantly on when watching videos for example on youtube why is this?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Your MacBook can have up to 4GB RAM and more RAM will definitely help, therefore I would advise getting at least 2GB. But know, that your current MacBook has 2 x 512MB RAM sticks inside, thus you need to get 2 x 1GB RAM sticks.

And as YouTube and other video websites use Flash to display their videos (ClickToFlash for Safari can help), the CPU gets used a lot, as Flash is CPU intensive, and if the CPU gets used a lot, it gets hotter, therefore the fan has to cool it with a faster rotation. The idle and lowest speed of the MacBook fan is around 2000RPM.

 

[Danando1993]

Thanks for the quick reply, so if I upgrade to 2GB RAM it should have a quicker performance?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks for the quick reply, so if I upgrade to 2GB RAM it should have a quicker performance?

Yes, as you can have more applications open at the same time and switch between them. But if you have the money, go for 4GB. And if you really have money and don't mind a small storage device, you could look into SSDs from OCZ, like the Vertex 2 for example. It will make your MB responding quite fast.

 

[Danando1993]

okay thanks for the advice ill check it out.

Edit: one last thing why when i have one web page open does the macbook use most of its memory, At the moment I have 36mb free and the only thing open is MacRumors.