Speed-up performance Apps?

[Peter May]

Hello

I have 21.5'' iMac (late 2009) and I'm currently running the Mountain Lion OS.
Performance is mediocre to good but gets quite bad after long hours of use.
My hardware is as it was when I bought it and atm I'm not really looking to spend money for physical upgrades on my Mac.
I was wondering however if there is any software paid or free that can really speed up performance.

Thank you in advance

 

[FreemanW]

The short and long answer . . . . . no.

When you're ready to spend a bit of coin, memory. Max out your memory.

 

[old-wiz]

More memory is the first thing to try if you can afford it.
Otherwise try rebooting regularly in case there's a memory leak.
Also boot from an external and check the disk and perhaps repair permissions.
There aren't any speed up apps.
Oynx might help, but I don't think it's free.

 

[ctakah]

onyx is free, and you don't need to boot from external to repair disk, which you should do.
http://www.everythingmacintosh.com/tech-notes/repair-your-hard-disk-in-single-user-mode/