What makes iMacs slow down?

[discofuel]

When do you a fresh install it's so fast to boot and run applications.

What exactly makes it slow down after a while? Do the more applications you install slow it down?

 

[Benz63amg]

sure does, the more apps and the more your harddrive fills up the slower it gets.

 

[definitive]

mine seems to work the same way as it did when i first installed osx sl when it first came out. you have to run maintenance apps once in a while such as onyx and cleanmymac to repair permissions and clean out old cache/junk. just make sure you know what you're doing before you go deleting all of your important files.

 

[discofuel]

Just reinstalled OS X and it's so fast I can't believe it. Hope it stays like this after I've reinstalled all my apps!

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Just reinstalled OS X and it's so fast I can't believe it. Hope it stays like this after I've reinstalled all my apps!

What imac do you have?

 

[John T]

A new machine always runs faster than it's predecessor! Over time and familiarity, it appears to slow down. However, once the used space on the HDD gets up to c.80% of total capacity, the machine will start to lag a bit. That's the time to have a spring clean and/or move unnecessary data onto an external HD.

Macs don't slow down like Windows machines that suffer from the ever-enlarging Registry file!

 

[Vylen]

After a clean install of OS X, people start installing applications and what not. Of particular interest are applications that open up after you first login to OS X. All these of course accumulate and take up RAM.

If you do not have a reasonable amount of RAM, things will be slow.

 

[dfs]

slow mac?

I wonder how much stuff you have parked on your desktop. If you have a lot, try cleaning house, that in itself might make you happier.

 

[Hellhammer]

Over time, you have installed lots of apps and most of them run in the background even though you never knew that. There is also the fact that the outer circles of the HD are faster than the inner ones since they spin at higher speed. When you have more data, the data will be written into the inner circles which may cause slow downs.

 

[discofuel]

What imac do you have?

27" 2.8GHz i7, 12GB RAM, 1TB internal, 2TB external FW800 G-Drive, 2 x 3TB Western Digital backup drives 😀

A new machine always runs faster than it's predecessor! Over time and familiarity, it appears to slow down. However, once the used space on the HDD gets up to c.80% of total capacity, the machine will start to lag a bit. That's the time to have a spring clean and/or move unnecessary data onto an external HD.

Macs don't slow down like Windows machines that suffer from the ever-enlarging Registry file!

Ok thanks, so guess that was my question... Is is simply a case of the hard drive getting full that slows it down, rather than applications/system junk left over?