[addiecool]

I am running Mac OS 10.2.6 on a 700 Mhz G4 Flat Panel 15" Imac. I have 512 MB RAM right now. The HDD which came with the system is 5200 RPM.

Lately I have started using the machine for production work and use Indesign and Acrobat a lot. But the whole system seems jerky and there is always a slow response while working.

Is is the Hard Drive? or I need more Memory?

Here is a Terminal snapshot

Processes: 51 total, 2 running, 49 sleeping... 114 threads 20:19:46
Load Avg: 0.15, 0.28, 0.32 CPU usage: 2.7% user, 8.2% sys, 89.1% idle
SharedLibs: num = 90, resident = 21.6M code, 1.89M data, 7.67M LinkEdit
MemRegions: num = 2618, resident = 26.9M + 6.19M private, 52.6M shared
PhysMem: 50.7M wired, 166M active, 148M inactive, 364M used, 148M free
VM: 1.52G + 59.4M 19505(0) pageins, 10729(0) pageouts

[sniffer]

From what I can tell by the pageouts, you'll probably gain from more ram. But I can't tell by the numbers what is causing the pageouts.

[sosumi]

Have you ever corrected permissions or used a disk utility like DiskWarrior? These new-fangled computers, while being pretty slick and all, still need their fair share of maintenance.

You can always use more RAM, but 512MB should be enough to start with.

[sniffer]

How much disk space do you have left? Depending on the original size of your hard drive I would recommend you to have at least 10-20 % of your disk space free at all times. This prevents disk fragmentation (that's also why HFS+ normally doesn't need de-fragmenting tools). If you are out of disk space, it could make your system slower.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by sosumi:
These new-fangled computers, while being pretty slick and all, still need their fair share of maintenance.

[Moonray]

Originally posted by sosumi:
Have you ever corrected permissions or used a disk utility like DiskWarrior? These new-fangled computers, while being pretty slick and all, still need their fair share of maintenance.

... and rebuild your desktop and zap your PRAM ...

-

[Angus_D]

You always need more RAM.

[tooki]

I agree. Make sure there's a decent amount of free space availale, then run DiskWarrior on your drive (which is either a 5400 or 7200RPM, by the way, not 5200, which is a speed that was never made).

And get more RAM. If you're designing, you're using programs that will probably take a lot of RAM.

That said, a lot of those apps are so power-hungry that they can bring a now-modest 700MHz G4 to its knees.

tooki

[moreno]

Your computer is damm slow! Happy?

[Xeo]

First rule with OS X: You can always use more RAM. 512 is good, but 1024 is better.

Your slower hard drive will only affect the accessing of files and launching of applications. But when working in already opened files and applications, your HD won't affect much. But getting a bigger, faster one wouldn't hurt, either.

[nobitacu]

You can never have enough ram! But really, with me, I can't live with myself if I have less than 1024mb of ram. 512mb just won't do it for me. But really... I wish I have 2 gigs! but at the kind of price to pay for those 1 gig sticks... that will never happen, unless of course, they get cheaper later on, a lot cheaper. If you're into design softwares, than you would want at least a min of 1024mb of ram.


Ming

[RevEvs]

The answer is always yes. RAM is good

revs

[Telusman]

I don't even have to read the thread to say "yes, you need more ram" OS X uses a boat load of it by itself, photoshop and the other Adobe products take more than their fair share too. Also, i recommend a seperate swap partition, makes the OS look in a single place for swap files rather than in one place for swapfile0 and another place for swapfile1. For a design and production machine, set aside about 2 gigs, the half a gig i set aside filled up quickly when used as an Adobe Scratch disk.

The pageouts are probably the Adobe products, their constant caching and history paging makes use of the disk and pages them directly out of ram. Use photoshop for about 6 minutes with a large file and you'; notice that your pages outs go through the roof.

If i hear someone say "have you repaired your permissions or checked it using disk warrior" one more time, I am going to go postal on them.... OS X does fine without such proceedures unless your constantly installing software, premissions dont just dynamically change, there is a catalyst for such results.

To be honest i find 512 rather limiting, i've got 768 in my PowerBook G4 and it runs acceptably to not warrant the extra 256mb, but if your running a suite of programs for Desktop publishing or the like, i'd say 1024 is a requirement, not an option. Get it while its cheap and plentiful, you may not see the results, but believe me, they're there.

Your overall speed won't increase, however the amount of time you'll be able to keep that overall speed increases very dramatically when the hard disk isnt put to the test. Trust me, it's not pretty waiting for OS X to page in all 200mb of an Adobe Photoshop file after switching to DreamWeaver and Adobe Illustrator.....

- Telusman

Originally posted by sosumi:
Have you ever corrected permissions or used a disk utility like DiskWarrior? These new-fangled computers, while being pretty slick and all, still need their fair share of maintenance.

You can always use more RAM, but 512MB should be enough to start with.