[gustavopi]

I'd post a thread like this at apple / support / discussions and the answares was like "buy more memory" or "buy another Mac". But I think that a Core 2 Duo MacMini with 1GB of RAM should be enough to be happy with, at list, the software that came with the package. A few of apps working and memory becomes totally fully filled with a lot (A LOT) of virtual memory active. Than, of course, system becomes slow, not responging and unstable.

I'm now posting here in the hope that people think different: about making no more digital garbage, instead, making this Leopard work like a system should: a really usefull objective.

How to make the system to be lighter, fast and steady?

Ok, I'll think about installing Tiger...

[ibook_steve]

Sorry to agree with what others have said, but buy more memory. Instead of investing in Tiger (if you don't have it already), max the memory. It is the simplest and most effective way to increase performance. Why are you against upgrading the memory?

Steve

[64stang06]

Leopard requires 512MB alone for the OS, not including what the other apps require. Therefore, 1GB is enough if you just web browse, check email, and do some IM. Now, if your Mac Mini shipped with Tiger and you were happier with that, you could always go back to it.

[gustavopi]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Sorry to agree with what others have said, but buy more memory. Instead of investing in Tiger (if you don't have it already), max the memory. It is the simplest and most effective way to increase performance. Why are you against upgrading the memory?

Steve

I'm not against buying more memory. I'v got to re-write my post and this detail was missed. But they say that I need 4GB! It is the same that you say - ok, system is sucks, but you put a lot of memory and things will (appears) to be fine (like Windows). Last year, most of Macs was selled with 1GB AND Leopard. Ok, I want to do more than web and mail, I'll double memory. You will agree with me that duplicating RAM capability should be enough to most of applications (we are not talking about Final Cut, Cinema 4D, etc.).

[gustavopi]

Originally Posted by 64stang06 

Leopard requires 512MB alone for the OS, not including what the other apps require. Therefore, 1GB is enough if you just web browse, check email, and do some IM. Now, if your Mac Mini shipped with Tiger and you were happier with that, you could always go back to it.

That's an inportant information. I have an iMac333 with 384MB (or 0.375GB) with Panther that I use to web, mail, azureus and a few things more (Photoshop runs!). If Leopard needs half giga only for itself, how much Tiger requires? Is there a way to disable some low-usefull features of Leopard so we can have more free memory, less virtual memory and less processor cycles? You see, if we cannot reduce the activity of HD, more memory may not give much speed up.

[bearcatrp]

The mini uses shared memory so there goes some memory. Maxing the memory does help some but house cleaning helps too. I use Yasu to clean once a month or more. Verify hard disk, verify permissions etc. help too.

[64stang06]

Originally Posted by bearcatrp 

The mini uses shared memory so there goes some memory. Maxing the memory does help some but house cleaning helps too. I use Yasu to clean once a month or more. Verify hard disk, verify permissions etc. help too.

I forgot about shared VRAM. I believe its then 512MB for the OS and another 80MB for the VRAM for a total of 592MB already being used.

To answer your question about Tiger, 10.4 only required 256MB for the OS to run (plus 80MB for the VRAM).

[gustavopi]

I forgot VRAM too. So we can say that I dont realy got 1GB, and 80MB is more than many applications use. Only haevy ones like Dreamweaver, Safari, Flash, etc, requires more. When you dont have much, every small piece make difference.

I'll try Yasu. I'd test iFreeMem: it works, but cleared memory is filled quickly, so I got do clean several times of the day. The goal will be not filling that fast all memory during work.

Now, the champion of memory usage is Adobe Reader. It takes 600MB and keep growing until I close it. Could be a bug, I'll try an upgrade.

So Tiger use half memory space than Leopard? Is Leopard twice better than Tiger? I remember Steve saying that was 300 new feautures. I think that some times Apple is seduced by the black side of the force, putting a lot of new funcionalities instead making a better system, like Microsoft. An example: Adobe made the CS software line that is lighter, faster and better than previous versions - I can ensure that. Now I can see YouTube videos at my old mac with the newest player. That's an evolution!

I'll test Tiger and make my own opinion, and share with you here.

Thank you all. These answers had been certainly better that Apple's discussions forum!

[64stang06]

As for Adobe Reader. If you only use it to view PDFs, might I suggest Skim? It's light on memory usage, a lot faster on loading, and in general looks and behaves like a Mac app should.

[AKcrab]

Originally Posted by 64stang06 

As for Adobe Reader. If you only use it to view PDFs, might I suggest Skim? It's light on memory usage, a lot faster on loading, and in general looks and behaves like a Mac app should.

What make it better than Preview?

[dimmer]

A few of apps working and memory becomes totally fully filled

So you'd prefer if maybe half of the memory in your system were never used, so you could take some solace in that? Any good, modern OS will exercise RAM as much as possible, swapping to disk/VM only if they must. This is not a bad thing.

[64stang06]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

What make it better than Preview?

That would work as well. I don't use Preview so I wasn't thinking of that.

[OreoCookie]

Memory is cheap. You can start with getting one 2 GB stick and then see whether that solves your problem.

[gustavopi]

Originally Posted by dimmer 

A few of apps working and memory becomes totally fully filled

So you'd prefer if maybe half of the memory in your system were never used, so you could take some solace in that? Any good, modern OS will exercise RAM as much as possible, swapping to disk/VM only if they must. This is not a bad thing.

Memory usage is allways changing size. If you look at Activity you'll see. Any swap, disk cache whatsoever needs processing cycles. That's why when you go from a big app to another, system takes a time to pop it up from virtual to real memory - and you see the beatifull multicolor circle rounding... If you got some free memory, all this jobs are easy becouse RAM memory is the real working space of a processor. What you think is easyer: moving forniture in a small room or in a bigger rom?

[gustavopi]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

What make it better than Preview?

I'm now testing it and it seams to be very interesting. You can take notes at the doc. It's better than preview and lighter than Adobe.

[gustavopi]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Memory is cheap. You can start with getting one 2 GB stick and then see whether that solves your problem.

May be, but opening a MacMini is not that easy. Upgrading at Apple service here will cost about US$ 150. Something about 20% of macmini's price. And you got to add my precious time... I'll do it, some day.

Apple says that Snow Leopard will need less memory and disk, humm...

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by gustavopi 

May be, but opening a MacMini is not that easy.

It's not that difficult either, there are plenty of video tutorials on how to do it. It's not rocket science

[64stang06]

Originally Posted by gustavopi 

May be, but opening a MacMini is not that easy. Upgrading at Apple service here will cost about US$ 150. Something about 20% of macmini's price. And you got to add my precious time... I'll do it, some day.

Apple says that Snow Leopard will need less memory and disk, humm...

Well, I wouldn't expect them to loosen the requirements from 512MB to anything less though.