# Does this make sense?



## Rhisiart (May 24, 2010)

I occasionally do a complete clean install of my system (10.6. 3 currently) and I find this speeds things up (my perception at least). The last time I did a clean install I purposely limited the number of applications installed on my system to a minimum of requirement (not the number of apps opened at anyone one time).

I seem to have gone for a much longer period this time with improved (perceived) speed and efficiency of system performance (e.g. I rarely see the spinning pizza these days).

Is this the key to high performance?


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## Giaguara (May 24, 2010)

What other maintenance do you do?

OnyX speeds things up too, by cleaning old stuff. Run that when it seems slower (or once a month or two), and keep more than 15 % of the HD free. And maxx out the RAM if it's not at maxmimum already.


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## earthsaver (May 24, 2010)

Reinstalling Mac OS X should not be necessary on a regular basis; only as a last resort when nothing else helps. Like Giaguara said, there are various utilities you might use to clean up. In general, though, maximizing memory and running Software Update when prompted are the best ways to keep running smoothly. Otherwise, can you be specific about behaviors that sometimes seem slower?


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## Rhisiart (May 24, 2010)

I only have 50% of all my total collection of software apps installed on the Mac Mini. 

In the past when I had all of them installed that seemed to slow everything down, even if I was only running one or two apps at a time.


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## earthsaver (May 24, 2010)

How much hard disk space is free? How big is the disk?

You might want to use Monolingual to remove unnecessary localization files.


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## Mikuro (May 24, 2010)

Disk space is important. Years ago I would defragment my disk every few months and it made a big difference. Doing a clean install has the side-effect of a mostly unfragmented disk.

But that was back when HDs were small and I was almost always hitting the ceiling. Also I did not have enough RAM, which put undue strain on the HD for virtual memory. These days I don't find it so important, because I have lots of free space on my disk and a good amount of RAM.


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## DeltaMac (May 24, 2010)

If that's your Mac mini running 10.6 with only 1 GB of RAM, you would see noticeable improvement by doubling your installed RAM. You may even have the 1.83 GHz core 2 duo mini, which can be upgraded to 3 GB. More RAM makes a big difference, especially with Snow Leopard.


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## earthsaver (May 24, 2010)

Also, Mikuro, we're now fortunate to have an OS that defragments itself automatically in the background as we go about our business.


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## Rhisiart (May 25, 2010)

I have 33 Gb hard spaced left (out of 80 GB). I would have thought that would be OK. I take your point about extra RAM though.

In fact I have purchased extra RAM, I just haven't got around to opening the Mac Mini yet (I am nervous to do it and the nearest Apple service centre is 100 miles a way). The coward I am, but I am told it is tricky and can damage the unit.


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## earthsaver (May 25, 2010)

Yeah, that's plenty of free space. Probably a memory issue given the slowish speed of your processor. With the right tools, opening the mini isn't hard. Go for it!


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## Rhisiart (May 25, 2010)

earthsaver said:


> With the right tools, opening the mini isn't hard. Go for it!


Positive action. OK, I will!


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## pds (Nov 15, 2010)

But it looks like you never did open the mini (updated system in the sig, but still 1 gig ram) You just need a sharpened taping knife (two would be better) and some cahones. 

It always sounds like something is breaking, but it isn't. Pop that sucker out and get some more ram in there!


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## Giaguara (Nov 15, 2010)

Yep maxxing out the RAM helps. 
And... how many fonts do you have there? If it's like a teenage web graphich wannabe's show-off Mac then the thousands of user-added fonts also don't improve the performance. Use only the fonts you need when speed matters.


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## Rhisiart (Nov 16, 2010)

Giaguara said:


> If it's like a teenage web graphich wannabe's show-off Mac ...


Huh?


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## Giaguara (Nov 16, 2010)

What I meant is do you have hundreds or thousands of user-added fonts?


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## Rhisiart (Nov 18, 2010)

I understand the bit about too many fonts, but "_teenage web graphich wannabe_"!


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## fryke (Nov 19, 2010)

It wasn't a personal attack. It was a metaphor for a badly-installed computer (with a typo, I'm sure she meant "graphics"...).

My MacBook Air's like a teenage lyricist wannabe's show-off computer, i.e. it's set to graphite, has a greyish background and most of the time, TextEdit's the frontrunning application.


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## Rhisiart (Nov 19, 2010)

fryke said:


> it wasn't a personal attack. It was a metaphor for a badly-installed computer (with a typo, i'm sure she meant "graphics"...).
> 
> My macbook air's like a teenage lyricist wannabe's show-off computer, i.e. It's set to graphite, has a greyish background and most of the time, textedit's the frontrunning application.



ok


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