OSX - Dramatic Speedup from re-install

G

gibbs

Registered
I don't know how original this experience is, but I'll throw it out anyway.

I bought an imac 800mhz a couple of months ago.

It had osx 10.1.4 pre-installed. It wasn't running very snappy, but not slower than i'd seen store models run.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, after playing around I had ended re-installed using software restore, the 6 cd set of images, and re-installed the system once with that for another reason. The speed and everything else was the same. Big surprise right?

WELL. I re-installed again a couple of hours ago, but this time, instead of using software restore, I just used the OS X 10.1.4 install CD.

The speed is totally better. Window redraws are dramatically faster, IE runs like a charm. [ie 5.1, havent upgraded yet], etc. There is a noticeable, percievable performance improvement. I am much happier with the experience so far, so much that I had to come here and talk about it.

Now, I will keep testing to see if any apps I install slow it down, etc. But I just wanted to throw this out as a suggestion to anyone else in the same scenario who is thinking of re-installing. Try with just the install CD, not the system-image CD's. Let me know if you have/had a similar experience.

[edit- I just wanted to add after reading my post, it sounds like I bogged down my system before, but I actually ran/run very few 3rd party programs, and the system is fairly new, just so you guys know]
 
Seems like it'd be possible that the Softare Restore version of OS X isn't 'optimised' (through prebinding). Use something like Xoptimize from time to time and do a restart afterwards (as the speedup only kicks in after a restart).

Btw the first things I do when I install a new Mac is to a) partition the harddrive the way I want to and b) install Mac OS X from the Mac OS X installation CD that comes with the new Mac. c) I copy the Mac OS X installation CD for me, so if I have to reinstall my own TiBook, I don't have to install all the updates in the correct order. And this is *not* pirating software, as I'm the owner of *two* legitimate copies of Mac OS X 10.1.
 
Fryke, you voiced exactly my thoughts of the OS X images vs. the OS X install CD. My concern is that there is a difference, whether it be a bug in the image installation , anything. I just know there is a big difference now. Not huge, but big enough.
 
I've also noticed this phenomenon. When I bought my iBook, I tried out the pre-installed (from the disk images) version of OS X, and felt it to be too sluggish to be useful. But then, when I re-installed from the actual MacOS X CD, it performed much, much better. I suspect it is the pre-binding, as I've noticed that pre-binding every month or two really makes OS X fly.
 
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