Tweaking iTunes

A

anerki

Registered
Hi,

I recently installed the new OS X on my MacBook 13" (the 2Ghz Dual Core white one) hoping it would increase the performance of the system, and specifically iTunes.

(MacBook: http://apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=mb_late_07)

My iTunes library, like many out there, is large, but not overly large and definitely not to the point where it should be a problem. It's now at (I would guess) about 30 or so gigs, filled with mostly large MP3 files (70-200Mb).

- It's gotten to the point where I wait 3-4 seconds to go to the 'next' song when I press the 'right' arrow. This is (obviously) unacceptably slow. I thought about upgrading the RAM of the machine since it only has 1Gb I think. Now can anyone guarantee that doubling the RAM will properly increase performance again up to the point where I don't want to throw the machine out of the window? Yes, of course it will increase performance, that's obvious. But will it be enough, if not, I'll wait until it's completely unworkable and buy one of those new babyproof MacBooks :) (Edit: Or 4Gb?)

- The library is on an external 1Tb USB2 drive, but I could easily move it to the MacBook's HD but that's slower than the USB2 drive. Would this help any bit?

- Would removing all CD covers and images I have in there significantly increase performance?

Thanks
Frederik-Jan.
 
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I think more RAM would provide the biggest boost to your everyday computing tasks, including the responsiveness of iTunes (since iTunes does some fancy RAM caching for songs).

Your 1TB USB 2.0 drive may be fast, but USB itself is a processor hog and resource-hungry. While your internal drive may have a slower spindle speed, I think you would see much better transfer rates on your internal drive than your external, since it's natively connected to a SATA interface (and hence no USB-to-SATA translation). Still, I think exploring the RAM dilemma would be the first thing you should do.

Is your 1TB USB 2.0 drive a Western Digital Elements drive? The reason I ask is that those drives have automatic power-saving features, like a drive spin-down that occurs during periods of inactivity. These on-drive power-saving features are independent of Mac OS X's power-saving features, and cannot be controlled via the Mac OS X "Energy Saver" preference pane (meaning you cannot turn off the drive's spin-down function, no matter how hard you try). The delay in switching songs could be due to the system waiting for your external drive to spin back up... do you notice anything like this when using iTunes?
 
You've got a fine model and a memory upgrade is a sure-fire way to increase performance as you describe. You can upgrade to 4GB for about $100 (including shipping to Belgium).
 
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The drive is one of those WD Elements drive though it's not the spinning down that's the problem. It's not the typical unresponsiveness you get from a HD starting back up I'm afraid :)

Since iTunes can be such a RAM hog as you describe (and it feels) I'll probably go fetch me some fancy new RAM then, see if there's better performance RAM available that the MacBook can still make use from.

I can fit 6Gb (2+4) in there, right? Of those PC-6400 DDR2 modules? They're faster too (800Mhz instead of the 2 512 667Mhz I have now)
 
One last question, referring to this article : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651

I was thinking of buying PC2-6400 2Gb 800Mhz modules for the MacBook, though my model is older than the 2009 model, which is the only one that accepts 800Mhz modules.

However, I distinctly remember looking at the system specs on my MacBook yesterday that the slots for RAM were 800Mhz.

-I can just fit those in, right? I don't need to get the PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz Type?
 
In general, yes, but not per release date:

Maximum amount of memory and recommended memory speed recognized by these computers:

2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667 MHz Type RAM
MacBook (Mid 2007)
MacBook (Late 2006)
MacBook (13-inch)

4 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667 MHz Type RAM
MacBook (Early 2009)
MacBook (Late 2008)
MacBook (Early 2008)
MacBook (Late 2007)

4 GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800 MHz Type RAM
MacBook (Mid 2009)

As you see, only for the Mid 2009 model the 800 Mhz PC2-6400 chipset is supported (officially of course, that means next to nothing)
 
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Went and bought 4 Gb today, feels much zipper. There's still lag in iTunes, but less ... luckily. Overall though it's a vast improvement.

The MacBook downclocked 2 800Mhz sticks to run at 667Mhz but they run, shrug.
 
For reference

The USB 2.0 HD was a problem. The 1Tb WD Elements drive is _so_ slow even with the 7200 RPM drive in there it cause all the delays. Probably it's just slow constantly accessing different sectors.

I bought a 320 Gb HD for in the MacBook, installed OS 10.6 and everything works as it should: lightning fast.

Hope this helps someone else in the future :)
 
Great! In the meantime, tell your friends: stop buying Western Digital external drives. WD makes some great hard disks (the best of the line sold by OWC) but apparently the enclosures have been wrought with problems on Macs for years.
 
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