tweaking OS X?

L

LeoTheLion89

Registered
my eMac rev C should come soon i will max the RAM to 2GB in a few weeks and i will also be installing Leopard on it i believe its the 1.25GHz Version concidering todays computers have a 1.6GHz minimum and i used the EXACT same eMac in high school and it was rather sluggish i was wondering that best ways to tweek the Panther OS on it now (before maxing ram and upgrading the OS) so that i runs decent and smoothly i have Panther running on my rev D iMac Tray load with 128MB RAM (half of the eMacs RAM) with better preformance at 128MB RAM and 333MHz than eMac at 1.25GHz 256MB RAM
 
Install as much RAM as it supports, get a faster hard driver (not necessarily needed for this case, but can be helpful in similar cases when an older Mac needs a newer or smoother OS and has just and old, slow HD), and keep enough empty space on the hard drive. Run occasionally maintenance programs like OnyX. With OnyX you can also turn off some of the features you don't use (like Dashboard - speeds up about 2-5% by having it off).
Don't install thousands of fonts, since numerous fonts may slow the startup and the user.
 
ok guys here is the factory specs of my eMac:
1GHz PPC G4
256MB DDR PC2700 RAM
40GB Seagate IDE HDD
H-L Data Storage CD-ROM Drive
Mac OS X 10.3.9

here is all i have done to it with everything i have already had on hand:
1GB DDR PC2700 RAM (Total of 1.25GB)
160GB Western Digital HDD with 3 partitions (OS X, Leopard Install DVD image and a Ubuntu Partition)
MagicSpin IDE DVD Burner Drive
Mac OS X 10.5.8

now heres the problem i cant watch YouTube videos this thing lags like Windows XP on a 200MHz processor and 64MB RAM. magnification of the Dock lags programs have slow response times and the typing lags i have deleted off programs i dont use such as Dashboard and im not gonna lie i have downloaded and installed a shitload of programs on here including Microsoft Office 2008 (which i will never use) Open Office (which ill never use) i have installed iWork 09 (not even sure what any of the 3 programs even do) and i have installed iLife 06. Now i should beable to watch YouTube videos on a 1GHz processor concidering i can watch it on a 1.60GHz laptop which most laptops are 1.6GHz i dont see how a 600MHz increase would make much of a difference.

Is my inability to watch YouTube due to the older and last version of Flash Player 10 to work on PPC Macs? Is it because i have too much installed on my computer and spite NOTHING else but the web browser running that the videos dont play?

it really disappoints me that i cant watch YouTube videos on this Machine i have no even had a CRT monitor since early 2005 and i personally prefer CRTs they have far better picture and details over LCD monitors so i wanted to watch YouTube videos just to see the picture difference from watching it on a CRT display vs a LCD display.
 
LeoTheLion89 said:
...
160GB Western Digital HDD with 3 partitions (OS X, Leopard Install DVD image and a Ubuntu Partition)
...
Click to expand...
You don't give the size of your partitions, but I would bet that your partitions are at the heart of your performance issues. You are not running CP/M on your Mac. By today's standards, a 160 GB HDD is tiny. This means that the partitions of a 160 HDD are microscopic. With a full Installation of MacOS X 10.5 Leopard and a minimally useful set of applications, you may very well have slipped beneath the floor for free capacity on your boot partition. MacOS X should have 15% of its boot partition available as free space to ensure that the virtual memory system has the headroom to do its job. If you slip beneath the 15% floor, then you can expect performance issues.
 
MisterMe said:
You don't give the size of your partitions, but I would bet that your partitions are at the heart of your performance issues. You are not running CP/M on your Mac. By today's standards, a 160 GB HDD is tiny. This means that the partitions of a 160 HDD are microscopic. With a full Installation of MacOS X 10.5 Leopard and a minimally useful set of applications, you may very well have slipped beneath the floor for free capacity on your boot partition. MacOS X should have 15% of its boot partition available as free space to ensure that the virtual memory system has the headroom to do its job. If you slip beneath the 15% floor, then you can expect performance issues.
Click to expand...

Mac OS X partition is 130GB Leo Install DVD is 8GB and Ubuntu is 10GB
 
Don't expect wonderful, smooth video performance on youtube, especially if you like full screen. More RAM can help (a little).
The main hangup is the G4 processor, which just doesn't have the resources necessary for that smooth video experience that you want.

How's Ubuntu working on your eMac? I have Ubuntu 11.04 - but can't get anything newer to work right. You might find that is a better fit for some of the things that you want to do.
 
DeltaMac said:
Don't expect wonderful, smooth video performance on youtube, especially if you like full screen. More RAM can help (a little).
The main hangup is the G4 processor, which just doesn't have the resources necessary for that smooth video experience that you want.

How's Ubuntu working on your eMac? I have Ubuntu 11.04 - but can't get anything newer to work right. You might find that is a better fit for some of the things that you want to do.
Click to expand...

i dont have Ubuntu installed yet i have only run it via Live DVD version 10.04 i need to wait until i get the Airport Extreme card before i can use Ubuntu as my USB wifi adaptor dont work on Ubuntu
 
i had no problem running youtube videos in high school with Panter by that time Tiger was already out i believe the eMacs were 1GHZ and the iBook G4s were 1.25GHz
 
That's the difference that a few years makes.
Technology (and the support systems for that technology) just don't stay in one place for too long.
Now video viewers want to have HD video supported. With the much higher resolution, there's now the need to have a lot more computer resources, higher performance graphics chips, more memory, and the ubiquitous multi-core processors.
And, the other result is - the older hardware gets left behind.

If you were to return to one of those iBooks today, and try to view the videos that you find today - it would perform much the same as your eMac.
If you need more graphics power, then you need a more modern setup. 'tis not possible to upgrade either your processor, or your graphics chip in your eMac.
I like the eMac, but try to be a realist. The eMac is more than 7 years old, technology continues to move ahead. It's not a multi-core processor, and doesn't have 256 or more MB of Video Ram, and the video has no hardware acceleration, etc, etc. It is what it is.... and you then get to make allowances for what you choose to use.
 
DeltaMac said:
That's the difference that a few years makes.
Technology (and the support systems for that technology) just don't stay in one place for too long.
Now video viewers want to have HD video supported. With the much higher resolution, there's now the need to have a lot more computer resources, higher performance graphics chips, more memory, and the ubiquitous multi-core processors.
And, the other result is - the older hardware gets left behind.

If you were to return to one of those iBooks today, and try to view the videos that you find today - it would perform much the same as your eMac.
If you need more graphics power, then you need a more modern setup. 'tis not possible to upgrade either your processor, or your graphics chip in your eMac.
I like the eMac, but try to be a realist. The eMac is more than 7 years old, technology continues to move ahead. It's not a multi-core processor, and doesn't have 256 or more MB of Video Ram, and the video has no hardware acceleration, etc, etc. It is what it is.... and you then get to make allowances for what you choose to use.
Click to expand...

i dont have any multi core systems all my computers and laptops are all single core and they preform just fine on YouTube
 
reading online to optimize my eMac one of the programs mentioned was MainMenu however the latest version is for 10.6 and 10.7 does any one know where i can download a old version that work on PPC Leopard internet searched turned no results for a old version
 
Did you look at the web site for that app?
http://incrediblebee.com/faq?category=MainMenu
If you look, you'll see they also offer a download that will work with 10.5
http://incrediblebee.com/faq?category=MainMenu

MainMenu is one of a couple of dozen similar apps, but probably won't do any harm...
Best one, IMHO (everyone has their favorite) is OnyX. If that wasn't mentioned in the list that you saw - then you need to look at a different list.
Keep in mind that many folks don't recommend ANY utility, outside of what the system provides itself as the OS X system normally doesn't need a lot of help in maintaining itself.
 
I think the important point in a good search, is to have an idea what kind of results you will get.
I don't mean that you will know ahead of time what those results are, but that you can decide quickly if the results that you see are a reasonable result, and related to your search.
You have to look at the context, and decide if the results are reasonable.
AFAIK, that means that sometimes you will encounter completely wrong results. Sometimes that will be obvious.
IMHO, not everyone likes to use search engines..
 
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