Monitoring system performance

Some Mac problems manifest themselves in slow performance rather than in crashes or system errors. If your Mac has been performing more slowly than usual, the following sections discuss a few possible causes and solutions.

Memory problems

If you open memory-consumptive applications or documents, Mac OS X employs virtual memory (treating part of your hard disk as memory, also called the swap space) to continue to work. If your software has to continually access the disk to retrieve data because of this, you experience a significant performance degradation. Other than dealing with smaller documents or using applications with lesser appetites, the solution here is to purchase and install more RAM. Although Mac OS X recommends at least 128MB of RAM, a realistic minimum is 256–384MB and even more will generally speed your computer up drastically, especially if you work with large files.

Insufficient drive space

Running low on hard drive space can affect performance in various ways. You should archive and delete files that you don’t need everyday access to, and remove any applications you no longer need. If you don’t regularly leave your computer on overnight, use a utility such as Cocktail to manually run the Mac OS X maintenance scripts that delete over-long log files, and clean out cache space that piles up over time. An application such as the Omni Group’s OmniDiskSweeper (www.omnigroup.com) can help you figure out which directories are taking up the most space, saving you time in the cleanup process.

If you have purged as much as you can stand but are still low on space, you may need to add additional storage space to your computer. Apple’s tower models, such as the PowerMac line, support between two and four internal hard drives in capacities up to 250GB each (at the time of this writing, though hard drive manufacturers are constantly creating more voluminous drives). Check your computer’s manual or Apple’s support page to determine what type and size drives your computer supports. For computers that do not support multiple internal drives you can, with varying degrees of difficulty depending on the model, replace the internal drive with a bigger model. A third alternative for the faint of heart is to invest in an external drive — Firewire enclosures are becoming increasingly popular due to their extreme ease of use and portability. You can purchase external Firewire drives in capacities ranging from 0GB (just an enclosure, you add your own drive, such as the one you just removed from your computer to make way for a bigger one) to 500GB or more using multiple disks. Hard drives come in different physical sizes, ranging from the very portable 2.5-inch laptop-sized drives to the standard 3.5-inch desktop-sized drives. The 2.5-inch drives make for very portable data storage when coupled with a Firewire enclosure, and can be found at many retailers online and off.