Turn iMac into speed demon

[Arden]

Okay, as you all know (or should know by now ), my primary machine is a 400 Mhz iMac DV SE with 640 MB of RAM. I am typing this into Safari 1.1 under OS X 10.3.2, and I would like suggestions on how to squeeze every second of performance out of this li'l ol' machine (aside from buying a new computer, upgrading, etc... those take more money than I can devote to this).

I suppose you guys should know what I run on a typical basis. At any given time while booted into OS X, my computer is usually running Konfabulator with several widgets, iPulse, a couple "fun" goodies (the eyeball and marching feet ones), and Path Finder instead of the Finder, not to mention a number of applications. I know I'll never be able to make this as fast as a G5 without physically putting a G5 upgrade into it (which will obviously happen tomorrow ), but I'd like to make it a bit snappier at least, especially Safari. What should I do? Use a different theme? Turn off Konfabulator? Add more RAM (more doable than other stuff)? Or is it about hopeless?

[chevy]

Use Mozilla instead of Safari. Longer to load, but faster to browse and more stable.
Kill Konfabulator: it's a fantastic software, but it's not compatible with performances.
You've got enough RAM, no need to add more.

[fryke]

1.) Backup.
2.) Install Panther and choose to erase the disk for the installation.
3.) Install applications. But _ONLY_ the ones you'll actually USE. No eycandy stuff, no nifty utilities. Only the basics.
4.) Have fun.

[bobw]

Like Fryke said, erase and clean install. Does make a nice difference over upgrade or Archive. No eycandy stuff, no nifty utilities. Only the basics.

640MB is enough memory, but you will notice an improvement if you bumped it up to 1GB.

For Safari, disable the History and Cache, this will speed it up a bit.

For the Cache;

First, go to the Safari menu and empty the cache

Now open your home folder.
Open your library folder.
Open your Caches folder.
Get Info on the Safari Folder.
Expand the video for the Ownership and Permissions section.
For all of the users, select no access.
Close the info window
Close your finder windows.
Done.

For the History

In Safari, clear the History
Then
User>Library>Safari
Get Info on History.plist
Lock it.

I've been using both Safari and Mozilla Firebird, and they seem abotu the same to me.

Open Activity Monitor and see what's going on, and if there's something you can turn off.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I'll have to second the suggestion to turn off the eye candy. If you want a "cool" looking OS with all the bells and whistles, you're going to sacrifice speed.

Get rid of the neat little eyeballs and feet and what-not. Turn off ShapeShifter if you have it. Don't run Konfabulator unless it's a necessity... do you really need weather and other useless information on your desktop, or can you stick your hand out the window and check for yourself?

A clean install with minimum options would be good. Get rid of the extra languages (even if you're fluent in them -- do you need to run your OS in a different language?). Get rid of the extra print drivers. You can even get rid of the BSD subsystem unless you frequently use the terminal and/or are a UNIX junkie or programmer.

[Arden]

Okay, I did install Panther cleanly because it solved my Dock issue (which was due to an older version of ASM anyway). And I didn't install anything not essential: just HP drivers, in case I ever use the printer from the iMac; no extra language packs or Asian font support; etc. And I just disabled Safari's cache, but I'm leaving the history on because I find it useful.

I'll have to decide whether or not I can live without the eye candy. I probably can, actually I can, but I like having stuff like that floating around. I guess I don't need the weather, as I can see if it's raining or not, but I like having the iChat Bezel widget and the little memory one. Okay, so iPulse is going off, as are the eyes and feet.

Anything else? Any .plist or .conf files I can modify, besides turning on window buffering?

[Trillian]

Make sure you have path-finder set to turn off finder on start; and if you have the random desktop feature on, set it to something that's like every log-in or preferably, off, because it can use up a lot of processer power if you have it to change ever 5 seconds (like me. :P)

[bobw]

If you want the weather, get Meteorologist. Takes only about 4% of the CPU when it refreshes. Works well with Panther.

Like I said, check Activity Monitor and see what's using CPU and decide if you want to keep it on.