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Question Profile
| DATE | Apr 12, 2007 |
| TICKET | #333944 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Clearing files, checking usage |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Computer Hardware (RAM, Drives, Video Cards, Motherbaord, CPU, etc) |
| DESC | Memory |
| DESC | |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | mac mini |
| PROC | 1.42 |
| RAM | 512 |
| DRIVE | 80 |
| NAME | Mitchell |
| USERNAME | meinc3 |
| TECHNICAL | Beginner |
| ISSUE | Just Started Looking |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Clearing files, checking usage
meinc3 - Apr 12, 2007 - 10:43 am
I want to know how i can clear files, and check my memoery, hard disks, cpu etc usage. what do they ea mean? how can i make my computer run smother and why do it sometime seems slower? what is a good ext storage firewire drive ans usb stirage.
Mitchell
Mitchell
stottm - Apr 13, 2007 - 8:43 am
Hi, my name is Matt and I'll give you some advice:
Your profile states that you have a Mac Mini G4 PowerPC 1.42Ghz w/512MB of RAM. That's a powerful CPU, my PowerBook has a 1.33Ghz processor and it's not too shabby.
First of all, let's verify what you have for hardware. Click the Apple pull down menu and click "About this Mac". You will see the Processor and Memory listed. If they are different then what I stated above, please reply back so I know what you have for basic hardware. It makes a difference if it's a newer Mac with an Intel processor.
The reason why your computer runs slow is likely do to the 512MB's of RAM. It's not enough room to run the operating system as well as all the applications you have open. Having a Gigabyte of RAM instead of half a Gigabyte will make a big difference. You can buy RAM from http://crucial.com/ - It's not the cheapest but it's guaranteed to work in a Mac. Mac's are notoriously picky about having quality RAM, put cheap marginal memory into a Mac and it will crash intermittently. Crucial's prices are wholesale. You only have one slot in which to install a memory card, so you will need to buy the 1GB memory card and remove the 512MB memory card to replace it with the larger card.
However, opening a Mac Mini case to install the RAM can be tricky. The following website contains a howto video and Acrobat PDF guide on opening the Mac Mini case without breaking it. You will need a sharp and thin putty knife and some patience, it's not too hard, watch the video.
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/t...ini-how-to.php
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/m...-technical.php
If you do open the Mac Mini you might consider upgrading the hard disk to a larger faster one. It's a laptop hard drive and you can buy them in most large computer stores. i.e. CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's electronics, etc. Bring the old drive with you to ensure you get something that is compatible, newer disks use different technology that is not compatible. It would be easier to just get an external firewire disk instead.
To check your memory usage you can place the Activity Monitor on the Dock. It's found in /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor. You can view all processes, the amount of RAM that is being used, how much free RAM exists, etc. You can also kill hung or errant processes. It will also show disk usage and free space as well as network usage.
To see what files are taking up the most space you can download the free, GrandPerspective http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ which gives you a graphical look at the files on your disk. It let's you quickly identify what's taking up all the disk space.
For optimum performance the Mac OS X operating system requires at least 10% of your disk free. At the very least, about 3-4GB's free. This is especially important because you only have 512MB of RAM which means the computer will run out of RAM quickly and resort to paging sections of RAM to the disk. This slows things down quite a bit but it's better then getting a nasty "Sorry, you're out of Memory" type error.
Activity Monitor - what memory readings mean:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/6248
Maxtor & LaCie are good external Firewire/USB drives. I would definitely obtain a firewire drive over USB any day. It's many times faster. However, most drives that do have firewire also have USB so it's useful in PC's that don't have firewire, etc. http://www.maxstore.com/ & http://www.lacie.com/
To get fantastic prices on USB Flash drives watch this site for daily / weekly specials: http://www.tigerdirect.com/
Your profile states that you have a Mac Mini G4 PowerPC 1.42Ghz w/512MB of RAM. That's a powerful CPU, my PowerBook has a 1.33Ghz processor and it's not too shabby.
First of all, let's verify what you have for hardware. Click the Apple pull down menu and click "About this Mac". You will see the Processor and Memory listed. If they are different then what I stated above, please reply back so I know what you have for basic hardware. It makes a difference if it's a newer Mac with an Intel processor.
The reason why your computer runs slow is likely do to the 512MB's of RAM. It's not enough room to run the operating system as well as all the applications you have open. Having a Gigabyte of RAM instead of half a Gigabyte will make a big difference. You can buy RAM from http://crucial.com/ - It's not the cheapest but it's guaranteed to work in a Mac. Mac's are notoriously picky about having quality RAM, put cheap marginal memory into a Mac and it will crash intermittently. Crucial's prices are wholesale. You only have one slot in which to install a memory card, so you will need to buy the 1GB memory card and remove the 512MB memory card to replace it with the larger card.
However, opening a Mac Mini case to install the RAM can be tricky. The following website contains a howto video and Acrobat PDF guide on opening the Mac Mini case without breaking it. You will need a sharp and thin putty knife and some patience, it's not too hard, watch the video.
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/t...ini-how-to.php
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/m...-technical.php
If you do open the Mac Mini you might consider upgrading the hard disk to a larger faster one. It's a laptop hard drive and you can buy them in most large computer stores. i.e. CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's electronics, etc. Bring the old drive with you to ensure you get something that is compatible, newer disks use different technology that is not compatible. It would be easier to just get an external firewire disk instead.
To check your memory usage you can place the Activity Monitor on the Dock. It's found in /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor. You can view all processes, the amount of RAM that is being used, how much free RAM exists, etc. You can also kill hung or errant processes. It will also show disk usage and free space as well as network usage.
To see what files are taking up the most space you can download the free, GrandPerspective http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ which gives you a graphical look at the files on your disk. It let's you quickly identify what's taking up all the disk space.
For optimum performance the Mac OS X operating system requires at least 10% of your disk free. At the very least, about 3-4GB's free. This is especially important because you only have 512MB of RAM which means the computer will run out of RAM quickly and resort to paging sections of RAM to the disk. This slows things down quite a bit but it's better then getting a nasty "Sorry, you're out of Memory" type error.
Activity Monitor - what memory readings mean:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/6248
Maxtor & LaCie are good external Firewire/USB drives. I would definitely obtain a firewire drive over USB any day. It's many times faster. However, most drives that do have firewire also have USB so it's useful in PC's that don't have firewire, etc. http://www.maxstore.com/ & http://www.lacie.com/
To get fantastic prices on USB Flash drives watch this site for daily / weekly specials: http://www.tigerdirect.com/
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