X 10.3 speed tweaks?

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Gawd
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May 3, 2003
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I have an 800MHz iBook G4. It only has 256MB of RAM (more coming for Christmas), and I'm running Konfabulator. When that and iTunes are running, Safari and Adium becomes slow and I get Rainbow Wheel.

I've already removed the speed cap on Safari to make it load quicker, but the interface doesn't feel as responsive as my friend's Powerbook (Hmm, I wonder why.)

Anyway, is there a site with guides for making OS X 10.3.5 faster in general and more responsive when a bunch of crap (Konfabulator with 10+ widgets, iTunes, MS Word teh CPU hog) is running? Like I said, I'm getting more RAM soon. Any other tips? All the guides I found were for OS 10.1 and the like.
 
More ram would help. But I think you are going to be limited by your 800mhz processor...Another way of improving response time on a mac is upgrading your HD to a 5400rpm or 7200rpm. Makes a world of difference...
 
Don't use Konfabulator. Each widget can gobble up as much RAM as an entire stand alone application doing the same thing and more.

You might want to consider an alternative to Word whenever possible. MS Word can idle at a solid 25-40% at our 233MHz iMac, even when logged on as a different user, and devours RAM.

Oh, did I mention that Konfabulator sucks?
 
darktiger said:
More ram would help. But I think you are going to be limited by your 800mhz processor...Another way of improving response time on a mac is upgrading your HD to a 5400rpm or 7200rpm. Makes a world of difference...
Click to expand...

In my experience, the CPU is seldom what holds performance back (except in things like media coding or games or whatever). RAM, GPU, hard drive... such things generally matter more. The only thing I've ever seen really kill Mac OS X performance is intensive swapping and such. Hell, you can encode five media streams and have some game idling at 50% of the CPU all at once, and still the UI will be responsive... but if you don't have enough RAM, it's Spinning Beach Ball of Doom for you.
 
Well, if Konfabulator is a hog, then won't Dashboard in OS X Tiger be similar? I'm trying to future proof my machine (sort of). That said, Apple has more money and more people so they may be able to do a better job of streamlining.

I can't upgrade the HD yet without runing me $300 warranty. Even if I could, aren't 7200RPM disks battery suckers?

It certianly sounds like it's swapping a lot. I'm going to have the RAM up to 640MB soon, then. If I had waited two weeks then maybe I could have gotten an iBook that supports 1.25GB, but as it is 640 is the ceiling. Should do better though.

And you don't want to know what happens when I'm doing Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and iTunes. You really don't.
 
this may be a stupid question but have you gone into the energy saver prefpane (options tab) and changed processor performance to "highest"??

this makes a significant difference.

and are you sure about the 640 limit on the 800 g4s? im pretty sure that it can be done, but for some reason apple didn't want to tell people that at first.
 
I have the same issue with my 867 PB, but with different programs. I just ordered some more ram yesterday though, to bring my total to 640 (crucial says that is my maximum, as well as everything else I have ever read), and it should be here Monday-ish. I'll let you know how that affects my performance.

A HD upgrade is on my list too. I have heard that it won't void your warranty if you have it installed by an apple certified service place; you just lose the warranty of the HD itself. Until I am told this by an Apple employee, I'm not messing with it though.
 
vinividivici said:
this may be a stupid question but have you gone into the energy saver prefpane (options tab) and changed processor performance to "highest"??

this makes a significant difference.

and are you sure about the 640 limit on the 800 g4s? im pretty sure that it can be done, but for some reason apple didn't want to tell people that at first.
Click to expand...

I went and switched the preformance from "Automatic" to "Highest". I'm at school running the battery right now, so I'll see if Photoshop feels any faster because I have to use it in my next class. Shouldn't "automatic" adapt to the demand?

I have not heard about a higher RAM ceiling. The thing is that this one had 128MB soldered on the motherboard and 128MB in the slot. There is only one slot that supports maximum 512MB, unless it will take a 1GB stick.
(The newer ones have 256 soldered and an empty slot. I think. And that one slot takes 1GB sticks.)
 
Well, if Konfabulator is a hog, then won't Dashboard in OS X Tiger be similar? I'm trying to future proof my machine (sort of). That said, Apple has more money and more people so they may be able to do a better job of streamlining.
Click to expand...

Dashboard works in a completely different way. Konfabulator, basically, provides an interface for the applications, a platform. Dashboard is a whole environment, and as such, is just a single task. Less RAM lost to redundancy that way. The gadgets are just tiny JavaScript/WebCore applets, rendered in the Dashboard environment, that can call Cocoa/AppleScript functions, and they're all running in the same task.

(At least this is how I think it works, I haven't really looked in to it. Ask gigglebyte, he probably knows.)

Anyway, Dashboard is vastly superior to Konfabulator. Instead of cluttering up your monitor, they just sit outside your desktop when you don't use them. I like it.
 
Well Konfabulator has that thing now too, called Konspose, where stuff is hidden until youy push F8 (How creative).

Really I think the bottleneck is lack of ram and therefore a ton of HD access. So either get more RAM (less swapping) or a faster HD (swaps faster), or both. Both of those upgrades I think willl give me a reasonable speed boost.
 
RAM RAM RAM RAM


If you want to run 10.3 efficiently and effectively, bare minimum of 512. Silly that Apple still sells machines with 256. Silly
 
I agree ram. Then HD, a 7200rpm does not suck down battery that much. Plus your apple would be running a lot cooler....HD get very hot....
 
darktiger said:
I agree ram. Then HD, a 7200rpm does not suck down battery that much. Plus your apple would be running a lot cooler....HD get very hot....
Click to expand...


WTF??? if you put a faster drive...it will be generating more heat causing the unit to get HOTTER not cooler...I don't know what planet you are from but the physics must be different there than on Earth
 
As for RAM, if the stick will fit in the slot, your iBook should read it. I know that the generation of iBooks before this current generation had a supposed limit of 640 MB, but that was only because when they were released, the largest module of 200 pin RAM available was 512, so a 640 MB limit made sense, I guess they just didn't change the supposed limit because they're lazy, or didn't want it to seem like it was an update when they were going to update relatively soon anyways.
 
The UPS man brought me my memory today. I now have a total of 640 MB installed in my 867 mHz 12" PB. I haven't used it enough to give an extensive report on the effects, but so far I am pleased. I haven't heard the HD spin up nearly as often, resulting in increased speed, quiter operation, cooler operation, and more than likely increased battery live due to less HD activity. Now I just need to get a larger and faster HD and I will be set for probably another couple years of college :).
 
gigglebyte said:
WTF??? if you put a faster drive...it will be generating more heat causing the unit to get HOTTER not cooler...I don't know what planet you are from but the physics must be different there than on Earth
Click to expand...
I think he meant to get the RAM first. It will run cooler. Then you should get the HD. Which will run hotter. Or at least that's how I saw it.
 
MPython8118 said:
As for RAM, if the stick will fit in the slot, your iBook should read it. I know that the generation of iBooks before this current generation had a supposed limit of 640 MB, but that was only because when they were released, the largest module of 200 pin RAM available was 512, so a 640 MB limit made sense, I guess they just didn't change the supposed limit because they're lazy, or didn't want it to seem like it was an update when they were going to update relatively soon anyways.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I find that a 1gb stick of 200-pin is way out of my price range anyway. So 512 it is.

I keep wondering why my 500MHz iBook G3 felt faster. It had 384, I guess even that made a difference.

I'm off Konfabulator, btw. Took a look at that shit heap in the Process Viewer. Eating more CPU and RAM than everything else.

Edit: I can't seem to find a single GB 200-pin stick. All of the 1gb "kits" are two 512ers.
 
Last time I checked crucial had them. IIRC, they were around the $350 + price range :(.
 
Kingmax 1gb pc2700 single stick is around ~190 bucks at Newegg. The stick works great. Recently bought 2 sticks for two Powerbooks (One for myself and another for my roommate). It seems people with Powerbooks who have "reviewed" the stick on Newegg don't regret their purchase. Certainly my roommate and I don't regret purchasing the Kingmax.

edit: linkage here (currently $191)
 
I recently purchased a stick of 512MB Kingston for my iBook for $71 from Outpost.com because of this deal they had. I'll get to install it and try it out friday.
And that Premium brand 1GB stick on Outpost.com was at $140 once during some deal. I wish I got in on it back then.
 
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