iMac 27" i7, going slow?

[MythicFrost]

Hi all,

I've got my new 27" i7 iMac w/ 4GB RAM, and a 2 TB HDD. I've downgraded from an 08 Mac Pro (octocore @ 3.0GHz, 18GB 800MHz RAM, GTX 285, Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD).

I'm wondering if the speed I'm experiencing is normal? It's not application load times that I'm thinking are slow (that's expected going from SSD to HDD), but just like switching tabs in Safari often I get the spinning wheel, it never used to happen except on very rare occasions.

Even changing panes in System Preferences is slower? Is that normal?

 

[macgeek18]

Hi all,

I've got my new 27" i7 iMac w/ 4GB RAM, and a 2 TB HDD. I've downgraded from an 08 Mac Pro (octocore @ 3.0GHz, 18GB 800MHz RAM, GTX 285, Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD).

I'm wondering if the speed I'm experiencing is normal? It's not application load times that I'm thinking are slow (that's expected going from SSD to HDD), but just like switching tabs in Safari often I get the spinning wheel, it never used to happen except on very rare occasions.

Even changing panes in System Preferences is slower? Is that normal?

Well,it might feel slower,you went from 18GB of ram to 4GB,800Mhz and 1066Mhz Ram speed is not to different.and you went from 8 core's at 3Ghz to 4 core's at 2.66Ghz,so,it would seem a little slower I would believe.

 

[MythicFrost]

I don't think it is the RAM or the CPU. I've got ~600MB of available RAM, although it says in Activity Monitor: Page ins 3.5GB, Page outs 35MB, Swap Used 25MB.

The CPU is a Core i7 @ 2.8GHz which Turbo Boosts up to 3.46GHz depending on how many cores are in use, considering I'm not doing anything CPU intensive the clock speed of the i7 will probably be over 3.0GHz most of the time. Both have 8 logical cores (the i7 has HT).

I'm thinking it's the hard drive, what do you guys think? That makes the most sense to me.

 

[JS82189]

my MBP 13" doesnt get beachball between tabs unless they are all gifs, or I have like 50+ images or some large number...


when I read this earlier my guess is you are running like a hundred tabs and never closing them, or its probably a RAM issue.. seems like RAM is what handles these moment to moment computations, I think the hard-drive is more for running some serious app and booting up apps.

Im not an expert but I thought RAM, not to say that I didn't get a bad HD in my MBP that I had to get replaced under apple care.

 

[MythicFrost]

I have 4-5 tabs open, and I have RAM that's available. How do you know if you have a bad HD?

 

[JS82189]

call apple care, its prob ur hd then...

 

[oftheheavens]

My i7, with 8gb ram, never seems to be as fast as i thought it would be when i bought it. I get beach balls when i do simple iTunes stuff, or when i just change tabs in safari. I kept hoping that it was going to be fixed in a patch but that has yet to come I guess.

 

[Lerpiniere]

Slow = Internet Connection?

Perhaps the beachballs are more a result of the limitations of the existing web connection rather than a hardware issue?

 

[Vantage Point]

Perhaps the beachballs are more a result of the limitations of the existing web connection rather than a hardware issue?

That is what I was going to suggest. The connect and the site itself as well as the time you visit are all factors. The best test is to plug directly into an ethernet connect and visit different types of sights, including google to test speed. If that is fast, then the problem is the connect, if not, then it is the computer.

I also get the occasional beachball on the web with my iMac, sometimes from this site

 

[MythicFrost]

Nah, not for me anyway. My internet is fast, and my old machine doesn't exhibit the issue. It's not loading the actual website that's the problem, but changing between them, sometimes.

 

[oftheheavens]

Nah, not for me anyway. My internet is fast, and my old machine doesn't exhibit the issue. It's not loading the actual website that's the problem, but changing between them, sometimes.

Same with me. I am in japan with some of the worlds fastest connections.

That aside, i also get lag when doing minor things in iTunes, and stuff like iMovie. When loading up a 8 minute iMovie project it takes a good amount of time. Nothing crazy but it seems to take a while.

Almost seems like my 2.2ghz white book with 4gb ram is the same speed as my i7 iMac

Edit: I think on some of the things it may be because i use an external opposed to filling my internal. Before i continue i know that this is not the sole reason. Now with that said, i know some of my lag times like when changing info on a song in iTunes is due to the external, but i don't know how to put just music and not movies on to the internal and still have all new itunes music go to internal without manually placing in the music folder. Whew sorry long winded.

 

[BobK]

Beach Ball i7

Hi all,

I've got my new 27" i7 iMac w/ 4GB RAM, and a 2 TB HDD. I've downgraded from an 08 Mac Pro (octocore @ 3.0GHz, 18GB 800MHz RAM, GTX 285, Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD).

I'm wondering if the speed I'm experiencing is normal? It's not application load times that I'm thinking are slow (that's expected going from SSD to HDD), but just like switching tabs in Safari often I get the spinning wheel, it never used to happen except on very rare occasions.

Even changing panes in System Preferences is slower? Is that normal?

I am glad to see this thread. I have a 27" i7 with 8gb of ram. I often get the beach ball when I am saving a document or a photograph. This is with no other programs open and a ton of unused ram. Also, I have 800gb of unused HDD. If I save a similar document or photo on my 3 year old MBP, it works instantly with no beach ball. Other than this observation, the computer works fast and flawless. Has anyone called Apple?

 

[MythicFrost]

I'm noticing mine gradually speed up as I use it. I still get the beach ball from time to time, maybe OS 10.6.4 will fix some of it.

 

[sneakyzeal]

I'm having beach ball problems too.. sometimes in Safari when I have hardly anything else open, sometimes in Sys Prefs, sometimes Numbers. And when I get impatient and try to close the app, the whole machine hangs up and apps start 'not responding'. Every time this happens, 1 to 2 times a week, I have to hard reset, and I've lost documents over it

Also in Safari I get a lot of "Server not found" even though two seconds later when I hit reload it's fine. And now that I think about it, sometimes I try and disconnect / reconnect Airport and THAT's when the beach ball starts.

My iMac is an i7, 4gb RAM, 1TB HDD.

DRIVING ME NUTS. Makes me want to blast Apple and force them to take it back and refund me. But they probably wouldn't do that..

 

[Stepint0sh]

OP, what you are suffering from is going from a SSD to an HDD, that said ofcourse you'll a little slower than the Mac Pro you had before. But the SSD had a huge impact on most of the tasks. It loads everything from harddrive (modules in safari, firefox, applications, you name it).