New iMac optimization [xSlimmer, OS reinstall]

[apparatchik]

Hi Guys,

I have a maxxed out 24" iMac on the way (3.06GHz, 4GB RAM, 500 HD)
and Im wondering what steps could I take upon arrival to achieve the best performance possible going forward... not that I expect it to be somehow slow of course but I guess you catch this may I say silly obsession to squezze as much performance as possible...

I have read that xSlimmer does a pretty neat job removing ppc code, unnecesary laguage files, etc with great results but that they get reversed when you update an application, for example...

So I also read you can reinstall leopard so you uncheck unnecesary components from the get go... however, I was wondering whether every mac (desktop/laptop) come with a specific customization from the factory (energy saving tunning, perhaps the last version of the OS, say 10.5.4) which I might override reinstalling from the generic leopard dvd... thus actually doing counterproductive shitt...

What would you suggest I do? I would only need english/spanish as available languages and would like to know if can also remove the ppc code from the os... save some hdd space, improve snappiness , etc...

How about tweaking some intial settings with onyx?

This is my first Mac, thanks for any advice!

I would also have ready an external fw800 so time machine can start backing up from start...

 

[Aea]

If you want you can simply reinstall leopard from scratch with no archiving and skip printer drivers, etc. This just saves HD space though.

I played with XSlimmer and I'm a bit hesitant to use it, a little bit of HD space in exchange for knowing your programs will work as expected is a good tradeoff for me.

 

[NeoMayhem]

I use Monolingual to remove unnecessary stuff. Just removing additional languages saves over 1gb of space on a clean install. It will also remove PPC code if you want, which saves another several hundred mb.