Will my MBP always be this fast!?

[Race Johnson]

I got my new 2.2 ghz MBP yesterday and am absolutly loving it. It is sooooooooooo much faster than anything Ive had. But will it always be this fast? Ive got 30 gigs used and it is smoking fast. If i need to occationally clean it up what programs should i use? thanks.

 

[iBookG4user]

If you never update anything on your computer, it will remain this fast. But computers will always seem slower as new versions come out that take advantage of faster hardware. And you really don't need to clean up your computer with Mac OS X. Just make sure that you have a couple gigabytes free at all times and you should be fine.

 

[rosh325]

I would recommend Cocktail. It is a great application that will keep your macbook running trouble free.

http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

 

[daneoni]

Congrats on the Mac and yes it should remain fast. However you could help it by running regular maintenance tasks.

A couple of programs to help you with these are MainMenu, Onyx or Macaroni. The first two are free whilst the last one is shareware.

They'll help you run regular maintenance tasks that are meant to be run by OS X at night (3am i think) manually, keeping your mac in tip top shape

 

[daneoni]

Congrats on the Mac and yes it should remain fast. However you could help it by running regular maintenance tasks.

A couple of programs to help you with these are MainMenu, Onyx or Macaroni. The first two are free whilst the last one is shareware.

They'll help you run regular maintenance tasks (Repairing permissions, running maintenance scripts and clearing out caches etc) that are meant to be run by OS X at night (3am i think) manually, keeping your mac in tip top shape

 

[iToaster]

It should be fine through leopard and whatever is after that, and maybe the next one too. I dunno, Macs last a long time... I can tell you that it will fast and continue to be for a long time (350 Mhz iMac will run OSX perfectly today, not in october though).

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It'll slow down. Nothing can mimic the feel of a fresh OS install on a clean hard drive. Fill the hard drive up, use the computer for a few months, and it'll run a little slower.. longer to boot and shut down... and that's probably how fast it'll go until you get rid of it.

Example: I got a G4 mini.. after a few months it slowed down a little (meaning it didn't feel brand new). A year and a half later, it's still on the same original OS install, and it hasn't slowed down any since it lost the clean OS install feel.

Hope this made sense, it's early over here...

 

[siurpeeman]

it will feel slower as faster systems and more complicated operating systems come out. i remember i bought a g3 ibook in 2001, and that felt blazingly fast. two months later, i upgraded to mac os x, and it felt like my computer aged 10 years.

 

[HiRez]

Have you ever felt like your car runs better right after you wash it? I swear it's true.

 

[Nermal]

i remember i bought a g3 ibook in 2001, and that felt blazingly fast. two months later, i upgraded to mac os x, and it felt like my computer aged 10 years.

OS X was really more of a "sidegrade" back then. I remember 10.1 being credited as the first usable version of OS X. Then 10.2 was credited as the first usable version of OS X (and was the first version I used). When 10.3 came out, people said that it was really the first usable version

I actually installed 10.2 on my old G3 just for the fun of it, and wow... how did I put up with those stripes everywhere?

Go outside, the graphics are amazing!

I remember on some TV show (possibly Futurama) a couple of guys were watching TV. "You two need to get away from that TV and get out into the real world." / "But this is HDTV, it has better resolution than the real world!"

 

[miniConvert]

I just wanted to add that yes, your MBP will likely always be this fast, but it depends on what processes end up running, how much RAM you end up using, etc.

I'd recommend not using any third-party maintenance tools unless you start to notice degradation in performance. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Also, try not to fill your HDD up if you can help it. Plenty of space will be beneficial. By all means store everything that you need to, but delete what you don't (or don't put it on there in the first place) and/or make good use of an external drive.

I've got the 2.4 and, damn, it's fast. It 'feels' faster than every computer I have ever owned bar the Mac Pro, and that's including my (irritating) Dell Precision 670 (dual Xeon, but the old kind).

 

[kolax]

The more processes you have running the slower the MBP will go - I have these applications running and hidden - Entourage (can slow the comp down a wee bit), Transmission, MSN Messenger, Temperature Monitor, Dashboard Widgets etc..

Widgets also can affect performance greatly if you use a ridiculous amount.

Have you ever felt like your car runs better right after you wash it? I swear it's true.

Haha - interesting one. Reminds me of; why do triangle sandwiches taste better than square ones?

 

[foidulus]

One thing you should note

is that hard drives tend to get slower the more you fill them up. My powerbook with 1 gig ram and an 80 gig drive became much more useable after I went from about 4 gigs free to 40. However, if you have more RAM this becomes less of an issue, so spend the $200 or so to max that baby out at 4 gigs of RAM, it will be worth it.

 

[dmw007]

is that hard drives tend to get slower the more you fill them up. My powerbook with 1 gig ram and an 80 gig drive became much more useable after I went from about 4 gigs free to 40. However, if you have more RAM this becomes less of an issue, so spend the $200 or so to max that baby out at 4 gigs of RAM, it will be worth it.

I can vouch for this, my 2.2GHz MacBook Pro w/ 4GB of RAM and a 160GB 7200rpm HDD is a speed demon. I can not believe how much faster this is over my previous MacBook Pro.

 

[Killyp]

1. Try not to run many background apps. I generally keep them limited to Growl, drivers for my Alesis mixing desk and Mail (which is always running). Also try not to fill up your Dashboard with millions of useless widgets. The only 'useless' widgets I keep on the dashboard are the Apple logo and GoGoRedBall!

2. Keep at least 20 Gb free on your internal drive.

That's all you should need to do...

 

[L3X]

I can vouch for this, my 2.2GHz MacBook Pro w/ 4GB of RAM and a 160GB 7200rpm HDD is a speed demon. I can not believe how much faster this is over my previous MacBook Pro.

this is what I'm getting...

it should last me a while.

 

[vicious7]

Have you ever felt like your car runs better right after you wash it? I swear it's true.

lol...yes. It's almost as if the car, itself, was refreshed and happy

 

[iCeFuSiOn]

I can vouch for this, my 2.2GHz MacBook Pro w/ 4GB of RAM and a 160GB 7200rpm HDD is a speed demon. I can not believe how much faster this is over my previous MacBook Pro.

I'm looking at buying either the 2.2 or 2.4GHz MacBook Pro, but only with 2 GB of RAM at the moment. How good is the 128MB 8600-GT? Would I be better off purchasing the 15.4" with the 256MB 8600-GT?

Thanks in advance

 

[yudilks]

Yes it will... Just don't update your apps other than the security related update... It will stay as fast as what you have right now....

 

[elppa]

It will get quicker when you pop Leopard in it in October.

 

[r1400sch]

I've been wondering that: will it really get quicker when leopard comes?

I suppose it is optimized for intel processors more than 10.4, but could leopard follow the same track as the old OS X talked about earlier in this thread and be buggy/slow?

 

[elppa]

I've been wondering that: will it really get quicker when leopard comes?

I suppose it is optimized for intel processors more than 10.4, but could leopard follow the same track as the old OS X talked about earlier in this thread and be buggy/slow?

That "old" OS you are referring to was Mac OS X 10.0 (version 1 basically).

Every version since has been faster than the original on most hardware.

I fully expect Leopard will be the same.

 

[KumaChan]

It will get quicker when you pop Leopard in it in October.

Does this mean that the 2.2 MBP that I am going to get will be sluggish with the new Leopard???? Hope this investment of mine will not be a slow fella by Oct!!!

 

[yetanotherdave]

It'll slow down. Nothing can mimic the feel of a fresh OS install on a clean hard drive. Fill the hard drive up, use the computer for a few months, and it'll run a little slower.. longer to boot and shut down... and that's probably how fast it'll go until you get rid of it.

Example: I got a G4 mini.. after a few months it slowed down a little (meaning it didn't feel brand new). A year and a half later, it's still on the same original OS install, and it hasn't slowed down any since it lost the clean OS install feel.

Hope this made sense, it's early over here...

That's just perception. When you first get it, it's your new toy, it's fast, it's great, it being slow would cause cognitive dissonance, so you perceive it as being faster than it actually is. After a few months it's not brand new any more, the rose tinted glasses have gone and you see it as it actually is. It remains that fast.
There will be some things like background processes you install that slow the performance a bit, because they're taking system resources. If you removed them and compared the performance then to a fresh install on the same hardware it'd be the same.

To the OP, yes it will remain that fast, but external factors will make you perceive it to be slower as time goes on and you adjust to the speed that it goes at, and that becomes normal speed instead of amazing fast.

 

[L3X]

Does this mean that the 2.2 MBP that I am going to get will be sluggish with the new Leopard???? Hope this investment of mine will not be a slow fella by Oct!!!

your 2.2 will not be sluggish with Leopard...where did you get that from?