on 9/2/03 4:58 PM, Leon Sargent Jr. at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Why is it that his slower system takes half the time to load and get to > the log in screen than my system does? Why does he have less wait > states and a much perkier application and over all GUI experience than > I do.
1. Three simple words: RAM RAM RAM (well, ok that's one word repeated thrice). Open up the "Terminal" app (/Applications/Utilities folder) and type "top" and press enter. Top will tell you exactly how much CPU time, memory, etc. each process uses (press Q to quit). The most telling feature will be how many page-outs you experience. Pageouts tell you how active virtual memory is -- if you have a lot of pageouts it means that your disk is being thrashed heavily and YOU NEED MORE RAM. I temporarily now have two OS X 10.2.3 machines -- B&W G3/450 MHz 576 MB RAM, PB G3/400 MHz 320 MB RAM. I recently ran both machines for the same period, both hooked up to the web through a LAN and running a comparable set of applications. The B&W had 12000 pageins vs. 6 pageouts. The PB had 16000 pageins and a whopping 30000+ pageouts over 3 hours. I've run the B&W for up to 24 hours and thrown *a lot* (e.g. Classic + Virtual PC + three OS X web browsers +++) at it and still never seen it break a few 1000 pageouts! 2. There are a few other explanations for spinning beach balls and they revolve around your web/network connection. If your nephew's 350 is a stand alone machine w/out network connections (or, at best, a dialup) he'll never experience network-related beachballs. You, on the other hand sound you have a "higher" speed network connection (since you're running Morpheus) so that's one possibility (the Finder has never behaved well with AppleTalk or other networking activities). 3. Morpheus/Limewire will *kill* a CPU's performance since they're Java apps *and* they chew up lots of web bandwidth *and* RAM. But, I come right back to my initial analysis: 80%+ of beachballs you experience that your nephew does not will be due to RAM!!! (check out "top" -- you will be surprised). 256 MB of RAM simply isn't enough to run OS X, *especially* if you're going to run Java apps!!! For me 320 MB is *barely* enough to run one or two OS X web apps and MS Entourage/Outlook Express in Classic! If I ever plan to do real work on this machine I'll either have to boot into OS 9 (where 320 MB is *a lot* of RAM), or upgrade to 0.5 GB or 0.75 GB (which is what I'll be doing as soon as my B&W G3 sells (Canadian (Toronto) sale *only* -- Rev. 2, G3/450 576 MB, 12+4 GB HD, Ultra SCSI, CDRW - $1100 CDN)). In your case I would *strongly* recommend that you buy a 256 MB PC-100 (or PC-133) DIMM (from a known brand name like Kensington -- "no name" memory has caused many a headache). Running your G3/450 with 0.5 GB will *smoke* your nephew's paltry 384 MB and 350 MHz CPU. Just remember that the B&W does not take high-density RAM, or that it does not take 0.5 GB DIMMs! l8r, Eric. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
