Erase and install from an install disc
30/11/10 Filed in: general troubleshooting
Scotty,
I would like your expert advice on two items I would like for Christmas. I use my MacBookPro at work, and have a lot of pages open all day long.
My main area or use that taxes my system, is when I have several Numbers documents open at the same time. I do this as I am working, , I close each document as I complete each job. SO I can see a performance difference from start to finish. I also have monitored this with Activity Monitor, and see the pie change.
The other issue is that I have a lot of data on my hard drive. It is backed up on a Time Capsule, and also on Carbonite. I have about 110 gb of 250 free.
I would like to upgrade my memory to 6GB from 4GB. And I would like to upgrade or increase my hard drive storage.
I have priced out from Other World Computing a 4GB stick, which is around $150. I have not priced out the hard drive increase.
I value your input, and would appreciate your opinion on these 2 desires for Christmas. My thinking is that the memory upgrade would help keep my speed higher. If I'm mistaken, please let me know.
I'll wait to hear from you. I also may need you to do the swap, if you can at my place of business.
___________
A few things to consider first..I assume in activity monitor you are referring to the ram allocation pie chart. Remember that if running in 32 bit mode, any given open application will only address 4 gigs of ram at most. I’m not recommending you jump to 64 bit mode. Just pointing out that adding more than 4 gigs of ram will only benefit someone running more than one application at a time. Also, I don’t believe that Numbers is a 64 bit native application yet either as you can see in the activity monitor list below:
Further, if you are upgrading your memory, I would suggest maxing it out. Don’t waste money on small steps from 4 to 6 gigs. If your ultimate goal would be to max it out anyway, then don’t take small steps to get there if that means you’ll be throwing away ram in the long run. Crucial is where I buy all my ram.
Sounds like you still have plenty of space on the current drive. If you want to increase speed then getting a 7200 rpm drive over a 5400 rpm drive will help out considerably. Don’t know what speed you currently have but I usually install 500 gig 7200 rpm drives. I would be happy to do the installation if you would like however if you want the repair done onsite, in this instance due to data transfer times, I would not be there throughout the entire process. I prefer to bring the machine to my workspace and do the replacement over night. This gives me ample time to transfer data, do the hardware portion, and test the new drive a bit. Most drives that die, do so in their infancy so having it over night gives me a chance to find the bad ones quickly.
Just a thought. You could also just do the transfer yourself if you prefer. You’d just need an enclosure. We can talk more about that at a later time.
___________
Response:
Scotty,
Your post kinda helped, but not completely. I think that my hard drive is the smaller or slower, but not totally positive on that one.
As for the memory upgrade, it is my understanding that I can only have 6GB, with 1 stick of 2GB, and 1 stick of 4GB. Crucial is another option which if you have used, than great.
You can look up the max ram on crucial's site. crucial.com. Keep in mind that there's apple's ram specs at manufacturing then actual capabilities based on ram amounts that weren't available at the time the computer was built.
I need for you to come and see what I'm experiencing, and make a recommendation. I would really like to spend money to have a performance boost. But, if the only time that I have a performance lag or drop, is when I have several Numbers files open, along with other applications, and the memory upgrade will not help, than I do not need to spend the money.
If on the other hand, you can see what I am doing, and trying to accomplish, you may be able to show me a different way to work, so that I do not have to have multiple files open at the same time.
I can't really think of a work around to avoid needing to have multiple documents open at the same time. If you are not editing a doc then you could use quick look but that's only temporary.
A good determining factor for you to check out would be to see how much ram Numbers is taking up by either viewing the actual program's ram use via either activity monitor or third party software like istat menus, as opposed to only looking at the total ram usage.
I would like your expert advice on two items I would like for Christmas. I use my MacBookPro at work, and have a lot of pages open all day long.
My main area or use that taxes my system, is when I have several Numbers documents open at the same time. I do this as I am working, , I close each document as I complete each job. SO I can see a performance difference from start to finish. I also have monitored this with Activity Monitor, and see the pie change.
The other issue is that I have a lot of data on my hard drive. It is backed up on a Time Capsule, and also on Carbonite. I have about 110 gb of 250 free.
I would like to upgrade my memory to 6GB from 4GB. And I would like to upgrade or increase my hard drive storage.
I have priced out from Other World Computing a 4GB stick, which is around $150. I have not priced out the hard drive increase.
I value your input, and would appreciate your opinion on these 2 desires for Christmas. My thinking is that the memory upgrade would help keep my speed higher. If I'm mistaken, please let me know.
I'll wait to hear from you. I also may need you to do the swap, if you can at my place of business.
___________
A few things to consider first..I assume in activity monitor you are referring to the ram allocation pie chart. Remember that if running in 32 bit mode, any given open application will only address 4 gigs of ram at most. I’m not recommending you jump to 64 bit mode. Just pointing out that adding more than 4 gigs of ram will only benefit someone running more than one application at a time. Also, I don’t believe that Numbers is a 64 bit native application yet either as you can see in the activity monitor list below:
Further, if you are upgrading your memory, I would suggest maxing it out. Don’t waste money on small steps from 4 to 6 gigs. If your ultimate goal would be to max it out anyway, then don’t take small steps to get there if that means you’ll be throwing away ram in the long run. Crucial is where I buy all my ram.
Sounds like you still have plenty of space on the current drive. If you want to increase speed then getting a 7200 rpm drive over a 5400 rpm drive will help out considerably. Don’t know what speed you currently have but I usually install 500 gig 7200 rpm drives. I would be happy to do the installation if you would like however if you want the repair done onsite, in this instance due to data transfer times, I would not be there throughout the entire process. I prefer to bring the machine to my workspace and do the replacement over night. This gives me ample time to transfer data, do the hardware portion, and test the new drive a bit. Most drives that die, do so in their infancy so having it over night gives me a chance to find the bad ones quickly.
Just a thought. You could also just do the transfer yourself if you prefer. You’d just need an enclosure. We can talk more about that at a later time.
___________
Response:
Scotty,
Your post kinda helped, but not completely. I think that my hard drive is the smaller or slower, but not totally positive on that one.
As for the memory upgrade, it is my understanding that I can only have 6GB, with 1 stick of 2GB, and 1 stick of 4GB. Crucial is another option which if you have used, than great.
You can look up the max ram on crucial's site. crucial.com. Keep in mind that there's apple's ram specs at manufacturing then actual capabilities based on ram amounts that weren't available at the time the computer was built.
I need for you to come and see what I'm experiencing, and make a recommendation. I would really like to spend money to have a performance boost. But, if the only time that I have a performance lag or drop, is when I have several Numbers files open, along with other applications, and the memory upgrade will not help, than I do not need to spend the money.
If on the other hand, you can see what I am doing, and trying to accomplish, you may be able to show me a different way to work, so that I do not have to have multiple files open at the same time.
I can't really think of a work around to avoid needing to have multiple documents open at the same time. If you are not editing a doc then you could use quick look but that's only temporary.
A good determining factor for you to check out would be to see how much ram Numbers is taking up by either viewing the actual program's ram use via either activity monitor or third party software like istat menus, as opposed to only looking at the total ram usage.
Sells Consulting email