InfiniteMac OSx86 - View Single Post - Twitchy Leopard on AMD-Normal?

naquaada · 04-18-2009, 12:09 PM

Oh my god, I've just seen you're only using a 40 GB Harddisk... OS X uses Gigabytes of virtual memory, on my system it are actually 55.27 GB. And if it's an old 40 GB HD then it has mostly only 5400 rpm or is slower anyway.

I have four systems and using 2 GB and 3 GB RAM in my spare systems, my main system has even 4 and contains a massive harddisk storage of 1.82 TB. I'm preferring IDE for booting, I'm using a 320GB Maxtor actually but will upgrade to a 400GB Samsung - Logic and Final Cut alone are needing about 130 GB for program data. I'm using the PATA harddisk ONLY for booting and system, there are no data files on it. That makes it easy if you have to reinstall your system, you don't have to worry where you leave all the data you have. And if you have less harddisk space at all this can be problematic. I only have to backup the 'Library' folder of my home directory sometimes, that's all. I can fully skip Time Machine this way. My personal files, documents, pictures, disk images, software storage, backups and t*rrent stuff I keep on a 500 GB Samsung SATA disk. For streaming media like music, videos and similar media I'm using a Samsung HD103UJ terabyte hard disk which is very fast.

Using more than one harddisk is an ideal solution. For example, you have only one harddisk and you're working with the system, browsing the net, downloading some t*rrents and listening to iTunes. In this case way the harddisk has to very much to do, it must read system data, read and write application data (f.e. browser cache), write and read virtual memory, write t*rrent data in different files, and read streaming media data. That's very much action for the read/write head, you can imagine that the system will slow down. And not only this, the harddisk also will be more fragmented very quickly. In my case, the system harddisk is in normal use only reading system data, reading and writing application data and using virtual memory. My second harddisk only is needed for writing t*rrents and the third harddisk is only needed for music streaming.

Today's harddisk costs are very low. The Samsung 103UJ - one Terabyte - I get on ebay (new) for 73 Euro new in Germany. Big IDE harddisks are often more expensive, but there's a trick. Check out for Samsung HDs on ebay and ask the seller about the manufacturing date. If it's beneath 3 years (f.e. for now june 2006) you can buy it. Format it with the Mac and contact support the Samsung harddisk support. They will always ask you if you have tried the Samsung disk test utility. If you say you've got only a Mac so you can't use it. With a good story and a little persuasion you can ship it to Samsung and you'll get a new one of the same model. This works even with completely defective harddisks. Samsung HDs are perfect because they are extremely silent and very cool, only 37°C/98°F even after long use.

Which type of memory do you have, 2x 512 MB or 1x1 GB? Are you using Windows? If so, you can't use 4 GB, a normal 32bit-Windows only supports 3.somethingelse GB. I have a reducting option in my BIOS that disables one full GB of RAM to avoid problems with Windows if 4 GB are installed. OS X is fully capable to use 4 GB RAM. But I can tell you, even with big applications you don't need it. DDR2-RAM is so cheap actually, I saw 2 GB bundles for 12 Euro sometimes.