Speeding up a Mac?

[xøx]

Hey guys, I was just wondering id anyone has any tips or suggestions for good programmes to speed up my Macbook?

I use it fairly intensively with programmes like Ableton live. However Sometimes it seems to slow right down for no real reason. This can happen when i have a load of stuff open or when I am just browsing the internet with nothing else on?

I've scanned for viruses and it came back clean. If anyone has any tips it'd be much appreciated!

These may or may not be helpful:

 

I run Onyx every now and then to clean up my computer, and I see improvements after I run the maintenance scripts.

 

[BGlave]

Try cleaning your hard drive or adding ram.

 

[eennee]

I had a similar issue with my mac, only 4 gb ram, I bought 16gb ram from crucial and installed it, its been running clean for a few years

 

[xøx]

Thanks for the Help guys! I'll give onyx a go now, if not I guess i'll have to buy some more ram

 

[n4n0]

Yeah you definitely need more ram.

 

[theamberleaf]

Agreed with the above. HD5000 is more than enough for general applications, as is the i5. RAM will make a noticeable difference.

 

[I_DONT_BOT]

You may need more ram, or just use Onyx. That's what I use, and it's made a huge difference. I have no problems whatsoever, but this is my mac's spec, so it shouldn't run too bad.

 

Moved to the appropriate section.

 

[ShadowRez]

Defo get some more ram in the buddy.

 

[SASRT8]

You've gotta remember, you're running a laptop with an ULV processor(hence the U in it's technical name). While sure, it sounds cool to say you've got an I5 processor in there, THAT ULV i5's capabilities are equivalent to roughly a second-gen I3 mobile, or a first-gen mobile i5 on it's best day. Nothing to be tremendously proud of. It's a weak processor with a low TDP so that you can stuff it into a laptop that doesn't have any proper form of airflow. Helps keep things thinner and cooler. You're dealing with a TDP of 15W versus a normal mobile processor's TDP of around 40-45W(what the MacBook PRO has)

Secondly, perhaps you could use a bit more ram, sure...but you should hardly be using the full 4GB that you have. Even 6GB would likely be overkill.Then again I don't really know what you run on your laptop, but I never utilized more than about 3gb on mine when I had it(briefly I might add) I'm not sure if that is user-upgradable on your MacBook air, or if it will support more than one stick(doubt it) but if it does, run two matching sticks to enable dual-channel mode.

 

Secondly, perhaps you could use a bit more ram, sure...but you should hardly be using the full 4GB that you have. Even 6GB would likely be overkill.Then again I don't really know what you run on your laptop, but I never utilized more than about 3gb on mine when I had it(briefly I might add) I'm not sure if that is user-upgradable on your MacBook air, or if it will support more than one stick(doubt it) but if it does, run two matching sticks to enable dual-channel mode.

Right on, same experience here. I don't use all 4GB even with a zillion browser windows open. I think my processor maxes out before 4GB ram does, and I have an i5.