Reality check - computers

Yes. I've got LR3 on my work PC as well as my home Mac. The disc will install on either, which is very nice!

rhommel wrote in post #13474333
so you can use the same license from PC to MAC? thanks!

I'm not sure but I doubt it. The license usually lets you put the software on multiple computers but different versions might be a stretch.

Ooops - spoke too soon!

mckinleypics wrote in post #13474340
I hear you. However, one of the things I'm kicking myself for is not going whole hog when I bought this iMac 4 years ago. Now the processor is outdated. I suppose going whole hog buys another year or two so it may be a horse apiece, so to speak. Here's the system I'm looking at:

27" iMac - 2549
3.4 GHz Quad Cor Intel i7
8G ram
2TB serial ATA hard drive
AMD Radeon 1Gb graphics card

There is also a Wacom Bamboo Capture Graphics Tablet (100) I could skip, the applecare protection plan (169) I could skip but admittedly use a lot, and a printer for (100) that I don't need but comes with a 100 rebate so it is free.

I know what you mean. I personally wouldn't buy the ram from Apple, and I would just use the 1TB hard drive and get a Firewire external drive. I have 3 of the 2TB flavor. Applecare is good. That's what got me my free upgrade when they couldn't fix my 24" model!

Before you go that far, you might try backing up all your stuff, and doing a complete wipe and reinstall of Snow Leopard or Lion. Make sure to uninstall/un-register Photoshop so you can re-use the license.

I did this on my old (2006) Macbook Pro and it ran SO MUCH BETTER after a fresh install of the OS... just getting rid of five years' worth of clutter and incremental updates.

People say that you don't need to do this on a Mac. From my personal experience, yes you do.

mckinleypics wrote in post #13473641
I did this already. Unfortunately, I did it wrong so now I have 2g on one slot and 4 on the other. This error was pointed out to me on the phone with the apple sales lady. She said I could drop it down to 2 and 2 and it would be a bit faster but my 667 Mhz DDR2 processor is the weak link. She said that it is the minimum required to run Aperture.

Every brush stroke I make takes a few seconds to show up. You can imagine how long PP takes at this rate.

Dave, have you ever tried running Lightroom on your imac to test the performance (not trying to convince you to switch software, I swear!!)? I used to use Aperture and it bogged down my computer just as you described. Ever since I made the switch to Lightroom, I have no performance issues at all - I can quickly skim through my entire library and edit photos without any lag.

I'm running a mid 2007 white macbook: 2.16 dual core intel, 2+2GB RAM (although I think it maxes out at ~3GB).

This might be a cheaper route to take, we can enjoy outdated technology together

I have about a 4 year old macbook pro (external monitor), it is maxed out on everything and I put in a SSD. lately it gets bogged down just typing text from time to time. There is a short delay. I looked at my activity monitor and it looks like there are 100 things running. Is that normal? Not sure how many are idle but from me there are only about 10.

I repair disk permissions regularly. I have seen this Mac Cleaner advertises but I don't anything about it. Any suggestions? By the way DPP is the worst for choking the system. But it is odd because many times it is fine and then it cats up.

Any suggestions besides a new machine?

digital paradise wrote in post #13474636
I have about a 4 year old macbook pro (external monitor), it is maxed out on everything and I put in a SSD. lately it gets bogged down just typing text from time to time. There is a short delay. I looked at my activity monitor and it looks like there are 100 things running. Is that normal? Not sure how many are idle but from me there are only about 10.

I repair disk permissions regularly. I have seen this Mac Cleaner advertises but I don't anything about it. Any suggestions? By the way DPP is the worst for choking the system. But it is odd because many times it is fine and then it cats up.

Any suggestions besides a new machine?

DON'T DO MAC CLEANER!!!! It is Malware - one of the few that have been developed for mac.

m-industry wrote in post #13474455
Dave, have you ever tried running Lightroom on your imac to test the performance (not trying to convince you to switch software, I swear!!)? I used to use Aperture and it bogged down my computer just as you described. Ever since I made the switch to Lightroom, I have no performance issues at all - I can quickly skim through my entire library and edit photos without any lag.

I'm running a mid 2007 white macbook: 2.16 dual core intel, 2+2GB RAM (although I think it maxes out at ~3GB).

This might be a cheaper route to take, we can enjoy outdated technology together

I have not tried LR. Maybe I should try that first? I'm running a 2.8 Ghz dual core intel. Perhaps cleaning and LR are worth a shot...

You can do a LR trial for free.

digital paradise wrote in post #13474636
I have about a 4 year old macbook pro (external monitor), it is maxed out on everything and I put in a SSD. lately it gets bogged down just typing text from time to time. There is a short delay. I looked at my activity monitor and it looks like there are 100 things running. Is that normal? Not sure how many are idle but from me there are only about 10.

I repair disk permissions regularly. I have seen this Mac Cleaner advertises but I don't anything about it. Any suggestions? By the way DPP is the worst for choking the system. But it is odd because many times it is fine and then it cats up.

Any suggestions besides a new machine?

This is normal, if you're talking about "loaded" items, like Dock and event helpers. There are many background items that don't take much, if any, system resources at all, but are listed in the Activity Monitor, even with % cpu activity. Hence the need for lots of RAM these days. You should be sure to disable crap like dashboard apps.

Disk permissions don't do anything for this. I know nothing of Mac Cleaner, but I use MacKeeper which has some nice features. I bought one copy for my desktop, then a week later was so impressed, I bought another for my laptop. Can't say it made anything run faster. I also run Drive Genius and it's real time monitoring and use it often to rebuild directories.

The delay issues you mention are probably memory related, not processor, and if your directory is clean, not the hard drive. If your SSD is a hybrid, they apparently don't well on Macs.

mckinleypics wrote in post #13474883
DON'T DO MAC CLEANER!!!! It is Malware - one of the few that have been developed for mac.

Thanks. I was not comfortable with it. Seemed wishy washy. I just spoke to one of the reps at My Mac Dealer and my activity monitor is showing most of the the open items are on 0 for usage. He said he'd take a quick look at it tomorrow.

I converte an 30D file and it was like greased lighting. I guess it is all these megapickles in the new cameras - 7D and 5D2. Probably an upgrade is pending.

mckinleypics wrote in post #13473641
I did this already. Unfortunately, I did it wrong so now I have 2g on one slot and 4 on the other. This error was pointed out to me on the phone with the apple sales lady. She said I could drop it down to 2 and 2 and it would be a bit faster but my 2.8 g dual core processor is the weak link. She said that it is the minimum required to run Aperture.

Every brush stroke I make takes a few seconds to show up. You can imagine how long PP takes at this rate.

2 and 2 would not be faster than 2 and 4. Anything over 4GB would get swapped to the hard drive, which is a thousand times slower than RAM. Compare that to the 3% speed gain using dual channel memory and you can see why dual/triple/quad channel means nothing for most applications.

mckinleypics wrote in post #13474340
I hear you. However, one of the things I'm kicking myself for is not going whole hog when I bought this iMac 4 years ago. Now the processor is outdated.

All of the processors from four years ago are outdated. Buying a top-of-the-line processor for "future-proofing" is false logic.

toxic is right on everything that i know to be. also mckinleypics in that you don't need the top processor. and true that putting in your own RAM and hd are the way to go (see OWC at macsales.com).

Perhaps your hd is jammed, or deeply fragmented. That can slow down photoshops scratch disc use and cache files. Try using an external drive for both, and clean house if appropriate. Of course the Apple sales people are processor crazed.

I use a 2T LaCie for my photo library. I think cleaning is in order but I'm going forward with the new iMac nonetheless. My kids are getting old enough where they need access for school and a second one would be beneficial anyway.