5 ms·

I know the subject is pretty much Apple's and oranges but i'm currently running: - Terminal with 2 tabs - firefox with 2 tabs - chrome with about 9 - gaim and

by zemanel 16y ago

I know the subject is pretty much Apple's and oranges but i'm currently running: - Terminal with 2 tabs - firefox with 2 tabs - chrome with about 9 - gaim and skype - iTunes streaming soma.fm - Netbeans with an opened project - jEdit - Colloquy - Postgres instance and as soon as i booted Windows XP in VMware, well, took me a while to be able to reply to this post (after the vm settled). I also that you might be saying "d'oh" but i've had Gentoo running on this metal and a "similar" environment AND compiling stuff with -j4 doesn't freeze away my UI. My user experience with "OSX" is that it's, way more prone to unresponsiveness due to load, but hey, who cares :P clicks Time Machine

rufo 16y ago
Your typical workload sounds almost exactly the same to mine - right down to VMware temporarily killing OS X performance. Not that Anonymous Guy On HN is worth much, but get an SSD - it'll be the best upgrade you've ever purchased. (Or maybe I just needed to sidegrade to Linux. :)
- gte910h 16y ago
  Do you have a suggestion on a good and large SSD? And what did you install it into?
  - rufo 16y ago
    The Intel SSDs are good; they top out at 160GB and they're not as fast as some of the newer drives - but their track record is nearly flawless. It's what I have, but I ordered one the minute it was posted on Newegg last year. Some of the newer Sandforce-based drives are supposed to be good, though you'll want to pick one from a reliable manufacturer and with a stable firmware. If you have a Mac, OWC[1] is a good choice, as I believe they have firmware that garbage-collects HFS+, which helps to keep the SSD as fast as possible. I also think OCZ is good, but check reviews to make sure people aren't having too many problems. You can also get a brackets that replaces your optical drive, and allows you to fit a 2.5" HDD. I have one in my 17" non-unibody MBP, and it's really the best of both worlds - I keep OS X, my working files and apps on the SSD, along with my main Windows XP web testing VM. My iTunes library, media, and games stay on the HDD, along with a Boot Camped copy of Windows 7 (though it's a pain to get the installer to run without an internal optical drive). I keep a cheap Samsung bus-powered DVD burner in my bag, but in reality I rarely need it. I think OWC sells a bracket for Macs, but if you can figure out exactly which bracket you need, a site called newmodeus.com sells them for almost every laptop ever made for considerably less. I really do believe my SSD is the best upgrade I've ever spent money on; no computer I use from now on will be without one. It's not so much that the computer is faster; it's more the feeling that the computer does not grind to a halt or slow down, no matter what's going on. (I may have compared my computer to the Terminator amongst friends once or twice… it just doesn't slow down.) 1: macsales.com
jackolas 16y ago
Chrome doesn't behave with limited cpu/ram. It likes to "burst". I generally close it when doing anything like gaming or VMing much.

by zemanel 16y ago

rufo 16y ago

Your typical workload sounds almost exactly the same to mine - right down to VMware temporarily killing OS X performance. Not that Anonymous Guy On HN is worth much, but get an SSD - it'll be the best upgrade you've ever purchased. (Or maybe I just needed to sidegrade to Linux. :)

gte910h 16y ago
Do you have a suggestion on a good and large SSD? And what did you install it into?
- rufo 16y ago
  The Intel SSDs are good; they top out at 160GB and they're not as fast as some of the newer drives - but their track record is nearly flawless. It's what I have, but I ordered one the minute it was posted on Newegg last year. Some of the newer Sandforce-based drives are supposed to be good, though you'll want to pick one from a reliable manufacturer and with a stable firmware. If you have a Mac, OWC[1] is a good choice, as I believe they have firmware that garbage-collects HFS+, which helps to keep the SSD as fast as possible. I also think OCZ is good, but check reviews to make sure people aren't having too many problems. You can also get a brackets that replaces your optical drive, and allows you to fit a 2.5" HDD. I have one in my 17" non-unibody MBP, and it's really the best of both worlds - I keep OS X, my working files and apps on the SSD, along with my main Windows XP web testing VM. My iTunes library, media, and games stay on the HDD, along with a Boot Camped copy of Windows 7 (though it's a pain to get the installer to run without an internal optical drive). I keep a cheap Samsung bus-powered DVD burner in my bag, but in reality I rarely need it. I think OWC sells a bracket for Macs, but if you can figure out exactly which bracket you need, a site called newmodeus.com sells them for almost every laptop ever made for considerably less. I really do believe my SSD is the best upgrade I've ever spent money on; no computer I use from now on will be without one. It's not so much that the computer is faster; it's more the feeling that the computer does not grind to a halt or slow down, no matter what's going on. (I may have compared my computer to the Terminator amongst friends once or twice… it just doesn't slow down.) 1: macsales.com

jackolas 16y ago

Chrome doesn't behave with limited cpu/ram. It likes to "burst". I generally close it when doing anything like gaming or VMing much.