How do you monitor your system usage?

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How do you monitor your system usage? By this I mean how much CPU and memory is being consumed by your system.

Im after a simple lightweight application that will do this and display the CPU & memory in an easy read/understand format such as percentage.

I have iStatPro widget but the problem with widget is that its not always on show unless I have dashboard open.

I have geektool, but im not sure what command to use to produce a simple output of just the CPU and mem %. I used a command before but it dident seem to update very fast.

What do you suggest? thanks :)
 

cwa107


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I use iStat menus, but the standard Activity Monitor is pretty lightweight too. If you minimize it to the dock, its dock icon will even give you CPU usage gauges.
 
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I second iStat Menu's. Great program!
 
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I'm a menumeters fan here it allows several different ways to view your usage bar graph, pie chart, or just a percentage. I have been using it since panther. Great application totally customizeable. Also can display disk space and memory. I just do memory and CPU.
20080819-fjw5f25ebyekeqh6sh94ay17ff.jpg
 

cwa107


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I'm a menumeters fan here it allows several different ways to view your usage bar graph, pie chart, or just a percentage. I have been using it since panther. Great application totally customizeable. Also can display disk space and memory. I just do memory and CPU.
20080819-fjw5f25ebyekeqh6sh94ay17ff.jpg

I used Menumeters for awhile, but found that iStat menus has nicer looking icons and a lot more options. Definitely something to try out if you haven't already done so.
 
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I'll have to give it a whirl.
 
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OK OK iStat menu has better more informative dropdowns. And I got it to look almost exactly the same in the menubar. Which is how I prefer it.
 
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OK OK iStat menu has better more informative dropdowns. And I got it to look almost exactly the same in the menubar. Which is how I prefer it.

;D

iStat Menu is da bomb!
 
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Another vote for iStat Menus :)
 
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I use iStat Menues. I've customized it to show me how much HD space I'm using and how much is free with used in red numbers and free in green.

I'm also monitoring CPU usage because I've had some issues with logging taking up 98% CPU... but other than that I don't bother monitoring RAM, Net or anything else.
 
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Thanks so much guys ive been looking how to get my activity monitor in my menu bar and this is what i was looking for!!!! love it;)
 

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