can my iMac 2.8 i5 be this slow

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I have just replaced my old 4 year old iMac with a new 27' 2.8 Ghz i5

I dont find this iMac much faster than my old one, in fact in some respects it seems slower, The hard drive seems to be constantly crunching away, and Activity Monitor reveals that a resource hungry programs like iMovie and iTunes are often not responding for periods of time.

The Kernal_task is using about 10% of the cpu and about 140 meg of real memory, Is this correct

are there any programs I can download to test the iMac, I have returned it to the dealer who reset the pram what ever that is.

I have also deleted windows 7 on the bootcamp as I have read this can slow the iMac down.

I cant believe that I see no speed improvement with an iMac what is 4 years younger.

Any ideas how to find a potential fault.

Regards

Antony
 

pigoo3

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It's really hard to say what the deal is. What I mean...maybe your computer is having issues or maybe it's not.

You didn't tell us the specs on your old iMac...but let's say I assume that it was a 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo iMac...which depending on your computing tasks still could/would be a good computer.

What I'm trying to say is...it really depends on what you do on your computer. If you compare a 4 year-old Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz iMac to a 2010 27" i5 2.8ghz iMac...and if all you're doing is surfing the internet & checking e-mail...then you may not be pushing your new computer enough to see the performance difference.

For example if you were doing some heavy duty photo or video editing...or playing some demanding games...then you would clearly see a difference between the two computers. But internet surfing & e-mail are not "super demanding" tasks to challenge the new computer.

Of course I'm only guessing with the limited information given.:)

- Nick
 
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my old mac as a 24' 2.16 gig duel core, with 2 gig ram.

I understand what you mean re surfing the net, and other low demanding tacks, however I notice no speed increase with video or photo editing. I am using the some products on both ie iPhoto and iMovie.

I dont have games so I cant comment there.

Any advise!!

Thanks
 

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my old mac as a 24' 2.16 gig duel core, with 2 gig ram.

I understand what you mean re surfing the net, and other low demanding tacks, however I notice no speed increase with video or photo editing. I am using the some products on both ie iPhoto and iMovie.

I dont have games so I cant comment there.

Any advise!!

Thanks

Kind of hard what to say. That 2.8ghz 27" i5 iMac should be a real screamer...compared to your old Mac.

My first thought is...why did you buy this new iMac?...what couldn't you do on your old iMac that you needed a new iMac?

Second thought. Search the internet for a benchmarking program...like X-bench, Geekbench, or Cinebench:

Xbench: Comprehensive Macintosh Benchmarking
Geekbench - Primate Labs
MAXON: CINEBENCH 11.5

Run the benching program(s)...and then find results for other Macintosh computers similar to yours to see how the numbers compare. Check MacWorld review articles as well for comparisons.

If the benchmarking numbers compare favorably...then your iMac is fine.:)

- Nick
 
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I bought this iMac as I needed to have one at home and at the office. (I have thrown out my old office pc good riddance)

pigoo3, thats great advise, I downloaded Xbench, if I understand the results correctly my iMac as being compared to a powermac G5 late 2004

My iMac is clearly faster in all areas except for the disk test. I am only going at 60% of the base line speed of a G5 - in all other areas I am averaging 300% faster.

Disk Test
iMac" imac 2.8 intel core i5
PowerMac G5 (June 2004)

Disk Test
60.79
100.00

Uncached Read
98.99
100.00
28.97 MB/sec [4K blocks]
28.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Random
38.01
100.00

Uncached Write
11.65
100.00
1.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
11.13 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Can you explain to me what the above means, logic tells me that if my new hdd is slower than one that is over 6 years old there is a problem with the hard drive.
See my first post I said the hard drive seems to always be crunching away, its a lot louder than my old iMac.

is this the problem?
 
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pigoo3 can you recommend a program I can download to test the HDD

Thanks
 

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pigoo3, thats great advise, I downloaded Xbench, if I understand the results correctly my iMac as being compared to a powermac G5 late 2004.

Are you saying that your iMac's scores are similar to a 6-7 year-old Powermac G5?...if so that doesn't sound good.

See my first post I said the hard drive seems to always be crunching away, its a lot louder than my old iMac.

is this the problem?

Different hard drives make different "noises"...and the computers housing may enhance or muffle the hard drives normal sounds...so it's sort of hard to say if what you're hearing is "normal" or abnormal"...without actually hearing it.

Here's another link (below) that may help out with your iMac's performance & benchmarking info. The benchmarks were made using "Geekbench"...so compare your iMacs results against the same computer in the list:

Mac Benchmarks

As you can see...a 27" iMac i5 with a 2.8ghz cpu (4 cores) should be scoring 6735 with Geekbench....a Powermac G5 from 2004 scores only 2000-2200 (much slower than the 6735 your iMac should be scoring).

Hopefully this will straighten things out. :)

If your iMac is scoring significantly slower than it should...then maybe it's time to consider taking this iMac to the nearest Apple Store...and having them run some sort of diagnostic test...since I'm sure it's still covered under Applecare.

- Nick
 
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chas_m

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I think you have a bad hard drive. You can test this pretty easily by buying an external hard drive (which you should have anyway!), clone the boot drive and then boot from the external.

Pigoo is right -- this doesn't sound proper and there is likely something not right going on.
 
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pigoo3 the Xbench test shows that my imac is faster than the G5 in all respects except for the Disk Test,

Geekbench 2 only measures processor and memory performance, I need something that measures hard drive performance. I score 6825 with Geekbench.

I am still under guarantee.

Chas_m I have time capsule for backing up, but how do you clone a disk and then boot up on the external. surely if the external is connected via usb or fire wire it will naturally be slower.
 

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pigoo3 the Xbench test shows that my imac is faster than the G5 in all respects except for the Disk Test,

Geekbench 2 only measures processor and memory performance, I need something that measures hard drive performance. I score 6825 with Geekbench.

Yes I realize this. The point is if your CPU is scoring properly...then the logic board/cpu is doing fine. Having a bad logic board or CPU is MUCH MUCH worse than having a bad hard drive. A new hard drive for a desktop computer is about $40-$50 bucks...a new logic board is around $500 or more!

Since your computer scored 6825 on Geekbench...it sounds like the logic board & cpu are working fine...thus it sounds more & more like you have a bad hard drive. Don't concern yourself with testing the hard drive...just take the darn computer back to Apple...have them test it...and hopefully they will verify that it's the hard drive and replace it (that's what the Applecare is for)!:)

HTH,

- Nick

p.s. Here is a Macintosh hard drive benchmarking program (Quickbench):

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32012/quickbench

I have not used it...so I'm not sure how good it is. But the numbers will be meaningless if you don't have some comparison numbers to compare against. Remember...traditional hard drive technology DOES NOT improve at the same pace as cpu speeds in computers. In fact...traditional hard drive technology from year to year sometimes improves very little. So don't necessarily expect a hard drive in a new 27" i5 2.8ghz iMac to perform significantly better than your 4 year-old iMac.
 
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pigoo3, I live in South Africa, we only have what is called apple resellers here - no apple stores like yours and no applecare. We do get a one year warranty but this is from the reseller and not apple. They are usually pretty good but no ways near the customer care that you get in the USA, for this reason I try sort it out myself. Your help has been invaluable.
 

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pigoo3, I live in South Africa, we only have what is called apple resellers here - no apple stores like yours and no applecare. We do get a one year warranty but this is from the reseller and not apple. They are usually pretty good but no ways near the customer care that you get in the USA, for this reason I try sort it out myself. Your help has been invaluable.

Sorry about that...I didn't realize your location or situation (you should have mentioned that earlier).;)

I TOTALLY understand your situation...needing to be mostly "self-reliant" when it comes to Apple computer questions/issues. I've been a Macintosh computer user since 1985...and until the Apple Stores started popping up in 2001...myself & other Mac-Users had to do pretty much what you're doing...which was figuring out things on our own (remember this was long before the internet as well)!;)

So I hope that the info you've gotten in this thread so far has been helpful. I think that the cpu benchmark scores you got with Geekbench (6825) compares very favorably with what it should be...so your logic board & cpu should be fine.

Then there's the hard drive. Like I mentioned earlier...hard drive performance increases don't improve nearly as quickly as cpu or graphics performance in computers. Sometimes hard drive performance doesn't improve much at all from year to year...as long as we are comparing similar hard drive technologies (5400rpm, same cache sizes, spinning disks, etc.).

You can try running "Quickbench" to benchmark your hard drive...or any of the other benchmarking programs I linked above (if they are able to benchmark a hard drive)...the difficulty might be if you don't have any "reference" results from other computers to compare your values against for comparison.

If you still feel that your hard drive is the problem...and factoring in that you're in South Africa with no real Apple support nearby...you can try two things:

1. You could replace your internal hard drive (hopefully you are able to purchase a new hard drive fairly easily). It is sort of an involved process to replace the internal hard drive in a 27" iMac...so it may not be something you would be comfortable doing (you can check You Tube for DIY video's)...or check iFixit: The free repair manual for written DIY instructions.

It is possible that doing this could void your Applecare warranty (but then you said you don't have Applecare)...but then again...it doesn't sound like you have much Apple support locally anyway. After I checked the Apple Store Worldwide list...there aren't even any Apple Stores at all in Africa!...(maybe you have to ship your computer to Apple in another country to get true Apple support. Or maybe all you have are those local Apple resellers.

2. Second idea. You could purchase an external hard drive...install the Mac OS on the external hard drive...and boot the computer from this external hard drive. You could then see if your computer is faster when booted from the external drive...and you could re-run the benchmarking programs on the external vs. the internal to see if there is a major difference.

IF...you find that the external drive is MUCH faster than the internal drive (assuming both drives are similar technologies)...then that would probably confirm that the internal drive is "bad"...and then this would give you greater confidence that the internal drive needs to be replaced.

Getting the external drive wouldn't be a bad idea anyway...since once the internal drive problem is sorted out...then you could use the external drive as a backup drive using "Time Machine".

Good luck...please keep us updated on how things progress!:)

- Nick
 
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Thanks for all the ideas,

Re: quickbench I was unable to find the download link, am I going blind where is it on the page? please advise.

It will actually be very easy to benchmark, as I will simply compare with my old office iMac - that is assuming you can find out how to download quickbench.

I am an engineer and have no problems taking apart an iMac, I did it to my old mac to put in a bigger HDD. However we do have a "guarantee" from the re seller and any such work voids the warrantee. Thats why I like the adea of the external drive.

how do I connect up the external drive, is it via usb or firewire.
 

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Thanks for all the ideas,

Re: quickbench I was unable to find the download link, am I going blind where is it on the page? please advise.

Sorry...I guess I thought 'Quickbench" was a free download...or had something like a free 30-day trial period. Looks like (via this link):

Intech Software Corporation : SpeedTools Test Suite

...it costs $14.95 for the three program test suite (including Quickbench). Maybe it's worth the $14.95 for peace of mind. Otherwise...try an internet search using "Macintosh hard drive benchmarking"...and hopefully the search will come up with something free.:)

It will actually be very easy to benchmark, as I will simply compare with my old office iMac...

Yes that would make it very easy! At the beginning of this thread it sounded like you had sold your old iMac (or no longer had it)...but since you still have both...that would make a benchmark comparison VERY easy.

I am an engineer and have no problems taking apart an iMac, I did it to my old mac to put in a bigger HDD. However we do have a "guarantee" from the re seller and any such work voids the warrantee. Thats why I like the adea of the external drive.

Great!:) Folks that post here on Mac-Forums span the spectrum of abilities when it comes to working on the inside of a computer (most honestly are very fearful of doing it)...especially on an expensive new computer such as yours. But great that you're willing & able if necessary!

how do I connect up the external drive, is it via usb or firewire.

Either way. USB is more common & less expensive...but firewire is probably faster. Which does bring up a VERY important point. Both the firewire & USB interfaces are probably slower than the internal hard drive interface...so this method may not produce the best results. But...if the internal hard drive scores slower than the external hard drive (USB or Firewire)...then that's a CLEAR & DEFINITE indication that the internal hard drive is bad or going bad.

But again...make sure you're comparing "Apples to Apples". If your internal HD is a 7200 rpm drive...then the external needs to be 7200rpm as well.

Hopefully this helps & makes sense,:)

- Nick
 
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It all makes sense, Engineers have a horrible habit of fiddling with with everything, sometimes we even manage to fix things. I have no fear to take it apart and replace the HDD, youtube and fixit makes it so easy.

Thanks for your systematic and logical approach.

Antony
 
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chas_m

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Either way. USB is more common & less expensive...but firewire is probably faster.

There's no "probably" about it. FW800 is several TIMES faster than USB2, and even FW400 beats USB2 routinely.

The OP wants a Firewire drive if that is at all obtainable.
 

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