Painfully Slow 2019 iMac
Problem: Beachballing
Description: Beachballing is the main thing
iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.0
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Technically there is nothing wrong with the computer, what is wrong though is you purchased the wrong computer for your needs and bought it based on its price instead. Your computer was designed for only surfing the net and doing e-mail and not much else. However, you have professional grade applications on it which overtax its capabilities. The 2 major bottlenecks are it has 8GB of RAM which is considered the bare minimum to run Mac OS. This is evidenced by only having 17 MB of available RAM which is almost nothing. Next, your machine is bottlenecked by only having a 5400 RPM HD. Technically you can have the RAM upgraded to 16 GB or more however that requires a 100% disassembly of the computer if you can find anyone to do it. The HD should be bypassed altogether though, you can do this by buying an external SSD such as https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-ex-thunderbolt-3 and then using a cloning app such as SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal HD to the new SSD. Then you can use the internal HD for additional storage. This is the ONLY thing that will make much of a difference on your computer.
As I see it you have 3 options available.
- Replace the computer and this time buy a 21.5" with a bare minimum of 16 GB of RAM (32GB is better) and the largest SSD you can possibly afford.
- Keep the existing machine the way it is.
- Spend some money and buy an external SSD and use that as described above.
Sorry to sound critical but the advice provided is what I would recommend.
