iMac or MBP 2011 + monitor?

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Level 1

8 points

iMac or MBP 2011 + monitor?

I have MBP early 2011 (IIRC) with 2.3GHz and 8GB memory, running OS X 10.7.5. I mainly use it for browsing and photo editing using Lightroom.

I notice if I open 1 browser with 2 tabs of video streaming and Lightroom, the free memory will deplete until only 1GB or less available. It makes scrolling very lady and Lightroom also very laggy. There are 50GB free space on the 500GB hard disk.

I am thinking to get a bigger monitor (e.g 21", thinking of Dell UltraSharp) for photo editing but considering the slow performance, I'm not sure whether to get an external monitor or stretch hard the budget to get an iMac, considering the performance of the MBP. I heard attaching another monitor may also slowing down the performance. The MBP is still running perfectly well unless for the memory issue. I'm not really familiar with how Lightroom or Mac works to do some cleaning up in boosting the performance, furthermore there could be some resolution issue when attaching to displays other than Thunderbolt display. I'm not considering Thunderbolt Display as it's just few hundreds difference with the lowest spec iMac. I heard changing to SSD will also help but I doubt it will resolve the memory usage issue.

Kindly advise what could be the best options for my case.. thank you so much!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on May 2, 2015 7:59 PM

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Answer 1

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

May 3, 2015 12:10 AM in response to Moccy

No way your MBP should be so slow. Download EntreCheck, run it and post the results back here:

Etrecheck

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

"I heard changing to SSD will also help:

Well here's my early 2011 13" MBP w/ 8 GB RAM and and a 120 GB SSD all from OWC:

Startup:

http://tinyurl.com/ooe6sac

Photoshop CS 6 open job:

http://tinyurl.com/nsussol

"but I doubt it will resolve the memory usage issue."

Yup we should address that issue first.

OWC:

https://www.macsales.com/

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Answer 2

Moccy Author

Level 1

8 points

May 6, 2015 7:07 AM in response to spudnuty

Thank you! Here is the result from Etrecheck.

Definitely mine does not start that fast!

Even now, I have 5 tabs on Safari with 1 tab for video streaming and 1 tab for Facebook, typing on FB is very laggy. There's LR and VLC open at the same time.

Problem description:

Macbook is running slow when Lightroom and web browser with video streaming are open. Memory is depleting.

EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)

Report generated 5/6/15 9:53 PM

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Technical Specifications)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 251 - SN = W01315B9ED3BA

Video Information: ℹ️

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63b) - Time since boot: 10 days 1:34:37

Disk Information: ℹ️

Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 disk0 : (320.07 GB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 319.21 GB (52.99 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H

USB Information: ℹ️

BUFFALO HD-PNTU3 1 TB

HD-PNTU3 (disk2s1) /Volumes/HD-PNTU3 : 1.00 TB (560.99 GB free)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple, Inc. MacBook Pro

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Applications/Kies.app

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungACMControl (1.4.14 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungACMData (1.4.14 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungComposite (1.4.14 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungMTP (1.4.14 - SDK 10.5) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungSerial (1.4.14 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

/Library/Parallels/Parallels Service.app

[loaded] com.parallels.kext.prl_netbridge (7.0 14920.689535) [Click for support]

[loaded] com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic (7.0 14920.689535) [Click for support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.parallels.kext.prl_hid_hook (7.0 14920.689535) [Click for support]

[loaded] com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor (7.0 14920.689535) [Click for support]

[loaded] com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect (7.0 14920.689535) [Click for support]

Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.parallels.desktop.launch.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist [Click for support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[running] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon.plist [Click for support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Application Hidden (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

uTorrent Application (/Applications/uTorrent.app)

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

KiesAgent Application Hidden (/Applications/Kies.app/Contents/MacOS/KiesAgent.app)

fuspredownloader Application Hidden (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application Support/.FUS/fuspredownloader.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.04 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.04 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 25 Check version

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Click for support]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

Growl [Click for support]

Java [Click for support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

75% PluginProcess

50% WebProcess

6% coreaudiod

4% VLC

4% fontd

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

1.22 GB Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

909 MB WebProcess

319 MB PluginProcess

221 MB Safari

156 MB VLC

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

1.62 GB Free RAM

6.38 GB Used RAM

0 B Swap Used

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