# MacBook Air Performance Tips



## zlinger (Aug 28, 2007)

As an owner of a MacBook Air (1.6/80HDD), I have to say that I have been completely satisfied so far after the first two months of use. It has helped me transition into a near paperless environment, and acts as the go-between the office PC, iPhone, and home Mac Mini.

It would have been nice to get the SSD version for better performance, but from a cost point it was too much. I may upgrade the drive later on once prices drop and capacities increase to 120GB SSD.

So with performance/efficiency in mind, here are a few tips that you can do to keep your MBA running at peak performance, control temperature, and maximize battery life. I would like to know of any other solutions that others may have.

1. CoolBook Controller - Underclocks processor and allows for frequency and voltage control. Temperature is much cooler, and the fans rarely throttle up. I have not seen any hit on performance, and it runs stable with improved battery life.

2. iDefrag - Mac disk defragmentation and optimization tool. Leopard is supposed to do this, but I have found it does not optimize very well. This app has increased disk access performance, and program apps startup is much faster now.

3. Productivity Apps - I use the following apps/approaches to make overall computing workflows efficient and hassle free. QuickSilver (application launcher, keyboard tasks), File Synchronization (by nemesys software, works great with remote air disks and syncing sparse disk bundles, files, etc.). And .Mac for syncing (got a free one-year membership to try).


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

I also have a MBA and I'm loving it too. No noticable performance hit. (Mostly using it for writing in Starbucks - not really intensive stuff). 

I'm gonna check out Coolbook controller. Thanks for the suggestion. How did you get a free year of .Mac to try out? I want .Mac, but find the cost prohibitive. 

I've been using my 30 day trial of SugarSync and I'm liking it so far.


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

CoolBook


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## An Old Soul (Apr 24, 2006)

Good tips- I'm using Coolbook on my MBA as well - awesome. Has made a noticable difference for sure.


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## Kestral (Mar 14, 2001)

If you want a free performance gain, you may want to re-install the Leopard OS, only this time don't install the extra fonts, languages and printer drivers. Not only do you save a lot of HD space, but without all that extra stuff the computer will run faster in general.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

fyrefly said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. How did you get a free year of .Mac to try out? I want .Mac, but find the cost prohibitive.


.Mac packages are routinely found on Ebay for substantially less than retail. SIG Electronics is another source, and Amazon (the good one in the US, not the sucky pale imitation that is Amazon.ca) discounts the .Mac package as well.


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## hayesk (Mar 5, 2000)

Kestral said:


> If you want a free performance gain, you may want to re-install the Leopard OS, only this time don't install the extra fonts, languages and printer drivers. Not only do you save a lot of HD space, but without all that extra stuff the computer will run faster in general.


That's not true unless you disk is really full (>90%). If you have plenty of room on your disk, extra stuff like languages and printer drivers do not matter.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

I can't get coolbook to install on either my MBA or my MBP. It keeps saying "coolbook driver not installed". ?? Dunno what's up.


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## zlinger (Aug 28, 2007)

fyrefly said:


> I can't get coolbook to install on either my MBA or my MBP. It keeps saying "coolbook driver not installed". ?? Dunno what's up.


I had the same issue occur. Can't remember what I did to get it to work. You could try emailing the developer. I emailed a couple of questions and got a response.


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