030 - Mo Mem’ry Mo Mem’ry
A few years ago I purchased enough memory to max out my iMac thinking it would be more efficient.
It didn’t help - it still acted old ‘n’ slow. In fact I’m unclear how adding all that extra memory helped in any way.
Well at least it inspired a Tuna Day.
Both PC and Apple computers (all kinds, actually) have a flaw. They don't wear out.
The designers of their Operating Systems have done their job to make a new computer act old within five-ish years. They have to do this by stealth, or it ends up in the news.
I'm a PC user, and there are a number of things the computer shouldn't bother loading into RAM memory (the kind you maxxed out). Windows loads a list of all TrueType fonts, or whatever the current name is. Whenever a program uses a supportive routine, that gets copied and loaded into a Pre-Fetch area. That means before you begin using Safari, its sub-processes have been preloaded for you, Just In Case you should decide. While you might use Safari daily, I'm sure there are other programs you use rarely, and they are prefetched as well.
Finally, you may have some archive directories, which have thousands of files. Again, the computer at some point will read that entire list into memory, and keep it there. Just in case you need it for something.
So be careful, and archive all but last year's files into a folder inside the one you use. For example, all of my images are in a directory called JPG, and within that, is another folder called JPG-2024 (and other years too). When moving files, use care, and only handle perhaps sixty at a time. Moving files can be a nightmare if you lose or corrupt something en route.
Once you've moved the files, and emptied the temporary folders, restart your system. It won't be like new, but it should last until about this time next year.