These days it's all Intel. PowerPC (PPC) macs seem ages ago and for those who didn't join the Apple family until the iPhone came along, you might not even know what a PPC Mac is. This tip is for the people that do know PPC and even have and still use them.

The last PPC Mac was built in 2006, the Power Mac G5. Blazing fast but by now… old. And if it's old it must be slow and useless. It can't handle the latest OS, software is more and more demanding, what's the point of having a PPC Mac around? At the time of writing this tip i have 2 G4 XServe's and a G4 Mac mini that are still in use 24/7. Sure they are not able to run the latest OS or Adobe Suite but they are very useful to me. If you are a user that, for whatever reason, still use a PPC Mac then here are some tips to help you get the best out of your old workhorse.

1. Check these other Tips.
Fonts and Keep it Clean, These tips are useful for any Mac user.

2. Switch to cable.
If you use WiFi, consider switching it off and using ethernet cables instead. WiFi traffic requires encryption and decryption which all happens on the fly. It requires more CPU power than regular ethernet traffic. Switching from WiFi to cable might save you the few % processor power that you need to speed your Mac up.

3. Max it out.
RAM is just as important (if not more) as your processor. Put as much RAM in your Mac as possible, this will speed up applications and allows you to run longer without a restart. Also see if you can put a larger hard drive or additional hard drive in your Mac, you won't get far these days with a hard drive smaller than 250 GB. if you have multiple hard drives in your Mac, setting them up as a striped-RAID can slightly increase performance too.

4. Slim it.
Every application comes with numerous languages and binary code in it that you most likely don't need. Applications such as CleanMyMac, MacKeeper and Xslimmer allow you to strip your software from the stuff it doesn't need. This will make most apps start and run faster and smoother, it can also free up a lot of drive space.

5. Don't push it.
Of course you want to run the newest OS but you simply can't. For most G4 users 10.4 Tiger is the best OS, for G5 users it's 10.5 Leopard. Depending on your processor speed and RAM some Dual CPU G4 users can run 10.5 Leopard just fine. The same goes for your software, having the latest version available is nice but not always the best for your situation. Newer versions/releases almost always mean… higher system requirements. Newer is not always better, hold of the urge to upgrade your OS and all your software until you get yourself an Intel mac.

6. Restart.
When you get a chance, restart your Mac. This will free up all your RAM, clear the caches and gives you a fresh start. Once your Mac chews through all of your RAM it will start using your hard drive as temporary memory (swapping), this will impact your performance drastically. A restart every few hours or once a day depending on how intensively you use your Mac will keep it running smooth.

7. Prefer FireWire (FW) over USB.
It's not easy finding FW equipment these days but if you get a chance, take the FW drive over the USB one. USB traffic uses more CPU and is slower than FW. The numbers say that USB 2.0 is faster than FW 400 but on PPC Macs this is very rarely the case. FW has a higher sustained throughput and won't put strain on your processor. Ideally look for devices that offer multiple interfaces. Most external hard drives these days offer USB ánd FW connections. Don't dismiss devices that don't have a FW 400 connection on them, there are cables with FW 400 on one end and FW 800 on the other. This allows you to use the FW 800 device on a FW 400 port, it will just run at FW 400 speed. G3 and G4's only have a FW 400 port, G5's have both.

8. Replace the Brain.
G3 and G4 users can even choose to upgrade the processor all together for even more power. Sonnet offers CPU upgrade cards that can turn a Dual 1.25 GHz G4 into a Dual 1.8 GHz or 466 Mhz G4 into a 1.6GHz. Specially for the older (single CPU) PPC Macs these upgrades can offer an incredible speed boost. Those speeds will never be reached 100%, the logic board, system bus etc. were simply not built for those speeds at the time but you will definitely notice improvement.

At some point we all have to make the switch to Intel but it doesn't have to be anytime soon. Dual G4 and G5 Macs should be able to keep up for a few more years, Single Processor PPC Macs might struggle sooner (if not already). Enjoy it while it lasts and even if/when you make the switch.. your PPC can be used as a server, 'Apple TV' or backup Mac.