Any Recommended Tweeks for OS9.2?, Performance Tips Options

Hello.

I am a relative newbie to Macs and the depths of it's OS's. I had just finally got me a G4 1Ghz Dualie w/1.5GB ram, a few months back, and its performance is not too bad,,, I must confess I was expecting something a bit more spectacular. Perhaps, this is simply due to the simple fact that I have no clue yet how to optimize my machines performance. Can you suggest any real good, tried and tested tweeks to help improve overall system performances and stuff for us neophite or even intermediate Mac musicians?

One example of a concern: When I try to load an Instrument or even a sound in Reason 1.0.1, it seems to hang for a while, takes quite a bit longer for the Reason module to load and finally appear (approx 8-12 sec!!!) on my G4 as it would on my lil P3 500Mhz peecee beastie (within 1-3 sec). Why is this? There has got to be a tweek for this, I even tried boosting reasons memory to almost twice the required amount

Another issue I am having is Macs retartedly SLOW browsers, any good suggestions for a nice quick browser? or any tweeks to speed up a relatively slow browser like,,, oh, lets say: IE ,or what have you?

Oh, and how the heck do we best defrag our drives??? My mantra used to be 'Defrag Daily' until I got a Mac.

Thanks for any help. Cheers!

What an amazing response!!! ) Thanks a million for your time put in to sharing these great suggestions!

I can't wait to start on this... most of it makes perfect sence, I just needed to be sure of knowing the 'whats' and 'how to's' of this all on a Mac system. I'm all over these suggestions and I'll let you know how it's progressing. Thanks again!!!!!

Please, keep these ideas rolling. This topic can get pretty interesting I bet. I'm all ears (well, all eyes that is), and I know that there are a bunch of you fellow propellerheads(computer whiz's) out there with finely tuned music/video making Mac machines who can shed even more light on this topic.



Now, about partitioning, as it stands right now I have a single 80GB Ultra ATA drive partitioned equally into 2, one for OS 9 and the other for OS X. would it be advisable then, to back up my 'keeper' files (onto DVD, I suppose for now?) and wipe clean (format) my entire drive, then repartition into 3 sections? Lets say I divide my 80G's into:

- 10 to 15Gs for OS 9.2(or 9.4) + appllications,
- 10 to 15Gs for OS X + applications,
- then the remaining 50 to 60Gs for storing and acessing my song files, samples, Mp3's, porn ect...

Does this sound reasonable? Would I need to backup and wipe clean my drive to do this?

Suggestions?