What is the best way to clean up your mac and make it faster and run to an optimum level?

Hi Everyone, Hope all is well
Iv been running my mac pro for a long time now, its a Mac pro, 2x 2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon. 12 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 Ram
Over time now it has become slower, at the moment its still running fine but im sure over time it has probabally collected unwanted data etc. i just dont want it to become a problem as its only going to be used more and more... i now notice that some of the regular programs which i open do take a little while longer to open and i sometimes see that little round Mac loading the sign (the round multicolor wheel).., is there a way to clean the mac up? so that it can run more smoothly and just a better over all feel.,,, the machine is still running beautifully but its time i give it more care and revive it a little more..
What are the best ways to do this, i dont trust any of these non apple based products which claim they can clean ur Mac etc.
Any solutaion and advice that u guys can give would be great and i would be very thankful
Thanks in advance

For immediate speed improvements, upgrade to a Solid State Drive and upgrade your conventional hard drives to new ones, because the newer ones are faster at reading and writing than the ones from 5 years ago.
By Re-installing your OS onto a solid state drive, the system will boot much faster, and your programs will launch much faster.
I use a small SSD (only 60GB) which contains only OS X and all my apps. All of my personal files are on the large mechanical hard drive. If you still use the drive that shipped with the Mac, then it might be a good idea to replace it.
Depending on what kind of work you do, then additional RAM will help. Swapping CPUs should only be done if you are really in need of the improvements they would bring.
You appear to have the 2009 dual-CPU Mac Pro, which is the most challenging model to swap CPUs into.

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I'd gather by your "reset Safari" and "clean up" you mean by sites you rather not have your mom see.
Hidden Flash cookies are stored in "Macromedia" Folders on your computer, can delete using the free Easy Find first, but need to reinstall Flash again here
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OnyX run All the cleaning and maintenance steps followed by a reboot, followed by a Disk Utility erase free space.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/
CCleaner is in beta for OS X, can combine the cleaning and secure erase in the same steps if properly configured.
http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner
Every web site knows your apx location.
http://www.whatsmyip.org/more/
To be sure to have a clean machine, a
Restoring OS X - 10.6 "fresh install method"
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https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

What is the best software to clean up your mac?

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Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior. Versions 1.5.1 and later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or Lion and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
I would also recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
SyncTwoFolders
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.

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shiyer wrote:
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Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
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5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Boot From a Recovery HD:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
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3. Release the keys when the Utilities Menu appears.
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Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
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What is the best way to clean up your mac and make it faster and run to an optimum level?

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