Need help to configure my mac...

Question

Hi, guys! So my Mac finally arrived yesterday and now I´m officially a happy mac user!
However, as a new one, I need some help getting around... So I have 2 questions:
1) is there any special configuration I should use to make it faster? Let me explain myself better: before I bought my macbook, I tried one out at my local store (an i5, 320 HDD, 4Gb RAM) and it was so fast it impressed me! Iphoto, for instance, would launch faster than I could blink, it was incredibily fast. Mty macbook, however, is not that fast (even though it´s an i7...). Iphoto will take about 6-8 seconds to launch in my own computer (and pictures are not even there yet!), which is a serious delay compared to what I´ve seen at store, so I wonder if that´s a misconfiguration issue, something I´m doing wrong... By the way, all the software installed in the machine is up-to-date.
2) my screen is high resolution and pictures/images look great on it, but the fonts seem to be too small. I have looked around but couldn´t find an option to keep the maximum video resolution while making fonts a little bigger at the same time. Is there a way to do that like there is in windows?
Ok, so thank you for reading, I really appreciate any help I can get!
Cheers,
Renata

Answer 1

1) is there any special configuration I should use to make it faster? Let me explain myself better: before I bought my macbook, I tried one out at my local store (an i5, 320 HDD, 4Gb RAM) and it was so fast it impressed me! Iphoto, for instance, would launch faster than I could blink, it was incredibily fast. Mty macbook, however, is not that fast (even though it´s an i7...). Iphoto will take about 6-8 seconds to launch in my own computer (and pictures are not even there yet!), which is a serious delay compared to what I´ve seen at store, so I wonder if that´s a misconfiguration issue, something I´m doing wrong... By the way, all the software installed in the machine is up-to-date.
Number one, do not buy cache cleaning software. This will actually slow your system down.
Number two, keep at least two copies of your data at all times*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Once you are happy with your backup, leave your machine on overnight. This runs scripts you can also run with tools such as Macjanitor or Anacron manually.
Occassionally you might want to check your directory status*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
Don't let your system get too full*:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
Run the hardware test that came with your system while it is still under warranty.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Buy AppleCare in the first year, so you have warranty for three years from date of computer's purchase.
Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Displays lets you change the screen resolution an color tone of your machine for better legibility.
Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Universal Access has a magnification feature if it is still is illegible.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody