Performance with 15,000 pix/60Gig

Question

We have a circa 2006 iMac, 2GHz Core Duo with 1.5 Gig of memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM).
We are still on OS X 10.4.11, with iPhoto 8.
We just passed the 15,000 photo mark, and the performance continues to slow. This is understandable. I write to see if there are recommendations for improving performance, beyond increasing to 2Gb of RAM.
Q1) Would I see any real, lasting, performance improvement with 2Gb RAM?
Q2) Might some other options, like moving the iPhoto folder to an external drive (our ~240Gb iMac drive still has ~ 37 Gig free) improve performance?
Q3) Are there any other recommendations for improving performance?
Q4) How does our photo library really compare to most users? I suspect with the growing use of digital cameras that it's still "big", but not among the biggest.
Thanks,
Michael
St. Louis, MO

Answer 1

Michael:
Two things that will help speed up iPhoto are memory and free space on the boot drive. Max out the memory if you can afford it and keep a minimum of 15GB free on the boot drive, 20-25 GB if you use iDVD.
Next keep all events closed in the Photos mode. Make sure you have View->Event Names selected and close all events before quitting. You can do that by Control clicking on any event triangle and that will open or close all events.
Turn off sharing, set MobileMe preferences to check manually for new photos, no border or drop shadow in the Appearance pref pane.
Clear out iPhoto's caches. Do you sleep your iMac or shut it down each nite? If it's just sleep do a reboot every now and then. If you haven't run the maintenance scripts you can download and run OnyX to clear the various system, user and font caches using the Automation pane in Onyx as shown in this screenshot. The first reboot will be slower than usual but will return to normal after subsequent reboots.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: iPhoto 8's new option in the library rebuild pane, "Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" may make this tip obsolete. We'll know when users have occasion to use it and see if that's the case.