App Cleaner

When you're cleaning out your hard drive, deleting just the .app of an application you no longer need is not enough to get rid of it completely. Nearly all applications have additional preference files or plugins that are stored in other, way harder-to-find folders. App Cleaner searches for these files automatically and prompts you to delete these files as well. More or less seamless - just delete the file as you normally would and it does the rest.

Drag and drop option, if you're into that sorta thing.

10/10 for not cluttering up my hard drive needlessly.

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Disk Inventory X

Creates a shiny, graphic representation of the hard drive of your choice. Grouping files by category and size makes it easier to clean out the crap that naturally builds up over time. Exposes loads of hidden files that can be cleaned out - get curious and investigate it if you're unsure of what it is that's taking up so much room.

One tip: don't bother deleting sleepimage when you see it. It's tempting, because it doesn't seem to do anything, but it is actually your computer's RAM (and should be about the same size, 1.5-2.5 GB). The CPU stores that information here when the drives go to sleep. Should the battery die, this file will restore your work.

So, you know, don't screw with it too much like some people who have to learn their lessons the hard way.

8/10 - a bit slow in loading and the deletion of files / could be shinier

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Fan Control

Another prefpane that perfectly compliments iStat Pro's temperature monitor. Does what the title suggests.

I noticed this week that my macbook was about hot enough to light a cigarette on. It seems that the laptop's internal fans idle RPM was too low (around 899) while the casing burned to the touch. This little guy allows you to create a preset range of RPM correlated with temperature thresholds (bonus points for the handy graph)

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Most CPU's will force shutdown when it hits about 110'C.

Average CPU temperature in Unibody MacBook Pro's: 48'C - 90'C.

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10/10 because it saved me from buying a(nother fucking) new battery.

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iStat Pro

Pretty damned essential system monitor. Keeps track of up to eight different aspects of system usage right from your menubar:

-CPU and Memory usage
-Date & Time
-Drives
-Network connections
-Temperatures
-Fans & Power
-Bluetooth connectivity

While you may not be interested in the exact goings-on with some of these (bluetooth and drives namely), iStat Pro is fully customizable. Just which aspects of the system are shown and hidden at your choosing and you can even change the fonts and graph colors - all from a handy prefpane (located in the "other" section at the bottom of System Preferences).

I prefer the menus version, though the program is alternatively available in 2 widget forms (I'm a pretty light dashboard user myself).

It's kept me from melting my CPU, from overpowering my virtual memory capacity, even helped me diagnose a connectivity problem that Airport troubleshooting was no help on. Also, the pull-down calendar has a real leg up on the Leopard date and time.

10/10

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