Sick Mac? Time for a CheckUp!
Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 by Olly |
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CheckUp, from App4Mac, is an application I have been using for some time now. It has really helped me in controlling my core temperature, disk speed and memory usage. With its powerful Growl notification integration you can really know and understand very easily what is happening inside of your Mac. In this review I will look at this application section by section.
Profile
What I like in this section are the beautiful images representing your Mac‘s processor type (PowerPC or Intel) Size, speed, and running system. A really useful part is showing your serial number! If you have CheckUp running in the background you can easily access your personal information about your Mac. The features include Serial Number, Operating System, Processor, Memory, Startup Disk, Capability, Boot Manager, IP Address, Uptime, MAC address, and the used bandwidth. The “running since” worried me a bit at first because I thought that it meant how long you have had your Mac, and when I saw 13 hours and 4 minutes, I was scared. But it actually means how long your mac has been on. That is a little defect in that section!
System
I don’t often use this section because although it does have a friendly environment it looks complicated. It tells you the number of Applications, Fonts, Drivers, Internet Plugins, Preference Panes, Login Items, Widgets and Operating Systems you have on your computer. I suppose it does give you easy access to your computer’s different components. The fonts give you an idea of what the writing looks like. The application icons are beautifully presented, but I still think they should give more information about the applications regarding their location, size, and so on.
Processors
I love this part! This is the most attractive part of the application. It is a beautiful Processor meter with active speed percentage about the speed of your processors. With the trial you can only view one processor but with the full version you can view as many processors as your computer has. Its magnificent graph shows the speed and power your processors are using by switching between two different types, Seismograph and Classic Graph. You have power over what you prefer to view as. You can view the graph for anywhere between the past five minutes and the past week, giving you a full view about what your Mac has been doing. You can also view the processor meter in a separate window if you wish.
Memory
There’s not much to say on this section. It gives good information about your memory, but it’s not a favorite.
Disks
The same as memory, but gives you extremely good information about the space left in your disks. A nice friendly blue bar informs you of your used and remaining disk space.
Network
This is a very powerful section. It gives you information about your network activity, both with traffic into and out of your machine. Like the processors tab, you can choose between Seismograph and Classic Graph, and view between the past week or past five minutes. It also has nice images that are comfortable to look at.
Processes
This tab is a good and powerful source to view the amount of memory, CPU, and more each active application is using. With a regular “Check Up”, or refresh, it will always reflect the current usage of each application. This is also a good source to see what applications are running to try to free up some space 
!
Documents
This section is not a personal favorite, but it’s a really good place to find all the different file formats present in your computer and see what application is associated with and can open those formats. It the icon for each application, a powerful way to find more about your Mac’s supported formats and formats used and what application can open them or give information about them.Preferences
A nice and friendly way to customize CheckUp to your liking!As I said at the beginning, it gives notifications through its integration with Growl.
Overall, I give CheckUp a rating of 17/20. It’s a personal favorite and I recommend this application to everyone.
