Using A Pc To Boost Processing Of A Mac

My wife's iMac is starting to bog down when she's trying to do work (photo editing), and we have a spare PC and I was wondering how to make it a "slave" to the iMac. Has anyone paired a PC to a Mac machine to increase the performance of the Mac? How can I do it? Thanks!

 

i do not think that is possible. one of the major stumbling blocks would be the different file systems that both macs and pcs use. without 3rd party kernel extensions, macs can read but can not write to windows NTFS file systems, and windows can not read nor write to apple's file systems.

the easiest thing to do is to figure out the largest amount of RAM that your iMac supports, then go out and buy it and stuff your iMac to the max with the new RAM. the other thing that will make a world of difference, would be swapping out the mechanical hard drive of the iMac with an SSD hard drive. it is absolutely amazing the difference an SSD hard drive makes in a computer. everything is just faster with an SSD drive.

good luck with it.

 

What do you mean by the iMac is "starting" to bog down? That suggests it used to support her needs just fine but performance has degraded. Is that true? If so, then perhaps it would be best to determine why her iMac is no longer performing like it should.

If you mean her tasks are more demanding than they used to be, then I still would suggest looking at ways to improve the performance of the iMac. This may include scanning for malware, cleaning out disk clutter, freeing up disk space, or as harmless suggests, adding more RAM.

I also agree migrating to a SSD would make a big difference too. But that is a much more involved process than simply adding RAM or even replacing existing RAM with larger RAM sticks.

 

Her iMac is the last model that didn't have the little door on the back where you could upgrade RAM. We would have to pay for it to be done. We have an external SSD we are using to run her more demanding programs. We don't have the budget to get her a new iMac at the moment so we are trying to work with what we have.

I greatly appreciate your responses!

 

Thanks but you didn't answer the questions. Did this iMac used to run her programs fine? If so, why not any longer?

 

My apologies! Yes, the program used to run fine, but now it bogs down and even crashes. She is diligent about archiving older files onto external HDs, but it seems like her internal one can’t keep up anymore

 

Then I suggest trying to fix the iMac. Otherwise, if you try using a PC to boost the iMac, I suspect you will just bog down and crash the PC. Some one else may come along with iMac experience, or it might be better to post your problem at a Mac oriented site.

 

usually, when programs start to misbehave, people always suggest
to delete that application's preference file, as a first step in troubleshooting.
this page explains the process pretty well.
https://macpaw.com/how-to/delete-preference-files-from-mac
half way down the page is this:
How to Delete System Preference Files on Mac OS X | The Hard Way

preference files are just plain text files that store... all of the program's preferences.
if that file gets funky, it can cause problems. if it is deleted, the next time you start the
program, it creates a new default preference file, and prior preferences just needs to be redone.
if you don't want to delete it, just rename it like : "file-name_cya_backup"
it will accomplish the same purpose, and, hopefully, fix the problem.

good luck with it.