Review: iStat Menus 5
I’m the type of person who likes to know exactly what’s going on with my Mac at all times. Such as which apps are using bandwidth or CPU power. Or the health of my battery and hard drive. Normally, I have to work pretty hard to get this info as it’s buried in things like Apple’s Activity Monitor or Disk Utility. But I’ve discovered a far easier way to get this info. I installed a copy of iStat Menus 5. The premise of iStat Menus 5 is simple. It places a series of icons in your menu bar that can be clicked to reveal dropdowns with information. You can customize this to get the info you want and it covers a variety of areas such as CPU, battery usage, graphic card usage and the like.
Installing it is pretty simple. Download the app and open it up. It will offer to install itself and then you can customize from there. It took me twenty minutes to get the info that I was interested in set up because there are so many options available to display. Here’s a list of what you have access to:
- CPU — You get 7 display modes and multiple core support. You can also see the GPU that is in use on multi-GPU computers and see how its performing.
- Memory — You get 4 display modes including page ins/outs and swap usage display.
- Disks — You 6 display modes and SMART monitoring for internal hard disks.
- Network — Monitor current and total bandwidth, peak bandwidth, IP addresses, and the ability to hide network connections you don’t want to see.
- Temps — Monitor the temperature of your Mac. You get 2 display modes and the ability to hide sensors you don’t want to see.
- Fans — Monitor and alter the fan speeds in your Mac.
- Bluetooth — Control Bluetooth status plus monitor the battery level of your Apple wireless keyboard or mouse.
- Date & Time — Date and time in your menubar. This includes a world clock display that lets you see the time in multiple locations around the world.
I’d strongly recommend that you spend some time seeing what you have access to and don’t be afraid to play around with the setup. Once it is set up, this is what it looks like on your menu bar:
You can see that I don’t use all the features that I listed above, but there’s more than enough info there for me and most other people. One of the things that I did was that I got rid of some of the duplicate items that OS X provides. For example I got rid of the battery icon as iStat Menus provides a much more informative one. Not only that, the array of things that it monitors is extensive. For example, you can see the status if individual temperature sensors in your Mac as well as get historical data on pretty much anything. This way if you’re trying to diagnose an issue, you can figure out when the issue might have started or zero in on when and under what conditions an issue might be manifesting itself. If however you need to use one of the Apple supplied tools, you do get quck and easy access to Apple’s Activity Monitor, Console, Terminal, System Profiler, and System Preferences.
Here’s the best part. This app is $16 which is a small price to pay to get access to all sorts of info. Now you could say that iStat Menus 5 is an app that will likely only appeal to power users and those who are really curious about how their Mac works. But I would argue that it would also be useful to someone who’s trying to diagnose an issue that is hardware or software related. That way they may be able to avoid a trip to the Genius Bar by identifying the cause. Or you can bring proof that specific components are failing which will make that Genius Bar appointment much more productive. If that’s you, I say that you should look into getting a copy of iStat Menus 5. The company offers a 14 day trial and I think you’ll be buying it long before the 14 days are up.
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