How much CPU% does top show for baloo_ctl? That process badly slows down my system, so I always turn off File Search in System Settings to disable it. It seems to be the biggest of the resource hogs, but also, in Startup and Shutdown > Background Services > Startup Services, I uncheck Search Folder Updater, and about 6 other services which I don't use, and which seem to slow everything down. I have only 3GB RAM and 6GiB of swap, but after I turn off all that stuff, everything starts running much faster and more smoothly. I also get faster and smoother graphics performance out of my old intel i915 graphics device by changing Display and Monitor > Compositor > Rendering backend from OpenGL to XRender, but that could just be something specific to my particular hardware, I don't know.
