To sleep or not to sleep?

phillyagphillyag
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Is it really best to leave the iMac running / in sleep mode? We've been shutting it down every night. Does shutting down / restarting every day increase wear and tear?



What are the best settings for display sleep and cpu sleep?



iMac, 17", fp

512mb RAM

Panther

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    majormattmajormatt Posts: 1,077member
    Sleep is good.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    the "turn it off/leave it on" debate has gone on for a long time... and well it is up to you.



    Points...



    1 - to keep your computer on all the time will run down any moving parts faster under constant use... ie fans or hard drives.



    2 - to turn your computer on and off will subject some vital parts to temp change that will over time run dowm most heat prone parts inside your computer.



    3 - sleep mode will still suck up power. however it will not be that much.



    4 - waiting for your computer to boot is annoying.





    There really is no right answer...



    I turn it off... unlike humans computers do not benifit from sleep and I would rather have my computer doing something while I am not around then sleep...



    I am tired and a bit drunk so goood night...
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by \\/\\/ickes

    1 - to keep your computer on all the time will run down any moving parts faster under constant use... ie fans or hard drives.



    Actually, the opposite may be true with regards to hard drives. Frequently spinning up the drive from rest, particularly if it's a faster drive, will shorten its life more than just letting it run.



    But for an iMac? Eh, let it sleep.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    the generalthe general Posts: 649member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by phillyag

    Is it really best to leave the iMac running / in sleep mode? We've been shutting it down every night. Does shutting down / restarting every day increase wear and tear?



    What are the best settings for display sleep and cpu sleep?



    iMac, 17", fp

    512mb RAM

    Panther



    I personally leave all my machines on, they dont sleep, but the displays,ect do. just not deep sleep, all my macs(except ibook) if you put them to deep sleep, you have to reboot them to get them back on network...(clean install does not fix)
  • Reply 5 of 8
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    I always sleep my Cube. On very rare occasions I will do a shutdown overnight for one reason or another, but for me, the choice is sleep. Macs use about 97% less electricity in sleep mode (PCs are more like 80% less, for reasons unknown to me) so there is no reason to shut down unless you can't deal with it using 3% of your electricity when not in use.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    The wear and tear is basically the same, because in sleep most of the components turn off. I don't think it matters.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    pensievepensieve Posts: 661member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by \\/\\/ickes

    the "turn it off/leave it on" debate has gone on for a long time... and well it is up to you.



    Points...



    1 - to keep your computer on all the time will run down any moving parts faster under constant use... ie fans or hard drives.



    2 - to turn your computer on and off will subject some vital parts to temp change that will over time run dowm most heat prone parts inside your computer.



    3 - sleep mode will still suck up power. however it will not be that much.



    4 - waiting for your computer to boot is annoying.





    There really is no right answer...



    I turn it off... unlike humans computers do not benifit from sleep and I would rather have my computer doing something while I am not around then sleep...



    I am tired and a bit drunk so goood night...



    Unlike PCs, sleep for Macs is good. I'd recommend sleeping it rather than turning it off regardless of the situation. My family's iMac is 2.5 years old and I don't think they've turned it off once. It's either running or asleep. That thing's a champ.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    ifloodiflood Posts: 2member
    Sleeping has disadvantages:

    If you use AFP shares and your machine sleeps, the system will hang. Otherwise, I suggest using sleep, especially if you use your system a lot.
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