Treating laptop like a desktop bad?

blascockblascock
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hey, I have a MBP and I use it for school, but I keep it on all night for downloading purposes. I'm wondering is that bad to treat a laptop like a desktop? Cause I've been thinkings its probably not a good idea cause laptops arent ment to be on all night long or anything.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    wircwirc Posts: 302member
    I have no idea what on earth you could be downloading, but don't discuss or ask others to aid in illegal activity.



    I'm not sure if this is any more of a problem than the issues of keeping any computer on for days at a stretch. Which is very little, and mostly manifests itself as slightly lowered performance, because the cache can get full. Your MBP might actually end up being too hot, but that is more of a problem that can be solved with a laptop stand.



    Remember, though, that an iMac is basically built out of laptop parts, and that works fine.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    sthiedesthiede Posts: 307member
    no, leaving it on overnight isnt going to do any damage, as wirc said, the iMac is basically a laptop in desktop form....you will notice a lag in performance after a bit, just do a restart like once a week and that will clear the cashe and stuff
  • Reply 3 of 10
    joe_the_dragonjoe_the_dragon Posts: 931member
    If you are using torrents then you may be working the hard disk also the i-mac uses desk top hd's.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    baygbmbaygbm Posts: 147member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wirc


    I have no idea what on earth you could be downloading, but don't discuss or ask others to aid in illegal activity.





    If you have ?no idea what on earth? he could be downloading why are you making assumptions and commentary about him potentially doing something illegal?



    Extract foot from mouth. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    dmwogandmwogan Posts: 36member
    No, leaving it on is fine. OS X runs maintenance scripts during the night/early morning so leaving it on lets those run. Yes you can get MacJanitor and have it run those whenever you want.



    OS X is also built off of unix code, which is used in servers etc.. which stay on continuously. So don't worry about leaving the computer on. Just enjoy it.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    trendannoyertrendannoyer Posts: 776member
    (s)he could be on dial up! remember that {shudder}
  • Reply 7 of 10
    crookedspooncrookedspoon Posts: 19member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Blascock


    Hey, I have a MBP and I use it for school, but I keep it on all night for downloading purposes. I'm wondering is that bad to treat a laptop like a desktop? Cause I've been thinkings its probably not a good idea cause laptops arent ment to be on all night long or anything.



    I'd seriously recommend to turn the brightness of the screen all the way down when the computer is 'idling'. The backlight of your screen and hence the brightness of your screen degrades over time. I also noticed that my harddisk gets noisier over time.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    gwoodpeckergwoodpecker Posts: 367member
    Setting the display to sleep after 30 minutess is a lot easier. The rest of the notebook will stay on.



    If you're concerned about the heat, put two erasers under the back of your MacBook (left and right side).
  • Reply 9 of 10
    bodebode Posts: 29member
    You should also take care of your battery. Specially if you never unplug it from the power outlet. This is not a good thing and you might end up reducing your battery life more rapidly.



    There are some basic guidelines here:



    http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
  • Reply 10 of 10
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,946member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gwoodpecker


    If you're concerned about the heat, put two erasers under the back of your MacBook (left and right side).



    Fan Control is a little more consistent in cutting down the heat.
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