[GuillaumeB]

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if you guys turn off your machine.

I turn off my MacBook Pro before going to bed and put it in stand by mode during the day when I am not using it.

i've read many threads about people scheduling backup processes at night which implies that they never turn it off... Coming from Windows I find this a bit weird but hey.. the Win system certainly gets messed up when not rebooted for a long amount of time..

[rickey939]

Never.

[lkrupp]

Never.

[jtrwallace]

You should never turn your computer off, in my opinion. Leaving a Windows computer on allows the already infected system to become more infected but a Mac is never infected. System parts like to remain the same temperature. Or at least hover in the same area of temperature. The longevity of computer hardware is directly affected by how often you turn it off and let it completely cool down. For this reason, I never turn mine off and the only time I let my MBP sleep is if I am transporting it. At home, it is always open, always awake, and always plugged in.

[Tomchu]

If you put a Mac to sleep everything but the RAM is turned off anyway -- so the point about system components remaining more or less the same temperature is moot.

Also, what do infections have to do with anything?

[seanc]

Originally Posted by jtrwallace 

You should never turn your computer off, in my opinion. Leaving a Windows computer on allows the already infected system to become more infected but a Mac is never infected. System parts like to remain the same temperature. Or at least hover in the same area of temperature. The longevity of computer hardware is directly affected by how often you turn it off and let it completely cool down. For this reason, I never turn mine off and the only time I let my MBP sleep is if I am transporting it. At home, it is always open, always awake, and always plugged in.

Ah so the old, 'turning off and on is bad' debate eh?
Don't make me get the science guys in here!

[ghporter]

I turn my computer off all the time. Not only do I feel that it's not necessary to have "instant" access to my programs (I tend to not keep running applications I'm not using too), but I KNOW that there's no reason to use the energy needed (even the tiny amount used in Sleep) for the machine to just be sitting there. This goes beyond the science seanc has threatened to whip out on all of us-philosophically, there is something generating the electricity that my computer uses, whether it's plugged in or using a charged battery, and if I'm wasting that energy, then I'm contributing to the degradation of the planet's environment just for my convenience. That's BAD in my book.

Also, a reboot is a good way to keep any (even minimal) memory leaks in check. Yes, I just suggested that not all Mac software is perfect! Quite a bit of freeware is really good but lacking in the in-depth testing needed to catch that one, tiny leak that eventually sucks up all your RAM.

And unless you have really old hardware (like a Seagate MFM 5MB full height drive), it DOES NOT require more energy to start the drive from cold than to run it for more than a few minutes. Besides, hard drives are spun down and parked in Sleep, so where's the "energy savings"?

[Chuckit]

I restart when I have to, otherwise I generally don't. A lot of the time I'll leave the computer on while I'm asleep or at work to download something large, otherwise it autosleeps.

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I turn my computer off all the time. Not only do I feel that it's not necessary to have "instant" access to my programs (I tend to not keep running applications I'm not using too), but I KNOW that there's no reason to use the energy needed (even the tiny amount used in Sleep) for the machine to just be sitting there. This goes beyond the science seanc has threatened to whip out on all of us-philosophically, there is something generating the electricity that my computer uses, whether it's plugged in or using a charged battery, and if I'm wasting that energy, then I'm contributing to the degradation of the planet's environment just for my convenience. That's BAD in my book.

Have you measured the power consumption to confirm that the extra thrashing of the drive and heavy processing and rapid hitting of much of the hardware involved in starting up doesn't take more energy than leaving it asleep for a few hours?

[mduell]

I don't turn my laptop (Windows) off. I sleep it when I need to save power, but otherwise let it run all day/night (it's usually busy doing stuff, like encoding).

[Sherman Homan]

Have you measured the power consumption to confirm that the extra thrashing of the drive and heavy processing and rapid hitting of much of the hardware involved in starting up doesn't take more energy than leaving it asleep for a few hours?

Excellent point. Especially when the Hoover vacuum fans on a G5 kick in during startup ...

[ghporter]

I have not personally done such tests. However, take a look at your drive's startup current requirement-it's a blip compared to running the whole computer, and if balanced over more than a few hours of sleep, it's probably either comparable or even a bit less. I cannot find definitive numbers for power consumption in Sleep, so I can't do a full-on comparison to demonstrate this.

[slpdLoad]

I have a PowerBook, and I never shut it down unless I have to.

[Art Vandelay]

There was a technote from Apple a few years ago about this. They stated that a sleeping Mac only draws about 1-2 watts more power than when it's powered off but still plugged in. Yes, kiddies, a plugged in but powered off Mac still is using power.

So, if you want to make sure that you're not wasting energy, unplug too. That goes for all electrical devices. Chargers, TVs, computers, a/v equipment, kitchen appliances, etc, all draw power when plugged in. Combined, these devices waste a considerable amount of energy.

[slpdLoad]

^ Works great for laptops. Just put it to sleep and pull the plug (Better to even pull it from the wall, so no trickle of electricity is used, like you said). Best of both worlds, you're not plugged in to your AC, and you still get instant access when you wake it up.

[Art Vandelay]

But you are still draining the battery that will have to be recharged sooner than if you powered off.

[Curiosity]

Works great for laptops. Just put it to sleep and pull the plug (Better to even pull it from the wall, so no trickle of electricity is used, like you said).

Why pull the plug from the wall? It is easier to pull it from the laptop, with its MagSafe plug.

[Jumbonium2007]

My Mini Has been up 45 days without a reboot... still going strong.. my linux box has been up 177 days 3 hours 2 minutes without a restart. I have an old lime green G3 iMac that has been up for going on 240 days running OS X Server.. its connected to a UPS

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by Curiosity 

Why pull the plug from the wall? It is easier to pull it from the laptop, with its MagSafe plug.

He's saying do both. Leaving chargers plugged into a wall still sucks power even when they aren't charging anything.

[Rêvons]

I only restart when I need to; like after installing new software or because its getting sluggish

[Brien]

Nope. I sleep it, but only reboot on KPs and updates.

[red rocket]

I turn both of them off, and the same goes for my peripherals. It doesn't make any sense to me to have my computers on when I know I won't be using them for hours on end.

[Faust]

Yes, I do most of the time when I'm not working on the computer which equates to around 94% uptime.

[JustinHorne]

Restart when forced (updates or whatever), never actually just turn it off. It uses so little power asleep if I'm taking it with me, and if it's at home, plugged in, I might as well jus tlet it sleep so I have faster acces when I need it.

[Andy8]

Originally Posted by slpdLoad 

I have a PowerBook, and I never shut it down unless I have to.

Likewise. I shutdown only when traveling by air somewhere and need to pass through x-ray checks.

[mpancha]

I turn it off if I know I'm not going to use it for more than a day. NO particular reason for that number, I just don't see the point of leaving it on if I'm not going to use it for a full day or more.

With windows machine's its the same. Ever since Windows 2000, the only time any machine I had was off was either b/c I wasn't going to use it for a full day, or if the power died to the area.

Computers have gotten reliable over the years, Mac or PC, buy a piece of junk, it'll be just that.

[0157988944]

With my MacBook, I turn off at night and plug in. During the day I have it on or sleeping and plugged in when possible.

With my eMac, I tuned it off at night.

With my new iMac that I will be getting, I will probably do the same, though I may keep it on standby the entire time.

[slpdLoad]

Originally Posted by Andy8 

Likewise. I shutdown only when traveling by air somewhere and need to pass through x-ray checks.

I even leave it on through airports, so it's fast in case they ask me to show that it works (not that I can remember any airport actually doing that).

[Dakarʒ]

I don't even put mine to sleep.

[peeb]

I shut down every night, but then, I have a thing about not wasting power, however little. Leaving printers, routers, wireless, hubs, external drives etc in sleep mode adds up over time, so I turn everything off after I leave my office in the evening. It also helps me to manage my work / life balance.

[slpdLoad]

You could always just flip the circuit breaker to your house on your way out.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by slpdLoad 

You could always just flip the circuit breaker to your house on your way out.

I've though about that actually, not using the circuit breaker, but installing a switch near the light switch so that I could turn off all the electronics in my office on my way out. At the moment I do it using power-strips.

[slpdLoad]

I found the simple effort of rearranging so my power-strip was on top of my desk made me manage the power on my laptop more efficiently. No more crawling underneath the desk.

[peeb]

Yep - that's what I think I'll keep on doing.

[macintologist]

My iMac stays on 24/7. I just have the display sleep after 15 minutes.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

My iMac stays on 24/7. I just have the display sleep after 15 minutes.

Out of interest, do you know what power it draws when the display is off?

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

My iMac stays on 24/7. I just have the display sleep after 15 minutes.

Ditto.

[MOTHERWELL]

I have a firewire audio interface that won't work after a Sleep, so I keep my desktop on 24/7. I also remember reading that the liquid cooled G5 I have should not be powered down.

[MacosNerd]

I leave it on, but I do put it into sleep mode. The MacPro is a $%#@ heat pump and makes my office too warm if I just let it run especially if I'm not using it. since I have two machines, I also keep my MBP sleeping until its needed.

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB 

I turn off my MacBook Pro before going to bed and put it in stand by mode during the day when I am not using it.

I do the same. My electricity bill is already high enough so I don't need to make it any higher. Even if my bill wasn't high, I just don't like the idea of giving my electric company free money by having my computer sit there doing nothing. I would at least put my computer to sleep if it's doing nothing. It's just as convenient as having it on since it only takes a few seconds to wake it.

[raduga]

I used to leave my machines on all the time. That was before I started paying my own power bills, and also before I became more aware of the real cost of energy in terms of pollution, greenhouse gases, etc. Now I make it a point to turn off my desktops when I'm not using them. My laptop is usually sleeping.

Still, it's hard when I come into work every day to face a 2000ft^2 machine room absolutely packed with dense machines running 24x7, and monstrous A/C units to keep them all cool. And then I think of the 10,000 identical machine rooms throughout the valley......

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by raduga 

Still, it's hard when I come into work every day to face a 2000ft^2 machine room absolutely packed with dense machines running 24x7, and monstrous A/C units to keep them all cool. And then I think of the 10,000 identical machine rooms throughout the valley......

Consider the enormous number of individual users that make use of all those servers-the per user cost, both financially and from pollution, goes WAY down when you're talking about hundreds of thousands of users. Modern servers are much more energy efficient than even those of a couple years ago. And even "hot" servers aren't as hot as computers just a few years ago, so those A/C systems don't work nearly as hard, so even if there are a bunch of them, the net cost per user is going down all the time.

Now look at how much energy is wasted with "instant on" big screen TVs, numerous battery chargers that sit there without anything connected to them, printers without real "off" buttons, and such in people's homes. My house probably wastes dozens of watt-hours through stuff that I either can't easily leave truly off (my satellite TV receiver, for example) and other stuff I'm not even aware of. I just try to keep the stuff I can control to a minimum, and thus my personal contribution to pollution and climate change as low as possible.

[steve477668]

hi, ive got a pre pay electric meter installed in my flat so i know that my g5 is sucking up sick amounts of power....
(imagine how sick you feel when the money runs out on the meter and your mac suddenly di

[GuillaumeB]

Now that's pretty interesting. I did not think so many people would have replied.

Reading your comments it seems that many people just put their machine to sleep.

Usually when I ask someone why they do not turn their machine off they reply that it is safer for the machine.. they dont really know why... you see they "heard" it . Well back in the 90s computer certainly were not as strong as nowadays and each time you would reboot the machine small electric urges would rush to the components so as to feed them with energy; During the first milliseconds this electrical urge would bring a lot more than the component needed to properly run and with time it eventually deteriorated those components. This is was the main reason people were advised to leave their machine on and only reboot like once a week. Thankfully things have evolved and we get stronger components capable of receiving the electricity sent from the boot process. The second reason was Windows and its inability to clean out by itself.

I did not think about the consequences on the environment or on my bill. I asked the question mainly in relation to the machine itself.

I believe that will continue turning my machine off at night just for the sake of the battery that I only use twice a month - forcing myself to use it on a regular basis. I do not want to over charge it or something you know. Most of the time it remains in the machine but i can't help thinking that I should stop to "continuously charge it". Should I get an iMac then i would probably put it in stand by mode but laptops are more fragile in my opinion . Some will tell me that the I cannot over charge it anyway and that the macbook is smart enough, I certainly believe you, but I just cannot believe you "enough", it sounds too risky.

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB 

Usually when I ask someone why they do not turn their machine off they reply that it is safer for the machine.. they dont really know why... you see they "heard" it .

I never fully believed the whole damaging the computer when turning it off and on. If there is wear and tear then it seems to be minor. My PowerBook is 4 years old and still going strong. I always put it to sleep during the day and turned it off at night. I've actually done that for ever computer I've owned and have yet to have a computer break down on me from turning it off and on.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by EndlessMac 

I never fully believed the whole damaging the computer when turning it off and on. If there is wear and tear then it seems to be minor. My PowerBook is 4 years old and still going strong. I always put it to sleep during the day and turned it off at night. I've actually done that for ever computer I've owned and have yet to have a computer break down on me from turning it off and on.

You're not at all likely to, either. Components in today's computers are built to handle thermal and electrical stresses far beyond what they should experience in actual use-even including multiple on-off cycles, even including spin up/spin down cycles on hard drives, and even including powering on and off CPUs very frequently. It turns out that electrical surges don't do much to components, but they DO cause thermal effects-and since modern internals run pretty darn hot and components are thus built to handle such stresses, those thermal effects are trivial.

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Out of interest, do you know what power it draws when the display is off?

No clue. I'm in a dorm, utilities are covered in the flat housing fee

[VValdo]

I leave it on/sleeping. I know it still draws power when it's sleeping because the power supply is warm.

In the summers it kinda sucks because transformer heat has to be overcome by the A/C which means MORE power.... at least it's sleeping and not running some CPU intensive screensaver. I don't see the point of wasting energy to compute and display something that's designed to turn on when no one is there. Al Gore would NOT approve.

(Then again, he is on the Apple board... hmm.)

W

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by EndlessMac 

I never fully believed the whole damaging the computer when turning it off and on. If there is wear and tear then it seems to be minor. My PowerBook is 4 years old and still going strong. I always put it to sleep during the day and turned it off at night. I've actually done that for ever computer I've owned and have yet to have a computer break down on me from turning it off and on.

It's more applicable to servers than it is to desktop computers.

[Jens Peter]

Originally Posted by Andy8 

Likewise. I shutdown only when traveling by air somewhere and need to pass through x-ray checks.

Me too. PowerBook 12".

[Freakout Jackson]

I reboot my MBP maybe once every week or 2.
My G5 has been running 24/7 for almost 3 years, my G3 for 8 years.