bitznbytes

Hi,
I've got an Intel iMAC and I normally leave it on all the time. Whats the best policy?
B

Mississauga

All my Macs run 24/7. Only the screens sleep - hard drives, never. But then, I'm running Folding@Home on all of them. My MDD is now past 4 years of 24/7 - no hardware failures.

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alec - OFI - I'm afraid
iMac 24" 2.4GHz C2D, iBook 14" 1.33GHz, iMac 20" G5 1.8GHz

zoziw

Both my iBook and Mini are set to sleep after half an hour of non-use (though the iBook goes to sleep much quicker when unplugged).

I don't see anything wrong with leaving them on all of the time and seem to recall that, if you do, OS X runs some maintenance programs at night.

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Late 2009 13" MBP. 32GB Wi-fi iPad.

ACfly

If you it on power, do you need to take the battery out? If not, by leaving the PB on 24/7 does that not kill the battery?

AppleAuthority

As long as the power is plugged into any Apple laptop, it won't run out of juice obviously. However, don't leave it on power forever. Cycle the battery at least once every two weeks or so (use it solely on the battery until it runs almost, but not completely dead).

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Apple Authority
Mac Training for new users and students in the Barrie, Mississauga area!

TimStalin

Is there a reason you can't sleep it? The is little reason to keep it on if it isn't in use and won't be needed in the near future (next hour or so).

I probably wouldn't shut it down all the time, as that tends to be hard on some of the internal components, but there is really no down side to sleep (unless your sleep-mode is flaky and doesn't recover).

The policy that seems to get passed around most often:
Sleep when it won't be needed in the next few hours.
Shut it down when it won't be needed in the next few days.