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Shutdown or Leave on?

2K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  Brian Scully 
#1 ·
Just a quick question. Is it better to leave my FP iMac on all the time (I presently do this) or should I be shutting it down every-night. I always leave the computer on, and then it goes to sleep mode. Just wondering what is best
 
#2 ·
It all depends on what your iMac is used for.

If it needs to run an email app, and check for mail regularly, it has to run. If you send big print jobs, you don't want it going to sleep before the job is finished.

With the power problems lately, I'd rather it slept, but I decided to buy a big UPS for the cpu and the printer. Big prints can take well over an hour. It would be an expensive partial print if the cpu went to sleep.

We set our "energy saver" to sleep the cpu in three hours, and to sleep the monitor in thirty minutes.
 
#3 ·
I would say keep it on all night. There are maitenence scripts run at 3 am by the UNIX underpinnings of OS X to keep it in tip-top shape. If you decide not to keep it on you can still run the scripts using MacJanitor or Cocktail.

(If you keep it on at night, don't forget to make the display go to sleep.)
 
#5 ·
Despite the theory of 'no memory fragmentation', re-booted about once a week clears things up. Whenever your machine gets slow, run an ap that requires reboot, e.g. Software Update and presto: 2 birds w. 1 stone...
 
#6 ·
thanks for everyones suggestions, the computer is for home use, so internet, some games, etc.
 
#7 ·
Its really up to you, some people shut it down when not needed, but others leave it to sleep, since sleep is such a low power mode, and its much faster to come out of sleep then to start up the computer. Overnight when its not needed is at your digression, though if the computer is often used in the day, it may be a good idea to let it sleep as the sudden surge of electricity when starting up can be detrimental (in the very long term however). I know at my house, the computer during the day is left on and goes to sleep when not used, but at night it is turned off unless a backup or something time intensive is taking place.
 
#8 ·
I don't think the cron jobs will run if the computer is in sleep mode as its a truly low power state and the chron jobs don't wake it up. With a flat panel, the amount of juice being used in sleep mode is so low that I don't think it's "green" issue. Indeed, setting you computer to sleep whenever idle for more than 30 mins is a real power and component saver.
 
#9 ·
I have always been a power on all the time kind of person
I think the surge of power of daily power ons is more destructive to components.

This was proven with flourescent lights in the 60's when I was in the lighting business.

I don't worry about the "green" when my computer burns <200 watts > and the expressway next to my house has 1500++ watts every 90 metres all night long regardless of the traffic.
 
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