MacBasics: leave your Mac on or shut it down?

[MacBytes]

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Category: Opinion/Interviews
Link: MacBasics: leave your Mac on or shut it down? (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20060324093728)
Description:: Should you turn your Mac off when you are not using it?

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[mainstreetmark]

My uptime record is somewhere around 90 days for the powerbook, but for whatever reason, this morning it had turned itself off in the middle of the night, so my current uptime is one hour, nine minutes.

[ajbrehm]

Typical reasons include:

Flying to continent again (iBook)
Updates
Have to access OF directly (rare)
Power outage (once, iMac)


My iMac's typical uptime is 4 months (I don't install updates when they come out, only after I read first reactions).

My iBook's typical uptime is about 3 months.

[lexfuzo]

Or did I just miss the part about Sleep/Standby?

Have your machine running when it actually does something,
let it sleep at night (sounds natural, doesn't it?)
and turn it off when you're not using it for more than two days (occasional reboots aside).

[socamx]

I find no reason to shut down or sleep either my G5 or my iBook. Power use is minimal, not like they are processing full tilt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For the G5 I just turn off the monitor when not in use, for the iBook I dim the screen when I'm done and it eventually turns itself off. Other than that, hard drives never spin down and they don't go to sleep.

I guess if I didn't have IRC connections and bots running I could live with sleeping them, don't want to drop connections and have to reconnect everytime I come back.

[Mord]

apple replaced cron in 10.4, cant remember what the hell with, but they did.

[macFanDave]

apple replaced cron in 10.4, cant remember what the hell with, but they did.

launchd

but, I believe cron is still there, too.

[cwtnospam]

If you're going to leave your Mac running at night, have it do something that can benefit everyone:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~cparnot/xgrid-stanford/index.html

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

[Sdashiki]

I find no reason to shut down or sleep either my G5 or my iBook. Power use is minimal, not like they are processing full tilt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

My G5, dual 1.8, runs 24/7 torrenting etc.

And it DOES use a good chunk of power. But if an extra $5-10 on your electic bill is cool, then it IS no problem.

Though it does keep my room alot warmer than the rest of the apt, and cause of that I run the AC more.

If you arent using the G5, have it set to sleep after 30minutes. Otherwise the heat and electricity generated/used was for nothing.

[baleensavage]

Or did I just miss the part about Sleep/Standby?

Unfortunately, Apple still hasn't worked all the bugs out about sleep. On my eMac (and occasionally the iMac) which is running the latest flavor of 10.4, if I put it to sleep all sorts of weirdness happens when I attempt to wake it up. Macs have been plagued with sleep issues since as long as I can remember and the new systems are no exception. Most of them revolve around USB devices, but in todays world of digital peripherals this is not acceptable.

So, for me, sleep is out (except the monitor) and I shut my computer down when I won't be using it for a long time (which is usually at night until the following evening), unless of course my computer is busy rendering for three-day stints, then it never stops working.

One really annoying trend that drives me to distraction that is related to this is the propensity of electronics devices to not turn off. DVD players, Playstations, External Hard Drives, you name it, most of these items only go into standby mode. You have to put everything on a powerstrip to actually turn it off. And add to that that everything now has a glowing green or red light and now we are all doomed to not get any sleep and waste electricity while doing it.

[dejo]

And add to that that everything now has a glowing green or red light and now we are all doomed to not get any sleep and waste electricity while doing it.

You can't sleep because of a little glowing light? Yikes! :eek: Time for a sleep mask.

Anyways, back to the original topic, doesn't leaving your Mac on at night allow it to perform nightly maintenance routines that otherwise wouldn't get run?

[miniConvert]

The link to the article wont work for me.

I was leaving my Mac mini on as it wouldn't reconnect to the wireless network coming out of sleep. That made it pretty hopeless for using as a media centre when the media is stored on the network.

The Mac mini then died. Maybe it didn't like being left on :S I'd imagine it was just a lemon, though.

[macdong]

my PowerMac G4's run time was around 197 days until this morning when i plugged in my iPod and found it not mounted on the desktop.
after messing with it for a while finally had to shut it down and reset the PMU.

[baleensavage]

You can't sleep because of a little glowing light? Yikes! :eek: Time for a sleep mask.
When you have three or four of these devices the light can add up real fast. We have a Cable Modem, Wireless Router an Internet Phone Router and a Phone in our room all of which have 4 or 5 blinking green lights on them. All told, it's like we have two green nightlights on, which, while it doesn't stop me from sleeping, makes it harder to go to sleep at night. I have since taped pieces of carboard over the fronts of these devices and it is better. It just seems like more and more things have these glowing lights on them, which do serve a purpose but are nonetheless annoying.

[~Shard~]

I'm usually running torrents, so my iMac is on constantly. If I know I won't be using it for a few days I'll shut it off, and otherwise the only times I shut it down are for updates or just to give it a break every once and while every couple months. ;)

[DWKlink]

I was once told by a friend that repairs a lot of electronics/computer products that most often trouble happens during power on. "cold" electronics are suddenly flooded with a rush of electricity. most repairs he did revolved around failures from this initial power on surge. he said if you sleep a computer, its always got a little juice running through it, and it should last longer.

could be BS, but I have my G5 sleep when i'm not using it, but never shut it down. does seem like there's some dispute over this though...

[shamino]

I'm glad to see that this thread is not getting as politically flame-ridden as the original article's comments thread. Let's hope it remains on a technical level here...

My PowerMac at home remains on 24/7. It does run jobs at night. I like to have it make tape backups at night while I sleep. It also must run while I'm at work, because I often remote-login to it from the office. Finally, it is running named, acting as a DNS server for my home LAN (currently 8 of my computers, plus my housemate's two computers.) I do shut it off if both me and my housemate are going to be away for an entire weekend.

My other computers (older Macs and PCs) are usually shut off when not in use. They don't run jobs at night, and are often not used for days or weeks at a time.

My iBook is never shut down as such, but is frequently asleep. (I transport it daily between home and work. It's on the whole time I'm at work and when I'm actively using it at home, asleep the rest of the time.)

WRT lifespan, it is well known (despite claims to the contrary) that hard drives last longer if they never spin down. My own personal experience (work, home and school) is that systems where the drives are always-on tend to last 5-7 years (and some have lasted more than 10). Systems where the drives are powered down every night tend to only last 3-5 years before failing.

Of course, this is the computer. Always power-down your monitor when it's not in use. CRT's do wear out over time, and will start producing dim, fuzzy images as they age. LCDs don't wear out, but the backlights do eventually dim, change color and burn out as they get old.

[MattyP]

if I put it to sleep all sorts of weirdness happens when I attempt to wake it up. Macs have been plagued with sleep issues since as long as I can remember and the new systems are no exception. Most of them revolve around USB devices, but in todays world of digital peripherals this is not acceptable.

Man, if you think that's bad, you should see me when I get woken up from sleep.

I shut my powerbook off when not in use and leave my G4 sawtooth work computer on to run the Seti Program when I'm not working once or twice a week... I turn the monitor off though. I like to powerdown the computer when possible though because I live in California, and am always being reminded that energy is not renewable and can be yanked without notice.

[shamino]

I was once told by a friend that repairs a lot of electronics/computer products that most often trouble happens during power on. "cold" electronics are suddenly flooded with a rush of electricity. most repairs he did revolved around failures from this initial power on surge. he said if you sleep a computer, its always got a little juice running through it, and it should last longer.
He is correct. All power supplies produce a startup surge when power is first applied. Devices are designed to withstand this, but some devices are better than others in this area.

It is fairly well known that old power supplies often have a problem supplying their rated wattage, because repeated surges (usually from the power line, not from on/off cycles) can cause cumulative amounts of damage. A good surge suppressor/power filter (or UPS) is your best protection against this kind of damage.

This, BTW, is one of the reasons it is usually a good idea to plug a power brick into the wall before plugging it into your computer - so the startup surge from applying power won't get into the computer. The only exception to this I know of is for a Sony PlayStation 2 - where the owner's manual explicitly tells you do attach the device-end first.
could be BS, but I have my G5 sleep when i'm not using it, but never shut it down. does seem like there's some dispute over this though...
For modern comptuers like a PowerMac, there is always a small amount of current going through the power supply. This is how the software-based power switch can work, and how features like timed power-on, wake-on-LAN and wake-on-ring can work. The startup surge won't happen unless you unplug it after powering off.

Of course, this doesn't change the wear on your hard drive from spinning down/up whenever the system goes to sleep. That will happen unless you leave them running all the time.

[fabsgwu]

Whenever I leave my G4 iMac off for more than two days it nearly always has a kernel panic on startup. I've tried lots of things to address this issue, but leaving it on/asleep seems to be the only cure.

[Some_Big_Spoon]

Never understood the whole infinite uptime thing. Seems like a Freudian issue to me. If the puter's not doing anything, then let it slee or shut it off. Saves the puter, saves energy, saves money. Why burn through cash for no other reason than W00T! uptime != kewl?

[angelwatt]

My iBook is on most of the time during the day, even when taking it to school, then it's asleep at night. I use ir for a couple things in the morning that take less time than the boot-up so just leave it on. I have a windows machine that runs 24/7, but it has my web server going so it needs to be on. My linux machine has been on since I installed it, but haven't used it really. I don't have a KVM to share my monitor with it so haven't gotten around to shutting it down. Probably crashed weeks ago.

[shamino]

Never understood the whole infinite uptime thing. Seems like a Freudian issue to me. If the puter's not doing anything, then let it slee or shut it off. Saves the puter, saves energy, saves money. Why burn through cash for no other reason than W00T! uptime != kewl?
Unless you're seriously strapped for cash, the power consumed by a computer idling with the monitor off isn't very much.

If your home has central air conditioning or a heat-pump, the additional cost wouldn't even be noticeable compared to your normal monthly bill.

Uptime, for its own sake, is a waste of time, you're right. But there are plenty of other good reasons to leave systems running. As I already wrote, I remote-login to my home LAN from work almost every day. I run backups while I'm asleep. The computer is a DNS server for the rest of the LAN. My work computer compiles large software projects over the weekend (it can take over 18 hours to run to completion.)

Other people have mentioned other reasons. Hosting a Torrent, hosting servers of other kinds, donating CPU power to projects like SETI and Folding, etc.

If your computer is on all the time anyway, what's the big deal about mentioning large uptimes? (And besides, it does have some indication of system stability.)

[ITASOR]

To you people who say your computer makes your room warmer...how?

I can have my PowerMac, iBook, and DELL running and there's definitely no noticeable heat difference. They're pushing out hot air, but it's not like a super heat duct.

[shamino]

My linux machine has been on since I installed it, but haven't used it really. I don't have a KVM to share my monitor with it so haven't gotten around to shutting it down.
Assuming the daemons are running, you can log in to it via telnet, rsh, rlogin or ssh, then "su" to root and run shutdown from there.
Probably crashed weeks ago.
Probably not. Idle systems tend not to crash unless they've got really critical system bugs (or bad hardware.)

[shamino]

To you people who say your computer makes your room warmer...how?
I suppose it depends on how well the room is insulated.

The room with my LAN is definitely 2-3 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. It contains a large UPS, my DSL modem, router, Ethernet hub and 8 computers. Typically, only one or two of the computers are actually turned on at any one time.

The room was definitely warmer when I was using a 22" CRT monitor. It's cooler now that I have a 24" LCD monitor.

Part of this phenomenon is because the computers warm up the room's air. Part is because that room shares a wall with the house's thermostat, so the warm room prevents the thermostat from cycling on until the average house-temperature drops a few degrees below the set point.

[Shadow]

Man, people here are talking about keeping Macs on for months on end, I can hardly keep my PC on for minutes on end...Yes another reason to get a Mac

[Some_Big_Spoon]

Oh yeah, if it's got a purpose, leave it on, totally. My iMac runs 24/7 w/ torrents.. I don't catalog uptime, but that's just me.

If the big-ass uptime is a product of doing something productive, then by all means bling-bling :-D

Gemerally, though, i see uptime stats as only being primary for servers (or torrents ;-)

Unless you're seriously strapped for cash, the power consumed by a computer idling with the monitor off isn't very much.

If your home has central air conditioning or a heat-pump, the additional cost wouldn't even be noticeable compared to your normal monthly bill.

Uptime, for its own sake, is a waste of time, you're right. But there are plenty of other good reasons to leave systems running. As I already wrote, I remote-login to my home LAN from work almost every day. I run backups while I'm asleep. The computer is a DNS server for the rest of the LAN. My work computer compiles large software projects over the weekend (it can take over 18 hours to run to completion.)

Other people have mentioned other reasons. Hosting a Torrent, hosting servers of other kinds, donating CPU power to projects like SETI and Folding, etc.

If your computer is on all the time anyway, what's the big deal about mentioning large uptimes? (And besides, it does have some indication of system stability.)

[Marble]

I would probably sleep or shut down my Titanium Powerbook more often if it didn't totally freak out when woken again.. a bit like me, this thing. It's got a loose connection in the display hinge that causes the entire display to tear and artifact when it hasn't been exercised.

Plus, my mouse acceleration and speed settings change weirdly after sleep. Oddly, however, I've found that the "changed" settings are different from the feel of Apple's drivers and the feel of the Kensington drivers I use, and that they are much better for games. So typically I only sleep my computer when I want my mouse to be perfect for games. Isn't that weird?

[mongoos150]

Unfortunately, Apple still hasn't worked all the bugs out about sleep. On my eMac (and occasionally the iMac) which is running the latest flavor of 10.4, if I put it to sleep all sorts of weirdness happens when I attempt to wake it up. Macs have been plagued with sleep issues since as long as I can remember and the new systems are no exception. Most of them revolve around USB devices, but in todays world of digital peripherals this is not acceptable.

Same here - on my Intel iMac, when waking from sleep I just get a spinning beachball and I have to restart. No sense at all, a HUGE bug - I have to either leave the screensaver running or shut the thing down.

[kretzy]

I usually leave mine on. I occasionally turn it off for a bit of a break or if I won't be using it for a few days. Most nights I will put it to sleep, unless I'm d/l something.

[gerardrj]

"If you're going to leave your Mac running at night, have it do something that can benefit everyone:"

"If the puter's not doing anything, then let it slee or shut it off. Saves the puter, saves energy, saves money."

The issue is that even with the computer "awake", the newer systems do go in to lower power/standby states. The G5 processor has a "nap" mode which it enters and exits on the fly. Running the CPUs at 100% playing with a distributed processing project takes significantly more power than letting the system idle in the dark.

Spinning a HD takes very little energy, the drives use high quality bearings that produce relatively little friction; the drive is completely enclosed so there is very little drag between the air and the disk platters (the air is rotating along with the disks). Accessing a drive requires moving a fair amount of mass very quickly and very accurately which does consume considerable power.

From Maxtor's 500GB SATA data sheet:
spin-up = ~29W
seek = ~13W
idle = ~7.5W
standby = ~2.1W

A PPC 970FX in nap mode draws about 50% of the power it does when performing processing, 56W vs 30W for nap on a 2.2Ghz chip.

For those who state that we should turn off our computers to "save the environment" or to reduce electrical load:

1. The environment will recover. It's been through worse things than humans could ever conceive of doing to it.
2. You'd save more electricity by installing CF bulbs in place of incandescents, using dimmers or motion sensing light switches.

3. If you're wanting to reduce emissions from electric generating plants, that's not the place to target. Try not accelerating so hard off red lights and stop signs in the car; taking 15 seconds to get to the speed limit instead of 4 will reduce your pollution output FAR more than turning off your computer.

4. Booting a computer is 100% useless work. It's 1-3 minutes of high intensity disk activity and CPU processing that doesn't yield any productivity. Same with shutting down.

5. As others have stated, most electrical systems fail when in transition from power off to power on. There is a physical shock that occurs in the electrical load as current starts flowing through it. If you've ever been in a large room when the lights are all turned on, you can actually hear the current "hit" the light fixtures.

6. Do you turn off your cell phone when not actually talking on it? Do you blow out the pilot light in the water heater when you aren't taking a shower? There are things in life the we perceive as needing instant access to, my computer is one of them. The Internet is a utility just like hot water and the computer is a communications device (email and IM) to which I receive calls/messages.

In short, I simply don't buy in to the whole environmentalist argument, partially because it doesn't make sense, partially because there are easier and larger impact changes to make in our lives, and partially because most of the people making environmental arguments (in my presence at least) are hypocrites about the topic and are far more interested in seeming concerned than actually being concerned.

I do buy in the the laws of physics such as inertia and thermodynamics and expansion due to heat and metal fatigue.

End result: All of my personal competitors stay on 24/7. I'm not a bad person because of this and I'm not causing global warming (we're just going through a warmer part of space really). If you want to turn yours off, go ahead tt doesn't bother me one bit, I"m happy and your happy and that's all that counts.

[technicolor]

On all the time sleep during the night.

Macbook is only on when I use it.

[p0intblank]

I rarely turn my Mac off... the only time I do is when I know I need to bring it to work the following morning. Other than that, it's always on.

[ibookowner2]

Wow I thought leaving my Imac on all day was a bad thing I guess its not as bad as I thought.

[Stridder44]

If you're going to leave your Mac running at night, have it do something that can benefit everyone:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~cparnot/xgrid-stanford/index.html

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Amen my friend. Amen.

[Stridder44]

"If you're going to leave your Mac running at night, have it do something that can benefit everyone:"

"If the puter's not doing anything, then let it slee or shut it off. Saves the puter, saves energy, saves money."

The issue is that even with the computer "awake", the newer systems do go in to lower power/standby states. The G5 processor has a "nap" mode which it enters and exits on the fly. Running the CPUs at 100% playing with a distributed processing project takes significantly more power than letting the system idle in the dark.

Spinning a HD takes very little energy, the drives use high quality bearings that produce relatively little friction; the drive is completely enclosed so there is very little drag between the air and the disk platters (the air is rotating along with the disks). Accessing a drive requires moving a fair amount of mass very quickly and very accurately which does consume considerable power.

From Maxtor's 500GB SATA data sheet:
spin-up = ~29W
seek = ~13W
idle = ~7.5W
standby = ~2.1W

A PPC 970FX in nap mode draws about 50% of the power it does when performing processing, 56W vs 30W for nap on a 2.2Ghz chip.

For those who state that we should turn off our computers to "save the environment" or to reduce electrical load:

1. The environment will recover. It's been through worse things than humans could ever conceive of doing to it.
2. You'd save more electricity by installing CF bulbs in place of incandescents, using dimmers or motion sensing light switches.

3. If you're wanting to reduce emissions from electric generating plants, that's not the place to target. Try not accelerating so hard off red lights and stop signs in the car; taking 15 seconds to get to the speed limit instead of 4 will reduce your pollution output FAR more than turning off your computer.

4. Booting a computer is 100% useless work. It's 1-3 minutes of high intensity disk activity and CPU processing that doesn't yield any productivity. Same with shutting down.

5. As others have stated, most electrical systems fail when in transition from power off to power on. There is a physical shock that occurs in the electrical load as current starts flowing through it. If you've ever been in a large room when the lights are all turned on, you can actually hear the current "hit" the light fixtures.

6. Do you turn off your cell phone when not actually talking on it? Do you blow out the pilot light in the water heater when you aren't taking a shower? There are things in life the we perceive as needing instant access to, my computer is one of them. The Internet is a utility just like hot water and the computer is a communications device (email and IM) to which I receive calls/messages.

In short, I simply don't buy in to the whole environmentalist argument, partially because it doesn't make sense, partially because there are easier and larger impact changes to make in our lives, and partially because most of the people making environmental arguments (in my presence at least) are hypocrites about the topic and are far more interested in seeming concerned than actually being concerned.

I do buy in the the laws of physics such as inertia and thermodynamics and expansion due to heat and metal fatigue.

End result: All of my personal competitors stay on 24/7. I'm not a bad person because of this and I'm not causing global warming (we're just going through a warmer part of space really). If you want to turn yours off, go ahead tt doesn't bother me one bit, I"m happy and your happy and that's all that counts.

Amen as well!

[socamx]

My G5, dual 1.8, runs 24/7 torrenting etc.

Well that's one thing, yours is doing something but mine is pretty much 99% CPU idle. The network traffic and CPU usage caused by my IRC connections is very minimal.

And it DOES use a good chunk of power. But if an extra $5-10 on your electic bill is cool, then it IS no problem.

Really isn't much, I'd notice a difference if it was asleep or off and cost that much.

Though it does keep my room alot warmer than the rest of the apt, and cause of that I run the AC more.

I like that though, keeps it a bit warmer, but not much. If the monitor is on though, that gets nice and toasty and eats a good chunk.

Props to everything gerardrj pointed out.

[Eric5h5]

To you people who say your computer makes your room warmer...how?

You answered your own question:

They're pushing out hot air

That's how. If your room does not get warmer, then you have a pretty serious draft/insulation issue, or maybe you're leaving the door open or something. (And yes, my Power Mac G5 makes my room warmer if I keep the door shut. Most of the time, this is actually a good thing.)

--Eric

[Photorun]

My G5 only sleeps at night, it gets shut down when I'm out of town for more than three days which happens twice a year maybe, it's over two years old and hasn't had a single problem It only has had a reboot when I do a system update.

My iBook, now going on five years old, also has no problems and hasn't been shut down other than the restart for system updates. It sleeps a lot nowadays, the white light glowing in and out, but it used to be my main computer for it's first three years. Again, never shut it down, it's only sleeping. Admittedly it has now a couple times run so far down battery-wise it turned itself off, but I'm not sure that counts.

Before that I've had PowerComputing PowerTowers, Apple 8100s, a Quadra (with the cool chime!) and those weren't ever shut down either come to think of it. You'd have to go back to my days with an Apple][ to find a machine I actually would shut down at night.

When I worked at Adobe every office had a Mac, a peecee, and many had an SGI Unix box, they were always left up and running though some people would turn theirs off over weekends. At Coca-Cola's inside design department where I worked we only shut the computers down during summer weekends because Coke would turn off the AC and the computers could overheat and bake... of course, some of us would do that so we could get new ones.

Now at the college I work at there's tons of computers in labs, they never get shut down except if a student inexplicably does it (obviously some are told that you should, but clearly it's simply not necessary and they're wrong to do that). Admittedly more Dull (Dell) computers in the labs die (four or seven a semester) verses Macs (one maybe a year though this year not a single one) but then again Dull's are worthless cheap hunks of s*** top to bottom and we're lucky when they're not simply DOA when we get them, also the Dulls last about two years and take a fleet of IT people to keep 'em running and we don't even have a full time Mac person and they keep marching on for four, sometimes five years (out the window ANY argument that Macs are really more expensive, long term, they're far cheaper!)

Sooo I'm not sure about the question at all from the "people really still think this way?" perspective. I could see people sleeping them but shutting them down seems sophomoric and silly nowadays. The amount of energy a computer takes when sleeping from what I've read/been told (by Apple no less when I worked with them at Adobe in the mid-90s) is so nominal, maybe even more with the current technology anyone whining it takes this or that amound of electricity needs they're head checked.

Though I do like to sleep my computers (they're set to do so in about an hour) if someone does like to leave them running, I like the person upthread's comment about using them for a good cause... that of science. And don't forget our Folding Team!

[Photorun]

I like that though, keeps it a bit warmer, but not much. If the monitor is on though, that gets nice and toasty and eats a good chunk.

Props to everything gerardrj pointed out.

Thanks Socamx/gerardrj, that's what I was thinking too, it's MONITORS that really heat up a room. Ever been in a small room with like a dozen 22" Barcos (a large high-end CRT display for those you don't know), usually those room have special AC units and/or venting. Monitors can put out a great deal of heat. Actually even LCDs can, I was trying to figure out why at home my two cats curl up on a shelf behind my two 23" LCDs (one is an HP 2335 the other is a aluminum ACD) and it's because it's as warm as being over one of the heat vents. The heat behind my G5 PowerMac or my girlfriends G5 iMac is nominal.

[Timepass]

well sleeping computer (either PC or Mac) pulls about 5-10Q of power. A shut down computer plug into the wall pulls 5-10W worth of power. TV pulls about 5-10W of power while plug into the wall. Most stuff pulls pulls a little power in standby mood and off mood. My current LCD monitor power rating is 110W while on. 3W in standby and 3W while off. So I never hit the power button on it. I just have the monitor go to standby mode pulls same among of juice.


Now when a computer is on and not asleep it going to be pulling over 100W of power. more likely it be over 120W power and that is at idle. Have the CPU at 100% you are talking 160W+ among other things. Biggest reason to sleep a computer while you are not using it saves you quite a bit of money over the year I thinking over 100 bucks a year. It would cut you all power bill down quite a bit. for me that 100 bucks can mark an year can easiuly mark over 10% cut in cost of power for the year.

[sinecurea]

Are there/should there be any issues with leaving a MacBook Pro on most of the time? Again, I torrent quite a bit - I wouldn't just leave it on for the sake of leaving it on. I would just be scared about it overheating or something.

S.

[shamino]

Are there/should there be any issues with leaving a MacBook Pro on most of the time? Again, I torrent quite a bit - I wouldn't just leave it on for the sake of leaving it on. I would just be scared about it overheating or something.
A computer (laptop or otherwise) shouldn't overheat, no matter what you're doing with it. The fans may rev up to high-speed, but actual overheating (where the system shuts down or takes damage) should never happen.

That being said, I have read reports of MBP's shutting down from overheating, so there may be a problem here that Apple needs to solve.

Finally, regardless of what you decide, make certain to put the display to sleep after inactivity. The backlight for your LCD panel will burn out much quicker if it never turns off.