you turn off your mac pro?

[umbilical]

hi, simple poll... I turn off my mac pro every night... wake up every morning, if I let always turn on can be get some problem? basically the questions is how much time is recommendable use the mac pro without turn off? :confused:

thanks

[camomac]

i never turn my computers off. (G5, and G4 QS).

it was explained to me like this, true or not-
turning on/off the computer is like bending a paper clip back and forth,
after a while the circuits get hot and brittle and can break easier.

[ThirteenXIII]

mine usually runs 24/7, doesnt effect energy consumption much either way.
I believe the PSU is capable of handling the long usage, i mean the system is practically server grade' meaning always on mode - and its more than capable of handling that.

the fact that it draws more energy on every power on and cold boots, unless theyre infrequent cause heavy impedence on the system ... though theyre able to handle it otherwise it would be clearly noted "DO NOT TURN MACHINE OFF/ON EVERY SO OFTEN ETC ETC"

the technology is so advanced now, its safe to leave them running.
you may benefit from just putting it into sleep mode then pressing a key to wake it up, generally gives the hardware and circuitry a flux power draw and doesnt stress it too much.

[Mr.PS]

I never turn mine off. It's been running 24/7 since I got it.

[scottydawg]

Because I have the Apple RAID card my MP won't sleep so I do turn it off if I am not going to be using it for more then a few hours.

[nanofrog]

Because I have the Apple RAID card my MP won't sleep so I do turn it off if I am not going to be using it for more then a few hours.
Damn RAID! Causes bugs rather than kills them. ;) :p

[JesterJJZ]

I only power it off if I'll be away from it for more than a day or two. Otherwise I just sleep it every night.

[costabunny]

There's an off button? :S

[nanofrog]

There's an off button? :S
You forgot?!? That's what happens when you don't use it. :D :p

[irishgrizzly]

I turn it off at night. I notice it works better after a reboot.

[Sandock]

I used to just put it to sleep overnight, but I experienced some issues with OSX dumping the tablet driver on wake up, causing it to crash. I have regularly turned it off at night ever since.

[hexonxonx]

I turn it off when I leave for work at night. It seems I don't use it for much anyways other then seti@home and iTunes music and video storage.

[Dark Dragoon]

If it's going to be idle during the night I suspend (same when I go to work), it wakes up at 8am. It's only ever switched off if I need to move it, or if I'm going to be away for a few days.

Sometimes I have my Mac Pro running 24/7 for a few months at a time with high processor usage. Mostly doing batch video conversions.

[remmy]

Off at night, I guess I don't want it accidentally waking at night, and waking me up at the same time.

[kahine]

The off/on thing being bad/good really went away by the late 90's - before that you could make a case for the circuit cooling/heating thing was bad over time , but honestly I've probably been around over a hundred thousand workstations and servers ranging from Dell to IBM to crap whiteboxes between all our clients and it really makes no difference now

Some turn their machines off every night and theres really zero difference in fail rate than those who leave them on all 24/7 - its more of a power saving issue and personal preference nowadays , if you look at articles in the past several years most all will tell you its not going to make much of a difference as to being good/bad for your computer anymore

[iGary]

Nope, I leave it on all the time.

[Darwin]

Usually have it running all day, except when I go out for the day or when I go to sleep.

[macenforcer]

Turn mine off. When I put it to sleep I always come back to a woke up mac. It does not stay asleep. Too busy to troubleshoot.

[gibbz]

I often run a high-resolution weather model that can take 2 weeks - month to complete a run. So.... no turning off for me usually.

[kgarner]

What is this "off" you speak of. I haven't turned off a machine of mine in years. I just let it go to sleep and be done with it. I will turn them off if I am going to be gone for a few days but that is about the only time.

[umbilical]

its a shame that can works the modem connection and put sleep... you know for put sleep in night and let torrents downloading...

[Celeron]

I find it really shocking that so many people don't turn their machines off. What a waste of electricity. The Mac Pro uses at least 200 watts just sitting there idle. Would you leave a 200 watt light bulb on 24 / 7 for no reason? That just doesn't make good sense.

I've got my set to sleep at 15 minutes, and I always sleep it manually if I'm going to step away for a while.

[Standard]

I only turn mine off when I reboot for updates, does that count? :D

[m1stake]

I find it really shocking that so many people don't turn their machines off. What a waste of electricity. The Mac Pro uses at least 200 watts just sitting there idle. Would you leave a 200 watt light bulb on 24 / 7 for no reason? That just doesn't make good sense.

I've got my set to sleep at 15 minutes, and I always sleep it manually if I'm going to step away for a while.

It's not like energy is expensive or anything.

[UltraNEO*]

I restart it after patching, otherwise it's on all the time!
Similarly the MBP is always on too!

[OZMP]

runs rather averagly if i dont shut down or restart daily... think its coz i play WOW tho

[panzer06]

hi, simple poll... I turn off my mac pro every night... wake up every morning, if I let always turn on can be get some problem? basically the questions is how much time is recommendable use the mac pro without turn off? :confused:

thanks

We shutdown and turn off all the Macs (MacPro, MBP) and PCs (except the server and the backup NAS drive) unless they are being used.

Cheers,

[monkey86]

i turn mine off every night, like the fresh system in the morning :)

although - os x is based on linux which was designed for servers to run constantly - so running it all the time should have no adverse effects!

[D3LM3L]

I never shut mine down unless I'm going away for an extended period of time. Otherwise, I just put it to sleep or reboot for updates.

[Cromulent]

I find it really shocking that so many people don't turn their machines off. What a waste of electricity. The Mac Pro uses at least 200 watts just sitting there idle. Would you leave a 200 watt light bulb on 24 / 7 for no reason? That just doesn't make good sense.

I've got my set to sleep at 15 minutes, and I always sleep it manually if I'm going to step away for a while.

You do realise it uses a tiny amount of electricity when it is sleeping don't you?

[TheThirdMan]

You do realise it uses a tiny amount of electricity when it is sleeping don't you?

A tiny amount over a long time is a large amount. I can't believe how many people leave it on! It's just good habit to turn off a computer when you're not using it. How big are your energy bills?

[Celeron]

You do realise it uses a tiny amount of electricity when it is sleeping don't you?

Yes, I do, its about 5 watts. That's a far cry from leaving it awake all the time, which on my Mac Pro, uses about 230 watts.

[Cromulent]

Yes, I do, its about 5 watts. That's a far cry from leaving it awake all the time, which on my Mac Pro, uses about 230 watts.

I doubt many people do leave it turned and running fully all the time. Most, like myself, let it sleep when they are not using it.

[phrac]

A tiny amount over a long time is a large amount. I can't believe how many people leave it on! It's just good habit to turn off a computer when you're not using it. How big are your energy bills?

Its not that expensive:

Roughly 230 watts to stay awake:
230 watt hours x 24 hours = 5520 watt hours per day
5520 x 30 days = 165,600 watt hours per month
165,600 / 1000 = 165.6 kilowatt hours per month
My average price is about $0.07 per kilowatt hour from my electric provider

165.6 x $0.07 = $11.60 per month roughly to leave it on.

Not really that bad considering my MP is usually up to something whilst I'm away (downloads, encoding, etc)

[Lord Zedd]

I run my G5 24/7. I only restart when app installers or software update requires it.

It downloads torrents all day/night (250GB in the last 20 days) so it has to be on. I do set CPU performance to "reduced" when I am away. Setting it to "automatic" caused software crashes.

The longest I had it on without a restart was 4 months until the 10.5.4 update was released.

[rockinrocker]

i turn mine off unless i'm doing something with it that takes a long time... (convert videos, et.)

[THX1139]

I'd love to leave mine on because it's often busy doing stuff, but it's in my bedroom and it makes the room too hot if I keep it running! Gives you an idea of how much power it consumes by how much heat it give off. Of course, it might be because I have 4 drives and 6gb of ram... but still! In the wintertime, I don't need to have heat on in my bedroom because my MacPro keeps it nice and toasty. In the summer, I have to sleep or turn it off unless I run the AC to keep the room cool.

I read somewhere from a reliable resource that turning your computer on and off causes the circuits to expand and contract, which in turn, wears them out quicker. I also heard/read that hard drives last longer if you keep them spinning at a constant temperature. Not sure how true that is... makes more sense to me to turn everything off to save wear and tear if your going to be away from your computer for more than 12 hours. Those 12 hours of non-use really starts to add up over the long haul and could really save on energy costs and your computer wearing out early.

[fluidedge]

apart from the fact i couldn't understand a word the OP said, I'm shocked at the number of people who leave their computer on all the time.

Aside from the cost of electricity (which judging from the average age of forumites these days, mummy and daddy pay for) there is the constant wear on your HDDs, fans, PSU, Graphics card fans etc. All of that is getting unnecessarily worn out from leaving them running 24/7. Why shorten the life of it?

Also don't you start with a clean slate when you reboot? The RAM empties etc. If you never restart you must have badly fragmented drives too

[Chilz0r]

mine usually runs 24/7, doesnt effect energy consumption much either way.
I believe the PSU is capable of handling the long usage, i mean the system is practically server grade' meaning always on mode - and its more than capable of handling that.

the fact that it draws more energy on every power on and cold boots, unless theyre infrequent cause heavy impedence on the system ... though theyre able to handle it otherwise it would be clearly noted "DO NOT TURN MACHINE OFF/ON EVERY SO OFTEN ETC ETC"

the technology is so advanced now, its safe to leave them running.
you may benefit from just putting it into sleep mode then pressing a key to wake it up, generally gives the hardware and circuitry a flux power draw and doesnt stress it too much.

If the technology is so advanced, then why can't you turn it off every so often. What your saying doesn't really make any sense?

[UltraNEO*]

A tiny amount over a long time is a large amount. I can't believe how many people leave it on! It's just good habit to turn off a computer when you're not using it. How big are your energy bills?

Technically speaking, I could leave all the equipment on! My air conditioner is on constantly from experience that uses the most amounts of electricity, controlling the environment keeping it lovely and cosy around 26-27°C ... My fuel bills are constant written in the contract, works out to be about £25 a month (in your currency) for gas, water, electric and building maintenance. Even if i go away for months I still have to pay the same amount!! :rolleyes:

[byocrysis]

I turn mine "off" when I go "off" on vacation and put it to "sleep" when I go to "sleep".

[fluidedge]

laptops i can understand putting to sleep, but desktops i don't see the point.

My MP takes about 30 seconds to boot, probably less in fact so it's not like you're saving any time.

[umbilical]

Save the Planet and money, turn off if not use! hehe. ;)

[AppleNewton]

I generally keep mine running. i just dont see a reason to shut it off everytime i dont use it.
My energy bill isn't really affected as i have barely a few things plugged in and ever used at once or at all.

I leave IM's up and projects rendering as well as downloads and uploads consistently going so to me, its more of a gotta be available 24/7

I just dont really have an issue with it, to each their own.

[richard.mac]

Save the Planet and money, turn off if not use! hehe. ;)

but how much power is used when asleep? only the RAM is powered. you could also use hibernation which uses no power at all (i think) and it resumes quicker than a boot.

[Umbongo]

but how much power is used when asleep? only the RAM is powered. you could also use hibernation which uses no power at all (i think) and it resumes quicker than a boot.

They are supposed to use less than 10W when sleeping. From an individuals perspective the difference between this and being off for 8 hours a day is maybe like $5 a year cost. A bigger difference between idling and sleep though where you are looking at about $65 a year @ 15 cents per KWh. Of course the enviromental issues aren't about single users, they are about everyone doing such things.

[richard.mac]

They are supposed to use less than 10W when sleeping. From an individuals perspective the difference between this and being off for 8 hours a day is maybe like $5 a year cost. A bigger difference between idling and sleep though where you are looking at about $65 a year @ 15 cents per KWh. Of course the enviromental issues aren't about single users, they are about everyone doing such things.

interesting thanks. sounds about right. where did you get the numbers? was it just a guesstimate?

well you cant get everyone to do this but i think an idividual's effort is better than nothing.

how about this? what if webservers had one section of servers for the northern hemisphere and another for the southern hemisphere and both would be at full power during the day but during the night they could shut down a few servers to save energy. would this even work or save any energy?

[Umbongo]

interesting thanks. sounds about right. where did you get the numbers? was it just a guesstimate?

well you cant get everyone to do this but i think an idividual's effort is better than nothing.

http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/specs.html

The numbers are similar to what I've seen people list on here over the last two years.

[rpaloalto]

I try to keep my mac pro on as much as possible. I will put her to sleep over night, or when I when I will be away from her for 30 minutes or more.

She does get a reboot every few days when I need to boot into different OS.

[bigbird]

Turning on and off any electronic device is not a good idea. The inrush of current that charges capacitors and energizes inductors does shorten the life of components. This is a fact, not a hypothesis. I always put my MP to sleep after 10 min of inactivity using energy saver. Yes, the hard drives spinning up after sleep do get the same inrush of current. Their MTBF (mean time between failure) is so high, at least 50 000 hours, that they should last at least 5 years. I'd rather sacrifice hard drives than the motherboard of my MP. The only time I shut off my MP, monitor, or printer is during the threat of an electrical storm. Lightning strikes that can and do get into the house electrical distribution system are MUCH nastier than any on-off surges. The POCO's (power company) inability to regulate lightning and transformer overload surges almost guarantees electronics damage in the event of a close power line lightning strike. The main disconnect in your electrical panel can never react fast enough to limit the effect of an overcurrent surge. Whole house surge protectors sound nice, but also are not very effective. The safest thing you can do during an electrical storm is to unplug any electronic device that is of high value. You generally don't have to worry about non-electronic devices like motors (fridge, dryer, A/C, freezer) or heaters. If they have mechanical switches and timers rather than electronic they can take surges that would destroy electronics. BTW, I am a high school electronics instructor and electrician with lots of training and experience.

[Cromulent]

how about this? what if webservers had one section of servers for the northern hemisphere and another for the southern hemisphere and both would be at full power during the day but during the night they could shut down a few servers to save energy. would this even work or save any energy?

What about people who want to access websites at night? Would you be happy if Mac Rumours was not available all the time? What about other websites.

Servers need to be on 24/7.

[Robby Dobby]

Dunno bout u guys, but if I power-down at night and power-up next morning Safari seems much snappier. :)

[fluidedge]

Dunno bout u guys, but if I power-down at night and power-up next morning Safari seems much snappier. :)

oh my aching sides

[SDLSteve]

I turn it off if I know I'm not going to use it for awhile (possibly overnight plus day) like during the weekdays. I'll put it to sleep on weekends though.

[hexonxonx]

I've started using the schedule so that my Mac Pro turns off when I leave for work and then turns on when I get home. It will probably save some power usage now.

[product26]

sleep

[grue]

Dunno bout u guys, but if I power-down at night and power-up next morning Safari seems much snappier. :)

Probably has something to do with Safari being more prone to sucking than a drunken sorority girl.

[aibo]

Bought mine at launch and I've never turned it off. Reboots for the ocassional software updates.

[richard.mac]

What about people who want to access websites at night? Would you be happy if Mac Rumours was not available all the time? What about other websites.

Servers need to be on 24/7.

i mean just turn some of them off. most of the web traffic in the northern hemisphere is during the day. just turning off <25% would save loads of energy.

[Trekkie]

mine's been on, with a battery making sure it doesn't go off, about 24x7 since I got it in September 2006.

About 3 days down time when the ATI card failed back in March, but otherwise, no problems.

[Ploki]

whats the power usage Sleep VS Shut Off

i shut it of from time to time and when i know i wont be home on morning

[Cromulent]

i mean just turn some of them off. most of the web traffic in the northern hemisphere is during the day. just turning off <25% would save loads of energy.

What if you only have one server running your website though? Or you need more than one server to handle the load? Turning servers off really isn't an option. If companies could save money by reducing the number of servers they have, I'm sure they would have done it by now.