poll: how long dose your mac take to boot?

[Mord]

mine takes 38 seconds

450MHz cube (7200rpm HD 704 mb ram radeon 9000 10.3.3)

[wordmunger]

Well, I hardly ever boot my computer up from zero, but just for kicks I tried it right now.

Ti400, 1:51

Like I said, I generally use sleep. I only boot for system updates and bootup time polls.

[1macker1]

G4 iMac 800Mhz
25 sec

[CrackedButter]

I've booted my mac 4 times in the last 4 months, i'm not a good person to ask, but i do know it is fast.

[jackieonasses]

i clocked 20 seconds flat with my single 1.8 G5

and i never do boot up either...

[wdlove]

Because of recommendation, I leave my G4 on 24/7. It gives Panther a chance to do its own repair work. So mine comes on instantaneously.

[musicpyrite]

I don't know because you need to turn off your computer to boot it up, and I NEVER do that. ;)

[Mord]

neither do i but i just installed a wicked fast 7200rpm HD in my cube so had to reboot for the first time in a while and it booted super fast so i did it again measuring (later I realised that i had updated to 1.3.3 so that slowed it down a bit it's now at 20 secs :).

[stoid]

Even with my 1.25 Ghz Aluminum PowerBook I hardly ever restart. I shut it down on the occasional update that requires a restart so that I can clean it off.

It takes about 1:15 from cold to logged in a ready to go.


My family has an old 733 Mhz Quicksilver, and after upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive they go cold to log-in screen in 23 seconds!

[wrldwzrd89]

mine takes 38 seconds

450MHz cube (7200rpm HD 704 mb ram radeon 9000 10.3.3)
How strange! I have a 1.25 GHz iMac G4, also running 10.3.3, with a Nvidia GeForce 5200 graphics card and 512 MB of RAM (I don't know the speed of the HD) - it also takes 38 seconds to boot, yet my machine has LESS RAM and a processor that's a little bit over 2.75 times as fast as yours. I guess that means boot times don't increase linearly with processor speed and decrease with additional RAM.

[damson34]

24 seconds on my 900mhz G3 iBook

[vanmonkey]

Because of recommendation, I leave my G4 on 24/7. It gives Panther a chance to do its own repair work. So mine comes on instantaneously.
Exactly what is this repair work you speak of?

[applemacdude]

about 19 seconds on my imac 1.25ghz

[haiggy]

What do you consider a start up. To the login screen or after you're logged in and able to work? My 933 iBook seems to take about 45 seconds... I dunno why, but its not like I restart my computer anyways.

[abhishekit]

on my ibook, it takes a lil over 1 minute..i m not gonna check how much..as i dont wanna spoil my uptime...i never shut it down..

[blue&whiteman]

50-58 sec.

[realityisterror]

34 seconds to login window on 15" iMac 800MHz...
interestingly, it always takes longer to login the first time after booting up. personally i wish everything was loaded before reaching the login window...

reality

[Macmaniac]

I'd say 30 to 40 seconds for me, I have never bothered clocking it but now next time I turn it on I will clock it, it is much faster hen it used to be, my iMac has gone from 9.2 to 10.1 to 10.2.8 and every time it gets faster so when I put panther On I hope it speeds up a bit.

[thecow]

Is it actually better to leave it on? I always shut my TiBook down when I am not using it.

[chv400]

geez guess i'm just weird but my comp takes at least 4 minutes. It started to take longer after i installed the ATA Card but then again at the same time i set up networking to my borthers room and it always takes 1-2minutes waiting for network intilization. Iu sually leave it on all the time so i don't notice it much. I've gone 3days 1hour and 8 minutes with out restarting. as of 4/14/04 at 8:32 central

[fBaran]

65seconds from when I push the power button to when Login screen. Another minute to finish logging in!

See sig for specs.

[ethernet76]

Is it actually better to leave it on? I always shut my TiBook down when I am not using it.

Probably not. More use it more likely to wear down more quickly. Most people recommend shutting down if the 2 minutes to get all logged back in doesn't bother you.

[abhishekit]

Probably not. More use it more likely to wear down more quickly. Most people recommend shutting down if the 2 minutes to get all logged back in doesn't bother you.
well..not sure you are right there dude..unix machines are supposed to be always on..where did you read that it harms system?

[mms]

It doesn't harm the system if you don't have those cron jobs run, but it is certainly recommended because it helps the computer run faster by deleting unneeded cache files, among other things. However, becase Unix was originally for servers that were on and active 24/7, the maintenance script was set to run around two or three AM in the morning, a time that would have been unobtrusive.

These tasks can be run manually either from the Terminal or by using some third-party app such as MacJanitor or Cocktail, eliminating the need for the computer to be on all night. Remember that if the computer is on sleep, these scripts don't run. I run the cron jobs manually and either shut the computer down or let it sleep at night, depending on whether or not I have to use it the following morning before I go to school. I haven't heard anywhere that it is bad to shut the computer down every single time, but just a matter or convenience for most people.

[Westside guy]

It's just that OSes like Linux and BSD are stable and don't have memory leaks, which are the main reasons for rebooting.

There are free tools like anacron that'll manage your cron better, and were written with portable computers in mind (I think this is my third post in three days regarding anacron) - it'll make sure those "3am cron jobs" get run even if your computer is off at 3am.

I only reboot my Powerbook when a software update requires it. Normally I just let it sleep when I'm not using it.

[tomf87]

PB 17" 1.33 with 1GB RAM and 4200rpm drive: ~75 seconds from power on

Also, as for the Unix on 24/7 debate, keep in mind that the original Unix servers were not running on laptops and/or desktops. They were running on hardware designed for 24/7 operation.

I seriously doubt that any manufacturer designs their laptops and desktops for 24/7 use. However, many people have left their machines on 24/7 with no issues. Personally, I've done both and never seen a problem either way on any OS. My iMac is only on for roughly 1-2 hours per day, and the cron scripts never run, and it is as stable as my PowerBook which gets the scripts ran daily.

Of course, some operating systems require a reboot to remain stable, but that is another story.

[neoelectronaut]

I have the ATi eMac.

I have a little "Uptime Clock" in the menu bar, and when the Mac boots, I find that the clock usually hovers somewhere between 28 and 35 seconds. Not bad.

[mklos]

Around 20 to 25 seconds on a 1 GHz iMac running Mac OS X.3.3 with 768 MB DDR RAM.

[sonofslim]

450MHz cube, 45 seconds from power on to menu bar.

[NusuniAdmin]

Beige g3 500 mhz, 352 meg ram, boots in 40 seconds flat, 10.2.8.

Dual 1 ghz g4...lets just say it takes a while cause of its 1 gig ram...os x needs a way to disable the ram check...

[wdlove]

I just tried it on my G4 dual 450 after I had updated my SystemWorks. It took 91 seconds.

[Mord]

out of intrest wdlove do you acctuall have any pci cards in that g4 of yours?

if not you should of got a cube

there so cool

[wrldwzrd89]

out of intrest wdlove do you acctuall have any pci cards in that g4 of yours?

if not you should of got a cube

there so cool

The G4 Cube certainly was a neat design. It had two big problems, though: One: It was overpriced. Two: The design alone couldn't sell it in large enough numbers to be profitable for Apple. I wasn't in the market for a computer when the Cubes were out - that's why I didn't buy one. Hector is right about PCI cards - if you don't have any now and you aren't expecting to need any in the future, a non-expandable computer like the Cube is a good idea.

[Pandakin]

I sometimes restart my eMac 800 when i need to (at night i put it to sleep cos the damn thing is sooooooo loud) i'd love to leave it on - i feel sometimes (doesn't happen in 10.3.3) that the machine slows down after a few hours of use unfortunately - however it only takes 21 secs to get to the login screen and 30 secs to get everything loaded after i log in. Glad Apple sorted the boot lag time issues in 10.3.2 and why did it take them so long to fix it !!!

Still why does my eMac slow down after some hours, I suspect memory leaks - is there anyway to optimise the os for speed - any apps or scripts - i know windows has that.

Thanks - Ant

[slooksterPSV]

I don't have a Mac yet, but I'm planning to buy a new iBook if they come out Monday, but when you guys leave yours on how much is your electricity bill? The reason I ask is because I'm wondering if Macs are more energy efficient than pcs

[millillillion]

i have an emac its boot time is about 42 seconds with 10.3.3
1ghz
640mb of ram
the rest of it

[ZildjianKX]

I don't have a Mac yet, but I'm planning to buy a new iBook if they come out Monday, but when you guys leave yours on how much is your electricity bill? The reason I ask is because I'm wondering if Macs are more energy efficient than pcs

I think most people put their mac into sleep mode... if you're wondering about power consumption, it depends on the mac. If you're getting an iBook, I wouldn't even worry about it... it being a laptop and all. Now the Powermacs have up to a 600 W powersupply.

[JOD8FY]

31 seconds here.

JOD8FY

[Ozi]

on my old dinosaur of a G3 Lombard (192 mb ram, stock HD.)

this is from boot to fully ready to go... ie from turning on power to having logged in, ready to do stuff, all startup aps ready. (Menu Meters (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17713) is what i used to time it... "uptime clock" and also Happy Wife (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/happywife.html) had to load... great for putting in little things about your girlfriend... *winks sleazily*)

[CubeHacker]

38 seconds from chime to when the dock pops up. I would say about 66% of that time is spent on that grey screen with the spinning flower thing. My specs are in my sig.

[Mord]

what was your emac before you overclocked it?

[wrldwzrd89]

38 seconds from chime to when the dock pops up. I would say about 66% of that time is spent on that grey screen with the spinning flower thing. My specs are in my sig.
With 1GB of RAM in that overclocked eMac, I'm not surprised that it spends 66% of boot time on the spinner screen. Your eMac tests its memory while that spinner is showing; the more memory you have, the longer the test takes.

[CubeHacker]

With 1GB of RAM in that overclocked eMac, I'm not surprised that it spends 66% of boot time on the spinner screen. Your eMac tests its memory while that spinner is showing; the more memory you have, the longer the test takes.

I guess that makes sense. Although I do hear the hard drive working a good bit while the circle is spinning. If I were to just count the time it took from when the progress bar appears to desktop, i'd say about 5 seconds :)

And the eMac was originally 800mhz.

[thecow]

How did you overclock it?

[wrldwzrd89]

I guess that makes sense. Although I do hear the hard drive working a good bit while the circle is spinning. If I were to just count the time it took from when the progress bar appears to desktop, i'd say about 5 seconds :)

And the eMac was originally 800mhz.
The reason you hear the hard drive grinding when the spinner is on screen is because the memory test isn't the only thing Mac OS X does during that time. It also has to load the kernel and start enough system services to display the "Welcome to Mac OS X" screen that follows.

[virividox]

40 secs roughly i love this topic it keeps coming up hehehe

[Cnoffis]

about 20 seconds...

got a Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz

[dudeami]

about 1'15" G4 933MHz