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you turn off your mac pro?
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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?
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,
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?
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.
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)
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.
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.
i turn mine off unless i'm doing something with it that takes a long time... (convert videos, et.)
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.
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.
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
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
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?
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
She does get a reboot every few days when I need to boot into different OS.
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.