Better to sleep or shutdown?

[kuaiyouming]

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[strausd]

Every computer that I've owned has always been shut down when I wasn't using it for an extended period of time (i.e. at night or if I am not using it for several consecutive hours during a day). All I've seen from sleep-mode and other perpetually on methods is that the computer just gets slower and slower over time and eventually dies an early death, likely from overuse and inappropriate management of its lifecycle.

That's what I am thinking will happen. My main concern is at night when I am asleep. When I am on vacation or gone for longer than when I sleep, I will most likely shut down. And when I am just gone for a few hours I will probably just shut it down, unless I need something to render, in which case I will just lock the screen.

Someone else mentioned that he turns his off at night because when it is asleep, it still generates heat and his MP is in his room. Mine will also be in my room and don't want any extra heat, especially living in Texas. It hit 109 today!

 

[macz1]

I dont think sleep mode is a "perpetually on method". This is only true software-wise, but if you look at the hardware, besides the RAM, almost every component is turned off. The HDD are not spinning, the CPU is inactive and even the power supply makes the same ''click'' noise as when you turn the computer completely off (this means that the main power relay is disconnected). The power consumption when sleeping is max. 10W higher than shut down. I don't see how this could wear out the hardware.

In addition to that, I dont think the system gets slower and slower, in my opinion it gets snappier! if you have enough RAM, you can clearly feel that OS X caches many programs and other things in the free RAM, speeding up almost every operation. For App starts its like having an SSD...
putting the Mac to sleep keeps this cache alive.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I haven't shutdown my Macs at the end of the day in years.

Many reasons: 1) it's not really necessary b/c sleeping uses minimal power, 2) OS X does self-maintenance, 3) I have my backup program on my MP scheduled to do it's thing in the wee hours of the night, 4) VNC, 5) Allegedly it's less destructive on the HD since startup puts a lot of stress on them.

 

[Detrius]

So would that mean the logic board gets continuous use even while asleep? Wouldn't that make its life shorter?

While the "logic board" is physically one part, there are many many distinct components on it. Your graphics card, for example, would have no reason to receive any power whatsoever. Your CPU would have no reason to receive any power.

Regardless, we're talking electronics here--not mechanical parts. Using a car causes it to die. Using a hard drive causes it to die. Running small amounts of electricity through metal does not cause the metal not to be metal anymore so long as it's not enough electricity to melt the metal (see incandescent light bulbs and fuses). That's the key detail here. We have satellites at the far reaches of the solar system that have been running for decades with absolutely no way for anyone to swap parts. On the other hand, there are no power surges from lightning strikes, and there's no ESD from people touching them. They do have to deal with radiation and micrometeorites, but after several decades of electricity running through the components, they're still running.

Even when your computer is "off," and unplugged, there's still a clock running. If it's "off" and plugged in, it's still capable of turning "on" based on a schedule, which means there's circuitry running that's thinking about that information. It's still running electricity through the power button. It's not an easy task to cease all electrical flow. What you think of as "off" isn't really.

What will make your machine last longer is a good surge supressor that tells you when it's not doing its job anymore, a UPS for brownouts and blackouts, you being conscious enough to physically unplug everything when there's an electrical storm on the way, and an environment that's cool enough to help the machine prevent itself from overheating.

 

[npropes]

As several posters have said, a UPS is also a very good idea. As to your main question, it really depends on how quickly you want to be able to use the system. There is going to be negligible difference in system life between sleeping and shutting down. You might see a 2-3 month difference in the end life of the system 6-8 years from now. Shutting it down will use less electricity than sleeping, but not very much.

My machine personally is just set to sleep if there isn't any activity after 1 hour. If I'm going to be gone for a night, I'll generally shut it down but not always. If I'm going to be gone for more than a week, not only will I shut it down, but I generally disconnect my UPS as well as my AirPort Extreme, cable modem, printer, etc. Remember any electronic device that is plugged in is at risk for getting fried and they use electricity.

My MacBook Pro is rarely shut down, I just close the lid and put it to sleep when I'm not using it.