Receiving new 27" iMac tomorrow. I assume most here would recommend turning off at night. My assumption is - turn on early morning, turn off in evening. Yes? No?
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New 27" iMac - Turn off or keep on
- Thread starter JD Shaw
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I don't know if I can speak here for most, but I would say:
Turn it off at night, if that pleases you - it's your choice.
If you bought that new iMac with an SSD, boot is really fast, maybe slower if you have a fusion drive.
Or, leave your iMac on, and simply sleep your iMac when you are not using it.
I think that many here do not shut a Mac off at night. I think the last time I shut my Mac off overnight was about 6 months ago. It is almost never off.
Put your Mac to sleep. That's a very low power mode, virtually no power used at all when sleeping.
Then, press any key to wake up, often almost instant wake, certainly less than 5 seconds.
Turn it off at night, if that pleases you - it's your choice.
If you bought that new iMac with an SSD, boot is really fast, maybe slower if you have a fusion drive.
Or, leave your iMac on, and simply sleep your iMac when you are not using it.
I think that many here do not shut a Mac off at night. I think the last time I shut my Mac off overnight was about 6 months ago. It is almost never off.
Put your Mac to sleep. That's a very low power mode, virtually no power used at all when sleeping.
Then, press any key to wake up, often almost instant wake, certainly less than 5 seconds.
I never really turn mine off.
I usually put it to sleep on nights, unless there's something going on.
Now it have been uploading 1st time to Backblace ~2 months so I have only made restarts when it have been needed.
Soon finished though.
Can't see any reasons to turn it off, unless you go on vacation/leaving for awhile.
But then you might want to have it available from somewhere anyway.
I usually put it to sleep on nights, unless there's something going on.
Now it have been uploading 1st time to Backblace ~2 months so I have only made restarts when it have been needed.
Soon finished though.
Can't see any reasons to turn it off, unless you go on vacation/leaving for awhile.
But then you might want to have it available from somewhere anyway.
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Personal preference really, but I don't see a reason to turn it off - just put it to sleep or lock the screen when you aren't using it. When you come back to use it (even if a few days later), it will wake right up without having to wait for it to turn on. Also, the Power Nap feature will keep your Mac up to date during sleep mode (iCloud updates, software updates, etc.).
I've usually left the computer always on, letting only the displays to be turned off after 20 min. This is because I've often read that turning on and off a computer isn't good for some components.... Not sure whether it's true, perhaps I should put it to sleep at night 
I have always shut down my machines at night, when there is a thunderstorm, and when I am going to be away from the computer for more than a few hours. Definitely my machines are shut down when I am going out of town. I've been doing this since my very first computer way back when (very early 1990s) and as far as I know it has never harmed any components, my machines have always lasted for years.
My normal routine is to just set the display to turn off after 20 minutes. I do not put it into "sleep mode" at night. This seems to work fine, with the computer in a low power consumption state with the display off. Don't have the numbers right in front of me, but the measured difference in power consumption between display off (with a reasonable brightness setting) and a true "sleep" is inconsequential.
I try to do a restart perhaps once a month. But often there is an update that comes along that requires a restart. In that case, I just wait until the next month.
I try to do a restart perhaps once a month. But often there is an update that comes along that requires a restart. In that case, I just wait until the next month.
I always let mine sleep, but to do this suggest a decent UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) and updates look after reboots.
I put my iMac to sleep over night and only reboot if I notice my applications acting a little funky or slowing down for no good reason. My father turns his off at night and on when he gets up. I always unplug my computers during a thunderstorm even though they are plugged into surge protectors. I don't care a lightning bolt has a lot of power and all it takes is one good spark to bypass the protection and all you can say is bye bye to your computer.
My early 2009 is on for months at a time. It sleeps with display off after about a half-hour, and it's on a UPS. If the house is going to be empty for more than a week or so we'll turn it off and unplug it.
I honestly don't think it matters a whole lot any more, particularly with reasonably modern hard drives and SSD's. A power cycle on a 6U Fujitsu Eagle hard drive was much more of an event than a power cycle of a present day WD Black, not to mention a non-mechanical SSD.
I honestly don't think it matters a whole lot any more, particularly with reasonably modern hard drives and SSD's. A power cycle on a 6U Fujitsu Eagle hard drive was much more of an event than a power cycle of a present day WD Black, not to mention a non-mechanical SSD.
About putting the Mac to sleep. I have a Fusion Drive in my iMac 2017, which means there's also a spinning hard drive in it; if I put the Mac to sleep, I can hear a big noise lasting a couple seconds which I think comes from the hard drive. Also when I wake the computer up from sleep I can hear a different noise which is likely the disk waking up.
Couldn't sleep cause any damage to hard drives in the long term shortening their life?
Couldn't sleep cause any damage to hard drives in the long term shortening their life?
The HDD would do the same if not more with startup/shutdown. Startups are more stressful then sleep wake ups.
Its up to you. I been letting my iMac sleep for the last 5 years. Occasionally I'll do a reset that requires it being turned off, and if I'm home during a wicked thunderstorm. Even in power outages my UPS keeps it on (asleep).
I usually shut my Mac (or PC, I switch back and forth often) down in the evening or night, when I'm done using it for the day, then boot it up in the morning. That's just me though.
