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Putting your Mac to Sleep/Switching it off?

Keniff

Keniff

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 21, 2008
526
1
United Kingdom
When I got my 1st Mac (about 10 years ago) I was advised by some IBM geek, that I should NEVER switch my computer off!

If I recall he said something along the lines of -
"Never switch it off, unless you have too, as the amount of power/strain that it has to go through to turn back on, and read the whole structure again is usually the reason that causes it to crash/burn out"
etc, etc...

I'm sure we've heard it all before, right?

But, surely these days, Computers/Macs are powerful enough to be turned on and off, without imploding?

For sure, I just put mine to sleep over night, maybe even if I'm away for a weekend, but I'll definitely switch it off if I go on vacation...

But is this practice still relevant today?
Will I get more life out of it, if I just keep doing what I've been doing, or can I switch it off every night when I go to bed?

Is there a tried and tested real life test/rule?
 
Well, for my previous PC, I would never turn it off unless I was away for more than a day or needed to restart. Nothing negative resulted from it, and I got the benefit of not needing to wait for startup. The only thing I noticed was that the thermal paste on the CPU's dried up a bit faster than usual. Nothing a bit of extra paste could fix! ;)
 
I don't think it's something to worry too much about. Given enough time all machines will fail. Does doing daily boot ups hasten the demise of your Mac? Maybe. Although keeping it in sleep 24/7 (which some people swear by – even taking pride in how long there uptime is) will cost you pennies which will add up over the years.
 
My machine sleeps after fifteen minutes, but that's because it draws a heinous amount of power (8x3.0 Clovertown, 8 FB-DIMMs, 4 HDDs, 2 SuperDrives, 3 PCIe cards)… I don't turn it off though, I demand super fast response once I go to do something on it.
 
grue said:
My machine sleeps after fifteen minutes, but that's because it draws a heinous amount of power (8x3.0 Clovertown, 8 FB-DIMMs, 4 HDDs, 2 SuperDrives, 3 PCIe cards)… I don't turn it off though, I demand super fast response once I go to do something on it.
Click to expand...

Waiting 40 seconds for it to start up is an inconvenience?:D

My 08 Mac Pro, 2.8 Octo with 10GB RAM takes 40 secs to load. From pressing the button to OS X fully loaded so I can open the application from the Dock or through a Spotlight search.
 
inigel said:
Waiting 40 seconds for it to start up is an inconvenience?:D

My 08 Mac Pro, 2.8 Octo with 10GB RAM takes 40 secs to load. From pressing the button to OS X fully loaded so I can open the application from the Dock or through a Spotlight search.
Click to expand...

Mine takes a bit less than that courtesy of the Raptor it boots from and the stripped down OS, but honestly… yes, it's too much waiting when I just want to check movie times or something in the evening.

That and the fact that I often leave a bunch of crap open (FireFox tabs, iChat conversations, etc etc… )that I don't want to have to deal with just so I can shut down.
 
The idea that computers of any kind "strain" to start up is a myth. It takes as much energy to start up as it does to open a few applications (give or take) so there is nothing to worry about here.

I think a possible cause for the myth is that old machines, like servers that have been running for years, can develop a hardware fault while they are running but often you only discovered this when you restarted the machine.
 
steveza said:
The idea that computers of any kind "strain" to start up is a myth. It takes as much energy to start up as it does to open a few applications (give or take) so there is nothing to worry about here.
Click to expand...

Um… no. I'm not qualified to comment on strain, but startup draws a lot of power.

Plug a Kill A Watt into your machine, and track it during startup. Then launch a few applications.

My machine goes over 500 watts during startup, and idles around 350 or so. Launching a few small applications simultaneously (e.g., FireFox & iChat & Mail) kicks it up to about 400.
 
I never said power though. Perhaps I should have used the word effort instead of energy seeing as we are talking about strain here.
 
steveza said:
The idea that computers of any kind "strain" to start up is a myth. It takes as much energy to start up as it does to open a few applications (give or take) so there is nothing to worry about here.

I think a possible cause for the myth is that old machines, like servers that have been running for years, can develop a hardware fault while they are running but often you only discovered this when you restarted the machine.
Click to expand...

You're contradicting yourself, as your example is very true. It's not a restart really that is worrisome; it's a power down.

Old disk drives that have been spinning for some time are a concern when powered off. The reason is that the motor has weakened, and while it has enough power to keep the platter spinning, it may not have enough power to start the platter spinning.

Thus, it takes more energy to start the platters spinning than it does to keep them spinning. That's basic physics.

EDIT: Just saw your reply above (must have been posted while I was typing). Power = effort required in my example. The motors will pull more current when starting up versus after they get the platters spinning.
 
More said:
Ahh. One of those urban myths finally dispelled. I've been thinking about this recently as I always switch off my mac pro every night at the wall socket - after shutting it down obviously. Good to know I can continue to do it with no adverse affects :D
Click to expand...

Ok, I have to admit I have no idea, so I'm going to ask:

What's the point of switching stuff off at the wall socket when it's already powered down? Yes, it probably draws 1-5 watts doing nothing, but really, what's the difference?
 
grue said:
Ok, I have to admit I have no idea, so I'm going to ask:

What's the point of switching stuff off at the wall socket when it's already powered down? Yes, it probably draws 1-5 watts doing nothing, but really, what's the difference?
Click to expand...

Is it because it good practice for reducing these kind of costs?

008_vampire_energy.gif



Plus if you don't have a surge protector you can safe guard your stuff this way.
 
I only turn my Mac Pro off when I know I'm not going to be using it for 5+ days.

5 days is where I draw the line between sleep or off. I'll put her to sleep 99% of the time!

And as for the machine "burning out", I think that's just a big myth. The only thing that I could see being hurt by an on/off type of procedure would be the hard drives spinning up and down. While this does decrease the life of the hard drive, it's not necessarily something to be too concerned about.
 
irishgrizzly said:
Is it because it good practice for reducing these kind of costs?

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/008/images/008_vampire_energy.gif[IMG]


Plus if you don't have a surge protector you can safe guard your stuff this way.[/QUOTE]

I suppose it's all well and good that people are doing that, but if someone said "Give me $35 (or even 50 or 60) or start turning off your computer at the power point every time you're done using it for the next year", it's worth (to me) the convenience of not having to do it ;)
Click to expand...
 
grue said:
Ok, I have to admit I have no idea, so I'm going to ask:

What's the point of switching stuff off at the wall socket when it's already powered down? Yes, it probably draws 1-5 watts doing nothing, but really, what's the difference?
Click to expand...

I switch it off at the wall because my 30" ACD white block power adaptor makes an annoying high pitched whine and since my system is in the bedroom it drives me nuts ;)
 
grue said:
Ok, I have to admit I have no idea, so I'm going to ask:

What's the point of switching stuff off at the wall socket when it's already powered down? Yes, it probably draws 1-5 watts doing nothing, but really, what's the difference?
Click to expand...

I have 3 surge protectors in my home office.

One for each of our 2 computers, and a common surge protector that I use for things that ~should~ always be on.

The 2 protectors on each computer get turned off at night (they are mounted under my desk with the switches easily accesable. Also attached to these protectors are items like speakers, external HD's, powered USB hubs, etc - things solely associated with each computer.

On the 3rd protector is my Cable Modem, Router, Printer, and cordless phone. These things are always ON.

OCD? No. It makes my wife happy when she reads articles on VAMPIRE energy :).

-fate
 
I think it's almost a complete waste of time to shut it down. I borrowed a 'Kill-a-Watt' from a friend at one point in the past. My Mac Pro consumes 14 W when off (!!!) and 20 W when put to sleep. Startup is intensive, power draw is 400 W for two minutes. My monitor draws 6 W, regardless whether it's off or asleep.
 
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