Screensaver and Sleep Mode? (13'' MBP)

[' r i S e n]

If I am stepping away from my laptop for about 10-15 minutes or so, what is better to do - leaving it there and waiting for the screensaver (or just activating it) or instantly putting it to sleep?

Is it okay to put it to sleep for 30-45 minutes? What about an hour+?

I currently have a Screensaver set to 3 minutes after inactivity, and sleep mode for 5 minutes. Should I leave my screensaver on 3 minutes (lowest setting) and put sleep on "never," or put it to sleep manually when I know I am going to be away for it for over 15 minutes or so? What is best for my computer's health, if either at all?

Thank you to anyone that gives a response.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It really doesn't matter how long the screen save is active, or even when it becomes active, as screen savers are a remnant of the old CRT monitors to prevent content burning into the glass. LCDs don't have that habit, at least not that fast.
Maybe set the display to sleep and then five minutes later the whole computer.
I just put it to sleep directly, when I know I won't be using it.

 

[' r i S e n]

Thanks for the quick response.

I usually just put it directly to sleep as well - even if I end up just walking away for 5 minutes or so to do something. Do you think that is bad in any way? I view it as almost rebooting (not really, of course) in a way. I know in sleep mode that the computer goes in to a "low running state" - but should I be concerned with putting it in that state and pulling it out of it rather quickly at a frequent rate?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

During sleep only the RAM is powered, thus putting it to sleep does NOT harm the computer.
Just use CMD+OPTION/alt+EJECT to put it to sleep.

Really, there is no need to worry.
When I got my first Mac (iBook) I put it to sleep regularly and awoke it again shortly afterwards just to wonder what fine piece of mechanism the sleep function is. I often did that numerous times (a dozen or so) in less than two minutes.

 

[' r i S e n]

During sleep only the RAM is powered, thus putting it to sleep does NOT harm the computer.
Just use CMD+OPTION/alt+EJECT to put it to sleep.

Really, there is no need to worry.
When I got my first Mac (iBook) I put it to sleep regularly and awoke it again shortly afterwards just to wonder what fine piece of mechanism the sleep function is. I often did that numerous times (a dozen or so) in less than two minutes.

Is there a benefit to the keyboard shortcut besides convenience? I just use the option off of the drop down from the picture of the apple.

Thanks for your replies man, I'm a lot less worried now about my sleep spam.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Is there a benefit to the keyboard shortcut besides convenience? I just use the option off of the drop down from the picture of the apple.

Thanks for your replies man, I'm a lot less worried now about my sleep spam.

It doesn't matter how you put it to sleep, I just use the keyboard as it is faster. It takes the right hand to press CMD+OPTION+EJECT about a second to do so, navigating to the menu takes longer than that.
But I am used to using the keyboard.

Btw, you could also just close the lid to sleep the MBP.

 

[' r i S e n]

It doesn't matter how you put it to sleep, I just use the keyboard as it is faster. It takes the right hand to press CMD+OPTION+EJECT about a second to do so, navigating to the menu takes longer than that.
But I am used to using the keyboard.

Btw, you could also just close the lid to sleep the MBP.

That's neat - I knew about the apple drop down obviously and the lid, but I may start getting used to the keyboard shortcuts, along with other keyboard shortcuts as well.

Thanks for your help and verification. : )