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Shutting down vs sleep

NikkiJayne

NikkiJayne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 23, 2012
155
32
England
Today I received my very first Mac, a rMBP. I am in love with it, despite having to google pretty much everything - it can be a rather large learning curve! ;)

Anyway, since I've only ever owned Windows PCs and laptops I was always taught to shut them down every evening. But do I need to do this now or should I just put my MBP to sleep? What do you guys do?
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,598
California
NikkiJayne said:
Today I received my very first Mac, a rMBP. I am in love with it, despite having to google pretty much everything - it can be a rather large learning curve! ;)

Anyway, since I've only ever owned Windows PCs and laptops I was always taught to shut them down every evening. But do I need to do this now or should I just put my MBP to sleep? What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

You will find most Mac users just sleep and only reboot when a software update requires it.
 
Interstella5555

Interstella5555

macrumors 603
Jun 30, 2008
5,219
13
NikkiJayne said:
Today I received my very first Mac, a rMBP. I am in love with it, despite having to google pretty much everything - it can be a rather large learning curve! ;)

Anyway, since I've only ever owned Windows PCs and laptops I was always taught to shut them down every evening. But do I need to do this now or should I just put my MBP to sleep? What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

Even Windows computers don't really require a shut down these days, a reboot every so once and a while won't hurt, but I don't think I've shut down my MBP since I purchased it in Dec, probably years since I did it with my previous Rev 1.
 
J

JTToft

macrumors 68040
Apr 27, 2010
3,447
796
Aarhus, Denmark
I don't see any reason to shut down my computer unless I'm going to be away from it for an extended period of time.

Do as you please. Either is fine.

Oh, and also, I recommend to change the sleep mode from the default where it saves the RAM contents to the SSD.
If you change it so that it doesn't save the RAM contents to the SSD, it will go to sleep faster and you'll save 8-16 GB of space on your SSD (depending on how much RAM you have). The downside is that in the unlikely event you run out of battery, you won't be able to start where you left off.

See this if you're interested: http://www.macworld.com/article/1053471/sleepmode.html
 
Last edited:
gmanist1000

gmanist1000

macrumors 68030
Sep 22, 2009
2,832
824
NikkiJayne said:
Today I received my very first Mac, a rMBP. I am in love with it, despite having to google pretty much everything - it can be a rather large learning curve! ;)

Anyway, since I've only ever owned Windows PCs and laptops I was always taught to shut them down every evening. But do I need to do this now or should I just put my MBP to sleep? What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

The sleep standby time is 30 days. If you are going to be using it within 30 days, just use sleep.

If you will be gone for more than 30 days without use, then use shutdown.
 
BC-2

BC-2

macrumors member
Aug 12, 2012
91
13
I'm also a first time Mac owner. The rMBP shuts down so fast (about 12 sec) it can shut down and restart before my old laptop (PC) can just go to sleep.
 
yusukeaoki

yusukeaoki

macrumors 68030
Mar 22, 2011
2,550
6
Tokyo, Japan
I never shut down my Mac.
I restart it once every month but thats it.

The only time I do shut it down is when it is not plugged into a power source for extended period.
 
ideal.dreams

ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
I actually very rarely use sleep, only when I'm transporting my computer to another place. Other than that I just let the display sleep during the day when it's not in use and I shut it down at night.

It comes down to personal preference.
 
I

inhalexhale1

macrumors 65816
Jul 17, 2011
1,101
745
PA
NikkiJayne said:
Today I received my very first Mac, a rMBP. I am in love with it, despite having to google pretty much everything - it can be a rather large learning curve! ;)

Anyway, since I've only ever owned Windows PCs and laptops I was always taught to shut them down every evening. But do I need to do this now or should I just put my MBP to sleep? What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

+1 for sleep
 
E

EyeLoveMac

macrumors newbie
Aug 7, 2012
13
0
Honestly for me I prefer to shut down my mac every time when I go to sleep.

Why?

Well the rMBP takes 5 seconds to shut down and under 15 seconds to boot up. So why not? I prefer to keep my mac in pristine condition and when I wake up the dream machine I like it looking brand new :D
 
W

warghh

macrumors newbie
Oct 27, 2011
28
0
Wow. I've always shut down my computers at night when I sleep. I've done so for my mac ever since I've gotten it.

Didn't realise so many people just slept theirs.
 
K

Kasalic

macrumors regular
Jan 20, 2011
160
2
I sleep mine 99% of the time. Occasionally I'll shut down, but usually only when Software Update needs it.
 
dusk007

dusk007

macrumors 68040
Dec 5, 2009
3,411
104
I don't think mine has ever been truly off for any longer than the short time between restarts into bootcamp or the time needed to change RAM or HDD.

The same applies to Windows. The only difference is that Windows has more frequent updates and they can be quite annoying with "Pleeeeasse let me restart, pleez, pleez." Every 4 hours.

The difference in modern notebook power consumption is some 0.2-0.4W. Who cares about that. Most devices use more when completely off and plugged in only since there is no hard switch anywhere anymore.
 
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