Sleep or Shut Off?

[212rikanmofo]

Do most of you put your iMac to sleep or completely shut it down after using it? Curious to know which method is better.

I'm assuming that most people shut down since a lot of the new iMac's are using either Fusion Drive or SSD now. So start-up shouldn't be a problem.

 

[phrehdd]

Do most of you put your iMac to sleep or completely shut it down after using it? Curious to know which method is better.

I'm assuming that most people shut down since a lot of the new iMac's are using either Fusion Drive or SSD now. So start-up shouldn't be a problem.

I have put Mac Pro, iMac and Mac Mini to sleep as a general rule and shut off only under particular instances.

 

[buysp]

My Fusion Drive iMac is super quick, so just shut it down every night.
I'm getting around 10 second start-ups!

 

[martosprint]

I've always shut down my two iMacs at the end of the day since getting them in 2007 and have never had a problem. My first iMac was in 2007 and the new one is a late 2012 with fusion drive. Why leave them on at the end of each day, for me it makes no sense.

 

[talmy]

Lots of threads on this with no conclusive answer.

I'm assuming that most people shut down since a lot of the new iMac's are using either Fusion Drive or SSD now. So start-up shouldn't be a problem.

Let me say that we sleep all our systems (except the server, which is always on), including a MacBook Air (with an SSD, of course). Instant on is still faster than 10 seconds. I'll ask this -- how many people shut down their iPads/iPods/iPhones?

 

[Icaras]

Sleep.

Shutdown if your going to be away for more than a few days.

 

[Sanatogen]

I just put it to sleep. I don't see any reason to shut it off unless I'm going away on holiday.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Do most of you put your iMac to sleep or completely shut it down after using it? Curious to know which method is better.

I'm assuming that most people shut down since a lot of the new iMac's are using either Fusion Drive or SSD now. So start-up shouldn't be a problem.

I put mine to sleep but ONLY the display. The display is what eats power, it doesn't make much sense to me to put the whole computer to sleep.

 

[Arfdog]

Do most of you put your iMac to sleep or completely shut it down after using it? Curious to know which method is better.

I'm assuming that most people shut down since a lot of the new iMac's are using either Fusion Drive or SSD now. So start-up shouldn't be a problem.

This is a funny question, because it only confounds so-called techies who probably know too much and have a history with PCs.

Sleeping is worlds better than shutting down. Sleeping uses almost zero power, yet retains the last state of your computer. This is a miracle! Up until the 2000's, you had to shut down so your computer could "reset" itself. Gone are those days.

Why anyone would shutdown rather than sleep is beyond common sense, lol. The "shutdown" option will go the way of the dodo bird, and soon we'll just be left with "on/off" and the computer will go into some kind of extremely low-power state on its own and shut down only when needed.

If there's anyone left who chooses to shutdown, they are probably a bit paranoid and in the extreme minority.

 

[richard13]

I put mine to sleep but ONLY the display. The display is what eats power, it doesn't make much sense to me to put the whole computer to sleep.

Same here. I just leave mine running. I don't think it uses much power idling. Besides my iMac acts as a server to my MacBook Pro.

But... if I had to choose *and* if Apple would fix the "sometimes crash while sleeping" bug I would sleep rather than shut down.

 

[blanka]

Shut down all the time. If I'm away for an hour or more I turn my computers off. It's 10 seconds to boot, so that's not a problem. Not paranoid but I don't like things being useless. Just like leaving your car engine running while waiting for someone....

 

[korgri]

power consumption

Mac minis consume 11 watts at rest and about 85 watts at full steam.
The two I use stay on. A Mac Pro (4,1 in this case) sucks 900 watts out
of the wall. It stays off unless I need it specifically.