Turn Off or Sleep?

[ghsDUDE]

I've had my 2011 iMac on for about a week...it sleeps whenever I'm not using it (work, sleep, etc.).

I turned it off last night and will start it when I get home...my question is, does it matter if it sleeps or is powered off?

In the terms of screen usage/over heating/etc?

 

[onthecouchagain]

The general consensus is that it doesn't matter which you do. If you know you''ll be away from it for a few days, Apple recommends you turn it off. Anything less than a day or two, put to sleep. The differences are marginal.

I haven't turned off my iMac since purchase back in June, and it is running perfectly fine. Personally, I love the fact that I can log in immediately and start using my computer.

 

[greg0rn]

Restart your Mac every so often to clear some old stuff and therefore speed things up.

 

[John T]

If you check your Users Manual, you'll see that Apple recommends the machine is put to sleep when not using it on a regular basis. If the machine is not going to be used for a reasonable length of time, it can be switched off.

 

[Detrius]

Restart your Mac every so often to clear some old stuff and therefore speed things up.

Caches are there to speed your computer up. Clearing them therefore slows your computer down. The reason benchmarks are run on a fresh boot is because they are slower and therefore more accurate (because you'll never do exactly the same thing on exactly the same Photoshop file over and over again).

 

[Icaras]

With the exception of some system error crashes, where I was forced to do cold hard shut downs, I've only turned my iMac off one time in the last 8 months when I took a trip overseas.

I always sleep my Mac. And I restart often anyways because I jump back and forth between Windows and OSX so it takes care of any RAM issues. I see no need to shut off your Mac. I've even read in another thread on the Mac Pro forums a long while back that constantly powering down and turning on may actually wear out the electronics out over time, though I can't remember the specifics why.

Computers have gotten pretty advanced today. Macs specifically are rated Energy Star 5.0 and use very efficient power supplies that handle energy very well and minimally during sleep. I just don't worry about it. I treat my Mac like I do to my iPhone or iPad, and I never shut those down.