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Can I keep my iMac on all night?

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0blivion

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2008
98
0
Hey everyone!

Well, I ordered an 24" iMac with 2.93 GHz (I think thats the number) and I am supposed to get it today. Anyways. I was wondering if it is safe to keep it on all night and never turn it off. Will it become slower? When should I shut it off?
 
its safe but not constantly. at least put it to sleep. i usually monitor my mbp's uptime and will shut it down everynow and then. this might be just superstitious of me but heck i do it anyway.

and yes think of the planet!
 
Just let it sleep.

But, maybe I'm just remembering the "old" hard drives of yore...
I don't let the hard drives go to sleep.
Again, things may be different now, but from what I know one of the most stressful procedures for a hard drive is starting up. I'd rather not stress the weakest component in my computer any more than I have to.
 
I have an uptime counter on both of my Macs. If it goes over 10 hours, I simply shut the machine down for an hour or two. If I go out and I have finished what I'm doing then yeh, I'll shut them down. In the middle of a project then I'll just put them in sleep mode.

If I'm waiting for something to finish like uploading then I turn my brightness on the screen all the way down and go do something pro-active.
 
I have the iMac 2.93 also and for me, I make the screen close pretty fast but I make my cpu go to sleep after 3hours of inactivity.
 
i have run downloads nightly for a long time. just turn the screen off after an hour or so and then have the cpu set to be left on until you make it go to sleep.

i use caffeine on my MacBook and then dim the screen until it goes off. works great for me although i understand these are 2 different applications.
 
charlesbronsen said:
I put it to sleep every nite. Turn it off when I leave for work in the morn.
Click to expand...
I do the same for my 5-day-old iMac, but for different reasons. My night is shorter than my work day, plus I like the instant-on in the morning to check the news, weather, and email. Then I power it down and head for the office.
 
What?

wfoster said:
I have an uptime counter on both of my Macs. If it goes over 10 hours, I simply shut the machine down for an hour or two. If I go out and I have finished what I'm doing then yeh, I'll shut them down. In the middle of a project then I'll just put them in sleep mode.

If I'm waiting for something to finish like uploading then I turn my brightness on the screen all the way down and go do something pro-active.
Click to expand...

Why? Seems like a huge hassle to do so.

Pro-active. I think this word does not mean what you think it means. Perhaps active fits better there.
 
Is sleepon new iMacs the same as on notebooks? I know when I sleep my iBook, it is practically shut down. No moving parts, no processes running- essentially it stays on just enough to return me to the state I left it in. I can leave my iBook unplugged for weeks on end with very little loss of battery. Do iMacs reach the same level of powersaving or is this a notebook thing?
 
wfoster said:
I have an uptime counter on both of my Macs. If it goes over 10 hours, I simply shut the machine down for an hour or two.
Click to expand...

Shutting a computer down for 1 to 2 hours every 10 is TOTALLY unnecessary.

One of my computers and yes ... its even a non-mac.... has an uptime of about 9 months cos i use it as a home backup machine
 
You can keep it on if you are running something.

If you are not using it, then sleep it.

A lot of users keept it on and sleeps a Mac when not in use. Restart usually only when a system update requires it.

wfoster said:
I have an uptime counter on both of my Macs. If it goes over 10 hours, I simply shut the machine down for an hour or two. If I go out and I have finished what I'm doing then yeh, I'll shut them down. In the middle of a project then I'll just put them in sleep mode.

If I'm waiting for something to finish like uploading then I turn my brightness on the screen all the way down and go do something pro-active.
Click to expand...

OSX is not windows. You can safely run OSX for weeks or months at a time. Restarting every 10 hours is a waste of time.
 
I leave mine on 24/7. I sleep the display at night so it's not shining in my face when I'm asleep.
 
jtgotsjets said:
Is sleepon new iMacs the same as on notebooks? I know when I sleep my iBook, it is practically shut down. No moving parts, no processes running- essentially it stays on just enough to return me to the state I left it in. I can leave my iBook unplugged for weeks on end with very little loss of battery. Do iMacs reach the same level of powersaving or is this a notebook thing?
Click to expand...

Yes. Just like on a notebook, only the RAM is powered in sleep (and a few other small circuits to sense waking, like USB).
 
trose said:
Just let it sleep.

But, maybe I'm just remembering the "old" hard drives of yore...
I don't let the hard drives go to sleep.
Again, things may be different now, but from what I know one of the most stressful procedures for a hard drive is starting up. I'd rather not stress the weakest component in my computer any more than I have to.
Click to expand...

Amen to that. Cooling your HD down and then warming it back up is hard on it. Keeping it on is a good thing....just turn off the display
 
I just have it sleep hd and monitor in like 15min but mine never turns off, my mini that is.
 
when I'm in and not using it, it sleeps. when I go out for a few it sleeps, when I'm out for a few hours or more, I turn it off. but then I just have a thing about to many page-outs, a large uptime number doesn't impress me, and why waste power.
 
There have been discussions in the past about this. One thing no one's pointed out in this thread is wear on the computer from powering up. The idea was that powering up is potentially more damaging than leaving it on. Supposedly your computer will last longer if it's run 7x24 (including in sleep) than powering off and on every day. Obviously no answer as to which is 'better'.

I just set mine to sleep and turn it off only when I go away for more than 1 day.
 
I leave my Mini on 24/7 most of the time - sometimes I sleep and have never had any problems. I have had this mini for 2 years.
 
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