Leave it on or turn it off?

[dubbz]

I keep my Powerbook (and my desktop PC) turned on all the time. Mostly because I run F@H on them (that, and they tend to keep the room fairly warm in the winter )

I don't pay the electrical bill, so I don't worry about that.

 

[redAPPLE]

am i going crazy or what?

leaving the computer on (or better said, on sleep mode) saves more energy than turning it off, when not in use?

where is the logic in that?

 

[stevep]

Worth noting that, depending on your computer, leaving it on 24X7 can get pricey; at around 120W idling, assuming you use your computer 8 hours a day (that's assuming you work 8 hours a day and spend most of your awake time at home on the computer), it adds up to 16X120W = 2KWh/day. At what I pay for electricity that works out to just shy of $7 a month. Sleep would save a little more (unlike previous towers, the G5s have some sort of hard switch so they use nearly nothing off, but about 10W asleep), but it's not nearly as big of a difference.

Personally, environmental concerns aside, $85/year is enough reason alone to put my G5 to sleep--that's a 250GB hard drive for the few minutes of cumulative inconvienence. Not as big a number with an iMac or laptop, but it's still money.

As far as wear-and-tear, if the drives are awake all the time, then it's probably a little harder on them being on 24X7 (not as bad as if they were being accessed 24X7, which most consumer drives apparently aren't built for, but they're still hot all that time), but most people sleep the drives periodically anyway, so it's the same. The only other moving part is the fan, which is definitely going to last longer being turned off 2/3 of the time. Nothing else really "wears out" one way or the other, so it doesn't matter one way or the other.

Thank you. At last some common sense. If everyone turned off their electrical appliances instead of putting them to sleep we'd be able to close down a power station (ref: http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/build-plan/planning/sustainable/youcando/energy.html ). I can't believe so many people are so ****ing ignorant about the environment.

 

[BrandonSi]

Thank you. At last some common sense. If everyone turned off their electrical appliances instead of putting them to sleep we'd be able to close down a power station (ref: http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/build-plan/planning/sustainable/youcando/energy.html ). I can't believe so many people are so ****ing ignorant about the environment.

Please don't confuse ignorance with apathy. Thanks!

 

[jeremy.king]

Can sombody explain. reeaalll slooowww how to manually run scripts I still have panther and am very confused.

Get MacJanitor

 

[stevep]

Please don't confuse ignorance with apathy. Thanks!

Good point ! But sadly I think in many cases it IS actually ignorance, or at least a failure to think rationally. And if we all have a heated argument about this we'll be able to turn the central heating thermostats down a bit....

 

[gekko513]

Thank you. At last some common sense. If everyone turned off their electrical appliances instead of putting them to sleep we'd be able to close down a power station (ref: http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/build-plan/planning/sustainable/youcando/energy.html ). I can't believe so many people are so ****ing ignorant about the environment.

This doesn't apply if it complements electric heating.

 

[rickvanr]

This doesn't apply if it complements electric heating.

Exactly, I haven't turned the heating on, I just have my G5 set to "highest" in the performance pane.

 

[bankshot]

Get MacJanitor

I say don't bother. I've looked at the daily/weekly/monthly scripts, and there's nothing even remotely critical in there. They basically rotate log files and make backups of a few key system files. If you didn't know what this stuff was before, you won't know what to do with it anyway. If you've never opened Terminal.app or don't know your way around the unix command line, don't bother with this stuff. You'll never see a tiny bit of benefit.

Running the periodic scripts has become Mac folklore as much as repairing permissions. Both are a complete waste of time except in very specific circumstances, yet many people preach them religiously and believe they actually help. If you need a placebo, go for it, I guess.

 

[belvdr]

I say don't bother. I've looked at the daily/weekly/monthly scripts, and there's nothing even remotely critical in there. They basically rotate log files and make backups of a few key system files. If you didn't know what this stuff was before, you won't know what to do with it anyway. If you've never opened Terminal.app or don't know your way around the unix command line, don't bother with this stuff. You'll never see a tiny bit of benefit.

Running the periodic scripts has become Mac folklore as much as repairing permissions. Both are a complete waste of time except in very specific circumstances, yet many people preach them religiously and believe they actually help. If you need a placebo, go for it, I guess.

I agree. I never leave my iMac on and it's four years old. Still runs fine today.

 

[billyboy]

Get Anacron, an install and forget script for cron maintenance tasks. It will run the cron scripts whenever the computer is turned on. ie it can see that the previous night's scripts havent run and negates the need to have your Mac on all night just to run those scripts.

As for keeping a Mac on or off. A laptop is OK left sleeping as far as I can tell, having travelled extensively with it asleep and restarting it once a couple of weeks. A a tower, well, if you have a power supply backup it should be OK 24/7, servers have to run 24/7 so it shopuldnt hurt a beefy g5 should it! but if you dont have a UPS and you have a powercut, all that care a nd attention running scripts automatically at night counts for zero when the hard drive takes a mighty beating from an unannounced power off!

 

[fyrmedic]

got the janitor. thanks

 

[JMT529]

I just leave my Mac mini on. The power button is too hard to reach.

 

[jkandell]

You're computer is more prone to breaking if you turn it on and off constantly. OS X is fine to run for long periods of time, although it's good to quit Safari, etc. every once in awhile and open it up again, which makes the program run a little smoother.

Unfortunately, some memory aspects seem to benefit from shutdown compared to sleep too: for instance, some unactivated widgets seem to occupy cpu/ram until shutting down.

 

[EricNau]

My computers (iMac & PB) stay on 24/7. The iMac uses 8.8 watts with the display sleeping, so it's not bad on the electric bill.

Is that an iMac G5?

I'm trying to decide if I should leave my computer idling or put it to sleep at night. - What's better for the computer? What's better for the "environment" (aka my bill )?

 

[fayans]

....Running the periodic scripts has become Mac folklore as much as repairing permissions. Both are a complete waste of time except in very specific circumstances, yet many people preach them religiously and believe they actually help. If you need a placebo, go for it, I guess.

So what do you preach for OSX Maintenance? or nothing at all? Not even regular repairing permissions?

 

[rickvanr]

So what do you preach for OSX Maintenance? or nothing at all? Not even regular repairing permissions?

I do repair permissions but very, very rarely. Usually only when I'm asked to by a program after install. So that's maybe twice since June, and I've never had any real problems as of yet.. Whatever the scripts do when they auto run at night, they seem to do the trick.

 

[tuqqer]

I turn off my G5 2Ghz every night. It automatically comes on again at 6am. I do this mainly because my Mac simply runs better and faster and smoother when it gets restarted now and again. I'll often restart during the day as well.

I run Onyx twice a month for basic maintenance.

I replace both internal hard drives every two years; at their current price, I'm amazed that people try to keep them for 5 and 10 years. At that replacement rate, I think one could stop/start a hard drive a dozen times a day and not have any problems.

 

[PCMacUser]

I turn off my G5 2Ghz every night. It automatically comes on again at 6am. I do this mainly because my Mac simply runs better and faster and smoother when it gets restarted now and again. I'll often restart during the day as well.

I run Onyx twice a month for basic maintenance.

I replace both internal hard drives every two years; at their current price, I'm amazed that people try to keep them for 5 and 10 years. At that replacement rate, I think one could stop/start a hard drive a dozen times a day and not have any problems.

Yep, the whole concept of wear and tear is pretty much an old wives' tale these days. Hard drives and other computer components are designed to be stopped and started multiple times.

Next someone may suggest that we leave our cars running overnight because of the wear and tear of starting the engine in the morning

 

[fayans]

....Next someone may suggest that we leave our cars running overnight because of the wear and tear of starting the engine in the morning

LOL Better be not but it makes sense.

 

[minimax]

Does anybody know if it's possible to change the power button on the mac mini (I assume on other macs as well) from sleep to off? Of course you shouldnt do it manually, it's just something trivial I get annoyed by

 

[fayans]

Does anybody know if it's possible to change the power button on the mac mini (I assume on other macs as well) from sleep to off? Of course you shouldnt do it manually, it's just something trivial I get annoyed by

There is only one power button at the back of my mini. Are you referring to that?

 

[jeremy.king]

Does anybody know if it's possible to change the power button on the mac mini (I assume on other macs as well) from sleep to off? Of course you shouldnt do it manually, it's just something trivial I get annoyed by

Press and hold it for about 4-5 seconds, that will turn your machine off.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED! as a system shutdown will properly shutdown all applications and processes, while a forced power down will not and can leave the machine in an unstable state.

 

[untamedhysteria]

I never understood that. Putting it to sleep causes it to:
Spin down the HD [Just as if it were off]
Turn off the display [Just as if it were off]
Stop any spinning media [Just as if it were off]
idle internal components [Just as if it were off]

Seems to me that putting it to sleep is almost the exact same thing as shutting the computer down... How is it that turning it off cause more wear?

it's because of power spikes happening inside the computer...the motherboard is still on in sleep (basically, the only thing left on) therefor it doesn't need a jolt of electricity to start up again, as it would with it being completely off.

 

[untamedhysteria]

as for running different apps for maintenance...that's not needed....basically, the only times you need to run them manually, is one: the computer is like to a crawl, and you need to rotate logs and wipe out caches before the computer does it automatically (yes, it does do it when you put your computer back from sleep or turn it back on, if it missed your overnight duties), or two: when you install a program that needs a password to install (running permissions in utility)....or third: you installed or uninstalled os 9 or did a osx update...that's it...