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Should I Turn Off My Mac Mini Every Night Or Let It Sleep?
- Thread starter Afro1989
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Most people will tell you just to put it to sleep. It's much easier on the hardware than a hard boot.
Besides, a Mac Mini will use virtually no power while sleeping.
Besides, a Mac Mini will use virtually no power while sleeping.
My friend leaves his on all the time and has never had a problem. Don't worry about it, just leave it on. Who wants to wait for it to boot anyways?
I think I've got this right, but I'm not sure. While sleeping: open documents and such are saved into the RAM, and everything stops (HDD, etc.), leaving a small power of power going to the RAM to keep the stuff stored on there, the USB ports so that the mouse and/or keyboard can wake the computer, and probably a bit to the CPU for whatever it would need it for.Afro1989 said:
I've probably got something wrong there.
I always sleep my Mac Mini, only rebooting when a system update requires it.
I love the convenience of it being ready to go as soon as I need it. I can stop what I'm doing and sleep it, then go straight back to where I was when I get back.
Plus, I find the soft pulsing sleep indicator strangely reassuring
The other cool thing is that my bluetooth phone stays linked to the Mac even when it's asleep. When my alarm on my phone wakes me up in the morning, the Mac wakes too. I can stumble over to the desk and glance at a few emails before wandering into the shower.
Experiment with the scheduling options in Energy Saver o get a setup that suits you. For example, I wake up at 6:30am and the phone's alarm wakes the Mac too. It's scheduled to go to sleep when I leave the house at 7:30. Then, it's scheduled to wake at 7pm when I get home. It'll then pair with my phone again when I get within range, and sync my address book, calendar and task lists with the phone. If I don't use it, it'll go to sleep again 15 minutes later. But it'll stay paired so that if I receive a call or SMS message, the Mac will wake and log the call/message.
Overall, I just find it very convenient to have a computer that's available when needed, and which has the smarts to wake when it's got something to do, and sleep when it hasn't!
I love the convenience of it being ready to go as soon as I need it. I can stop what I'm doing and sleep it, then go straight back to where I was when I get back.
Plus, I find the soft pulsing sleep indicator strangely reassuring
The other cool thing is that my bluetooth phone stays linked to the Mac even when it's asleep. When my alarm on my phone wakes me up in the morning, the Mac wakes too. I can stumble over to the desk and glance at a few emails before wandering into the shower.
Experiment with the scheduling options in Energy Saver o get a setup that suits you. For example, I wake up at 6:30am and the phone's alarm wakes the Mac too. It's scheduled to go to sleep when I leave the house at 7:30. Then, it's scheduled to wake at 7pm when I get home. It'll then pair with my phone again when I get within range, and sync my address book, calendar and task lists with the phone. If I don't use it, it'll go to sleep again 15 minutes later. But it'll stay paired so that if I receive a call or SMS message, the Mac will wake and log the call/message.
Overall, I just find it very convenient to have a computer that's available when needed, and which has the smarts to wake when it's got something to do, and sleep when it hasn't!
I put mine to sleep (usually by lullaby) so they can run the nightly periodic processes when they wake up. If I shut them down and the machine isn't running at 3:00AM (or thereabouts), then these scripts don't automatically run.
mad jew said:I put mine to sleep (usually by lullaby) so they can run the nightly periodic processes when they wake up. If I shut them down and the machine isn't running at 3:00AM (or thereabouts), then these scripts don't automatically run.
You can easily alter the time your Mac does it's periodic maintenance using OnyX. Just set it to a time that you will have your Mac turned on.
aussie_geek
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i have similar question, but it's for MBP, if i put it to sleep, is it ok to put it on a laptop bag? will it get hot inside? if i left it on a desk, is it ok to let it sleep and also the power adapter connected all the time? it wont charge the battery if the battery is full right? or is it better to unplug the power adapter when the MBP is sleeping?
Thanks
Thanks
Leave the power in when possible and yeah, it's fine to transport a sleeping laptop. Something would have to be very wrong for a sleeping Mac laptop to overheat. Having said that, make sure there aren't any Bluetooth devices that might wake it from sleep. Transporting an awoken laptop in a bag should never be done.
mad jew said:Leave the power in when possible and yeah, it's fine to transport a sleeping laptop. Something would have to be very wrong for a sleeping Mac laptop to overheat. Having said that, make sure there aren't any Bluetooth devices that might wake it from sleep. Transporting an awoken laptop in a bag should never be done.
Thanks
as i remembered i've read in some forums (cant remember where) that someone wants to turn off his MBP (or PB, cant remember) then before it's actually off, he closed the lid, which make it sleep. Then he put it in the bag. After hours, he realized that the MBP turns into toaster.. im kinda confuse because i tried to put my MBP into sleep and it's get cooler so i think yeah it's safe to put it in a bag. But it think its safer to shut it off when want to transport the MBP right? just in case..
I keep my iBook sleeping (not shut down) in a backpack as I ride to uni each day, so it doesn't have to be shut down to be transported. If it's heating up when it's asleep then something is wrong, but the chances of that happening for you are very rare.
sleep not shutdown
sleeping a computer is the best thing you can do for it vs shutting it down, multiple cold boots (especially every day) are the most stressful things for the systems hardware. Keeping them "warm" during sleep decreases the stress on these components, thus increasing the life of your computer. in the 1.75 years ive had my powerbook, its prolly been shut down a total of 25-30 times, and most of those were just for updates/long periods of inactivity.
sleeping a computer is the best thing you can do for it vs shutting it down, multiple cold boots (especially every day) are the most stressful things for the systems hardware. Keeping them "warm" during sleep decreases the stress on these components, thus increasing the life of your computer. in the 1.75 years ive had my powerbook, its prolly been shut down a total of 25-30 times, and most of those were just for updates/long periods of inactivity.
aussie_geek said:You can easily alter the time your Mac does it's periodic maintenance using OnyX. Just set it to a time that you will have your Mac turned on.
aussie_geek
That can be a pain in the --- if you need to use it then, unless you would go so far as halting the cron tasks....