Shut down or sleep?

[I'mAMac]

OK i've been trying to get a good answer for a while but I just can't seem to find one. Should I shut down the iMac overnight or just put it to sleep? I've heard two sides to the argument. One says that it requires so much energy to power up that you're using just as much or more than if it was asleep. The other says that not shutting off the computer can shorten it's life-span even if it is asleep. Does anyone know which way saves more power and which will make my mac last longer? Thanks.

 

[Xander562]

I find it hard to believe that 30 seconds of boot up outweighs 8-10 hours of sleep. If you watch the discover show Mythbusters, it's similar to the lightbulb myth that it's more energy efficient to leave a lightbulb on when you leave the room because it requires so much energy to heat the filament up the first time. This is not true.

As for which is better for your mac I always like to restart once in a while for good measure, but have no problem putting it to sleep overnight either. I think it's up to you. The difference would be negligible I would think.

 

[marcre]

There's many different opinions on this.

I turn mine off most nights. My imac G3 is seven years old and still works fine. My new iMac gets the same treatment.

 

[I'mAMac]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll just try to shut it down more often then.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Modern machinery and OS's are meant to be left on for extended periods of time. The machine is going to turn off the power-hungry components like the monitor for sleep anyhow. It's true in the Windows world that rebooting the machine would help the OS though not the energy, but even XP is very stable from that standpoint as well.

There's really negligible savings energy-wise and you won't stress the machine somehow by leaving it on. A light bulb left on overnight will probably consume as much or more energy than a properly configured Mac. This is one of those leftovers from the days of constantly-spinning hard drives and CRT energy hogs. These days most machines are Energy-Star rated and there's not much to gain, if anything, by shutting down each night.