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sleep machine or do you switch it off? (mid 2011)

parestailor

parestailor

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
126
16
London, UK
so I was wondering do you guys all switch your mini macs off at night or let them sleep? I've switched mine off tonight to let it have a real cool down, it's been on for days and it seems extra hot this evening! you could fry an egg on it! .. for longer machine life? sleep mode or switch off?
 
I never turn off both my minis.

I have them set to sleep (drive & machine) automatically, but they frequently get woken.

Although the 2011 Server model can get quite toasty when active, it soon cools down to near ambient temp when it's been asleep for a short while.

Lots of people seem to leave them on 24/7 without issues.
 
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One mini I shutdown because it's really a Windows workstation, with AHCI enabled so it can't sleep. Another mini is a HTPC so it's 24/7. The rest of my Macs sleep and only get restarted for updates.
 
Over night I tend to sleep my iMac. If I'm gonna be gone for a couple of days at least, I'll shut it down.

I'll also recommend shutting your system down overnight if you're likely to have a power glitch due to weather.

And there is one other thing.. if you have pets that might be in the room with the computer, shut it down. Cats wandering over your keyboard will wake your computer up.
 
I shut down my Mac mini and other Macs for the night whenever they do not run any tasks. Shutting down Macs when not in use for a prolonged period of time can save electricity (albeit very little in comparison with the sleeping mode) and extend their life span.
 
Imac is on all the time, just restart it now and then. MBP and MBA work on battery power 50% of the time, so sleep, then on charger to cycle the battery and give it some exercise.

I don't tend to leave the two notebooks on all the time though.
 
Never turn mine off or allow it to go to sleep but that's because it also is a media server.
 
I'm running a 2006 era mac mini as a htpc / media server. It's been on almost 24/7 no sleep since i've owned it (4 years or so). Still runs great to. I only restart it for various software / hardware upgrades.
 
parestailor said:
so I was wondering do you guys all switch your mini macs off at night or let them sleep? I've switched mine off tonight to let it have a real cool down, it's been on for days and it seems extra hot this evening! you could fry an egg on it! .. for longer machine life? sleep mode or switch off?
Click to expand...

Mine gets quite hot from playing SC2 but it cools down as soon as the app is closed out. I leave mine on and sleeping all day / night and reboot maybe once every 2 weeks. No problems so far!
 
During the day or when I am at work I usually let my Mac Mini sleep.

When I go to bed at night I shut it down. The bright blinking light keeps me awake at night!
 
My 2010 mini has a habit of occasionally not waking up my external hard drives (which messes up iTunes, among other things), so I usually shut it down each night.
 
I figure that sleep is most convenient - I use my mini as an HTPC and so I just wake it up when I want to watch telly or listen to tunes. I don't favour leaving it on 24/7 without sleep, as that will shorten the fan's lifespan. I think - or it may just be observation bias: my fan is dead and I am currently awaiting a new one from iFixit.

Also energy savings are worth putting to sleep. If I go away for a weekend, I'll shut it down.
 
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