iMac sleep mode

I just bought a brand spanking new iMac (the base model) and I'm loving it!! I just have a fairly straight forward question, when I put my iMac to sleep does it use a great deal of power or is it similar to shutting it down

The reason I ask is because my macbook takes about 30 seconds to go into sleep mode but my iMac takes only a few seconds…I'm guessing this is because it's writing the contents of the ram to the hard drive…

Sleep mode uses very little power; just enough to keep things alive in memory and bring the machine back to life (wake up).

As for your MacBook, you're more than likely using hibernate sleep mode which can take up to 30 - 45 seconds to activate. Try downloading and installing the free "SmartSleep" utility and adjust the sleep function for a quicker sleep.

Thanks for your help chscag…I think I'll just leave my iMac in sleep mode from now on…