Shut down or standby?

Is it best to shut down an iMac when leaving it overnight or all day, or leave it on standby?
I always shut down my various PCs and then have to wait while they reboot but heard somewhere that it's not necessary to do this with a mac.
Thanks

Gren said:

Is it best to shut down an iMac when leaving it overnight or all day, or leave it on standby?
I always shut down my various PCs and then have to wait while they reboot but heard somewhere that it's not necessary to do this with a mac.
Thanks

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Opinions run wildly on this, and the environment the computer is in can be a factor, but shutting down any PC overnight can be bad for them. You are stressing the components more by frequently heating up components after they have had a lot of time to cool down. This can weaken solder connections in particular.

Standby for me through the years and a shut down on the PC once a week and about once a month on the Mac or if the software upgrade requires it on both .

This whole issue has been debated in so many places on this forum and some of the non-Mac computer forums I frequent. What ever you prefer, run with it. I have seen nothing first hand that indicates leaving the computer on in sleep mode (whether it be a Mac or a PC) or just shutting it down everyday, makes a difference when it comes to wear and tear. My wife runs her Sony Vaio laptop non-stop everyday and never has any issues. I shut down my MBP every night and haven't hand any issues. I also never had any problems with shutting down the five other Mac computers I owned and the two PCs I had (Acer Inspire and Dell Inspiron). What ever floats your boat.

May God Bless!

Ed

As @ronin said, do whatever pleases you..I've always just let the system go into sleep/standby when not in use. That way I can immediately wake it up to do something if need be, not that the 25 seconds it takes to boot is a big chore..

Most modern computers/OS' do a pretty good job of conserving power when in this sleep/standby states, but it's still consuming some power..so if that's a concern, then by all means turn it off..

Now, as far as "wear and tear" goes, since the system is essentially idle consuming a little bit of power to maintain "state", that should hardly be a concern and there are enough people with machines that are using in this manner for years without any problems..

Thanks everybody.