turn off after every use?

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I shut down my PC every night before going to bed. Do any of you with macs do this, or is it different?
 
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Except for a recent lockup I have not shutdown my Power book for a month or two. Overall I rarely shut down my PB, the exceptions being when I am travelling.

My Mac mini's I leave running as well, but I use those as servers and as a media center, so it does not exactly make sense to shut them down.

There is no harm in shutting down your Mac, but little reason to either. I would just put it to sleep instead.
 
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I never shut down. My friends with Powerbook and iBook never either. Just sleep it -- this means no wasted boot up time next use :alien:
 
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Never shut down or put to sleep my powermac quad, and I never shut down my powebook I just let that sleep..

Laptops sleep... desktops I leave on..
 
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i never shut mine down either, only time i turn mine off is if i move it, travel. or go on deployment. other then that, never have to.

no sense cause its always being used
 
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i only shutdown when i need to restart after an update. there is no real reason to shut down if you use your computer on a regular basis. if it is like 3 days between uses then yea, shut it down to save on your electricity bill, or if it is that long, let your computer fold for the rest of the time!
-chris
 
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I love it how me and coch_z always find a way to mention folding in threads that have nothing to do with it. ;)
 
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I read somewhere on the net about Core duos having some kind of special, sleep mode feature, that enables the system to stay awake for weeks -- sometimes even months.
I don’t know if that is true because people always say that Peceee’s should be turned off when they are not being used... not sure about Macs so I stay on the safe side and turn the computer off once a week.
 
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I have a new Intel iMac, and I shut it down right before I sleep, because it's in my room, and the blinking white light annoys the **** outta me. Plus, it'll stop any possible hackers from getting into my computer without me noticing. Plus, I'd rather sleep without the hard drive making funky noises every two seconds.
 
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XFce said:
I read somewhere on the net about Core duos having some kind of special, sleep mode feature, that enables the system to stay awake for weeks -- sometimes even months.
I don’t know if that is true because people always say that Peceee’s should be turned off when they are not being used... not sure about Macs so I stay on the safe side and turn the computer off once a week.

All processors can be left on for as long as you want them to be left on as long as heat is not an issue.. they don't get "tired" if you leave them on to long.
 
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The only reason I turn my PowerBook off is because it just burns (litteraly) to the touch. Except since I've been folding, I haven't rebooted period (and I still can't complete a **** work unit!).
 
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i turn my ibook off everyday. i dont like to leave it sitting out in my barrack room while i am at school. when i am at home, i only leave it on if i dont take it to the ship and i am downloading a large file.
 
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I think I read once that unix systems are meant to left running all the time (and since OSX is unix based...). I leave my powerbook in sleepmode when it's not in use. If (well more like when really :headphone ) I get an iMac to replace my PC tower, I will also leave that in sleepmode when it's not in use. I do switch off my pc tower at night though, but mainly because it consumes so much power (the new iMacs consume a LOT less when running, and in sleep mode they will consume even less). I think this is how computers should work, always on and ready when you need them but not using lots of power in the process!
 
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Unix systems (including OS X) have cron jobs that run periodically to do maintenance on your system. If it is asleep or off it obviously can not do them, but in general this is not a terribly big deal. The scripts should be allowed to run or triggered manually (with MainMenu, Onyx, or such) every once in a while. Bi-monthly is generally enough to keep the system healthy. You could probably get away with once or twice a year without issues for that matter, but your log files might get a bit big.
 
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Alright. Thanks a lot. I think when I get an iMac I'll just put it to sleep instead of shutting it off.
 
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I used to keep it on all the time but then I got the power bill for this quarter... it gets shut down every night now, must save as much as possible!
 
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I just shut my iBook at night to put it to sleep...

I'm a bit against leaving systems run 24/7 just because of the wasted power and energy it uses up.
But I just sleep it and leave it at that.

The reason people shut down Windows so often is because it tends to become slower after a certain time running, so you need to reboot.

OS X doesn't have this so much, so shutting down isn't such an issue.
 
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I just asked my dad if our power bill went up last month (january) the first month I had the powermac (running 24/7 the entire month folding all four proccessors at 100% and 23 inch screen full brightness) and he said that the power bill did not go up so I don't think computers have much of an impact on this.
 
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The stock power supply for a powerbook is a 65W peak[/k] powersupply. What is the wattage in the lightbulb at your desk?

While even at 195 Watts you are spending far more on your Refrigerator (500W) anf your Television (300W for a large one). This does not even touch an electrical stove in use everyday, or Air Conditioning.

Do not use lights except when needed or use lower wattage Light Bulbs and you would likely save more money than it costs to run your computer 24/7.

Putting your computer to sleep to conserve energy is admirable, but it is a minor shift compared to other things that can be done in my opinion. (Cooling our beloved heat generators IS potentially costly though.)

Somewhat related reading: http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/kill_a_watt_electric_usage_monitor_review
 
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Kokopelli said:
The stock power supply for a powerbook is a 65W peak[/k] powersupply.


I was refering to my powermac quad core.. although I also leave my powerbook on alot, and only close it when on battery power, or it starts to get hot to touch.
 

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