Do You Leave Your iMac On...???

I'm switching to and iMac 24" next week from a Sony VAIO RS-530G...I've had this machine for about four years and it's on almost all the time...I've never had a problem or a heat issue with it....

Do I need to be concerned about this with my new Mac...???

No, you don't need to be concerned.

I find better performance when shutting down my iMac every night.

That's in your head - isn't it?

The only detrimental effect to leaving the machine on will be a dramatically lower lifespan for the fans. Depending on the quality of the fans Apple chose to use (and they've used ones of, ah, less than stellar quality in the past...) for the current iMacs, that may or may not be a problem.

Honestly? I'd say get AppleCare and leave it on all the time if you like. Also keep in mind that MacOS emerges from sleep MUCH faster than Windows does, so you can always put it to sleep.

Mine only goes off when I go away, so it has been running for roughly 5 years without a rest. It needs a weekly restart to keep it running smoothly, but that's all I do.

My (Mac Mini) goes to sleep after 1 hour of no activity. I find this function very nice, it wake's up again within a second when I move the mouse, press a key, or use the remote control.

I never turn it off as in shut down.

I just sleep mine every-night, seems fine

I've had mine for 2+ months and leave it on all the time...no apparent issues.

Sean

Ive had my iMac on for the past 2 years.

Stretch, you have a VERY reliable electricity utility then. We have a few power outages every year during storms. I couldn't keep ANYTHING on for two full years!

We have a backup generator at home, so when the power goes out, that kicks on. OK, so I lied, it hasn't been on 365 days every year for the past two years. It would get shut down when I brought it from home to college.

Didn't you get the new iMac last night, Stretch?

I switch mine off every night and during the day when I'm not at home to work on it.

Yes I did, and I love it.

I set my Imacs to shut off at a certain time each night and wake up in the am....

MACGIRL34 said:

I set my Imacs to shut off at a certain time each night and wake up in the am....

Click to expand...

You can make your mac boot up by it self at a certain time ?

AK47 said:

That's in your head - isn't it?

Click to expand...

I don't think so. The shutdown and bootup process is doing SOMEthing. I definitely see the difference between leaving my mac on for a week straight and when I shut it down every night.

You may think the same about washing a car to make it faster or fuel efficient. In the driver's head, right? A slippery car cuts the air better - less wind resistance. This analogy has nothing to do with macs and I don't know why I posted it haha.

With my previous PC computers, I found It was best to leave them on all the time, mainly because it just took forever for startup, which leaves only about a 5-6 year lifespan However, with my iMac I've made an effort to shut the system off every night, this mainly because the monitor and the HD are all together, and while your HD might not go, the monitor may.

Everyone has their own opinion to this topic, so there is not really a right or wrong answer.

i wouldn't worry about that

Well, environmentally it's not cool if that matters at all to you. Even cell phone chargers suck electricity just being plugged in as do all appliances even when they're not in use.