Turn off MacBook Pro at night?

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Hello all - I just purchased a 15" MacBook Pro to be used as a desktop replacement; thus, it is connected to an external monitor and never leaves my desk. Do you think I should power it down at night, or just let it sleep? I've always kept my PC towers on 24hrs/day, but I'm slightly concerned about the amount of heat that the MBP is generating. I'm guessing that the amount of heat it would generate while sleeping would be trivial, but I'd figure I'd ask anyway...I do plan on getting an XPad to raise it a few inches off the desk, just 'cause I'm paranoid like that...
 
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I'd just let the computer sleep. Should be no problems at all. I just close the lid on my Macbook every night and just let it sleep. Haven't shut it down in quite some time, and no problems at all for me. Good luck and enjoy the MacBook Pro :)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
24" 2.8ghz IMAC, MB Pro
There is no real benefit to shutting it down other then the slightest bit of power saving. The OS is built on Unix and should be able to support virtually unlimited uptime.
 
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Black Macbook C2D 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HD iPhone 4 iPad 3G
While at home, I have the same setup as you with my Macbook. I have it connected to an external monitor, with a mouse and plethora of peripherals attached via a USB hub. I leave it on overnight with no problems. I close the lid and put it to sleep when going to class, but I have yet to actually turn it off for any period of time.
 
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Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
If you want to be really green then turn it off, but a modern macbook is very low power when off, but its power usage is a combo of the computer, the monitor and all the connected devices. Depends on how green you rea

“Sleep” vs. “Off”:
According to the technical specs provided by Apple for my Macbook, for example, the power consumption when idle is 11-17 watts, when sleeping is 1.41-1.75 watts, and when off is .74. Check your computer manufacturer’s website for the specs on your machine, and if they’re not listed, ask for them.
So it seems that the real energy savings comes from having computers power down from “on” to “sleep.” The difference between “sleep” and “off” is minimal (but still impactful, especially when we’re talking about large companies with hundreds, if not thousands, of machines). Play with your computer’s energy saving settings to find a combo that works for you.
 
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Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
In general, if you are worried about heat, perhaps one of those clear plastic stands that lift it off the desk a bit would do the trick for you. This lets the heat dissipate easily. With that in place, you should have no worries in leaving it on 24x7.
 
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What if you let it sleep at night but still leave it plugged in? Does this harm the battery in any way? I have heard that it is better to unplug it let it sleep overnight and then re plug it in, that way the battery gets to "exercise" that way you would end up with a crappy battery life. So is this true?
 
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You only need to calibrate the battery (what you call exercise) once every month or so where you completely drain the battery and then charge it back to full. You can leave it plugged in for days or weeks on end with no ill effect.
 
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I turn mine off every night out of habit.
 
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15" MacBook Pro, 12" iBook G4, 14" iBook G4 running Ubuntu 7.10
I leave my MBP on almost all the time. One of the things to remember is that OSX is a unix operating system and as such, it has to run certain maintenance jobs at ungodly hours of the night/early morning (rotating log files, etc). I usually just turn on my screen saver and walk away from it for the night.
 

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