Mac July 31, 2012

Is it more useful to Sleep, Shut Down or Stand On a Mac when not in use?

by Adelina Daliu

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You may have wondered more than once if it’s better to sleep, shut down or stand on your Mac when not in use so we provided pros and cons for doing what’s best for your device.

Sleeping a Mac

Sleeping a Mac is one of the most popular and most used ways of resuming your activity on the device. When you return to the gadget after a period you’ll encounter the apps, documents, web pages and window arrangements just as you left them.

• Pros:  quick access to your work
• Cons:  system temperature and cache files are not cleared out during the reboot process; system updates that require reboots need a manual rebooting for installing.

If you choose the first option for your Mac device, you should remember to regularly reboot for allowing system software updates to install.

Shutting your Mac Down

Those that cope with their devices round the clock choose this possibility very rarely. You will hear developers go for this one if they don’t use their Mac for more than 4 or 6 days. It requires a few seconds for all the apps and software to end their process while shutting down.

• Pros: possibility of major system updates to install, power saving and not to mention system temperature, memory, swap and cache files are cleared out during boot
• Cons: takes a while for booting up and resuming previous running apps; one of the strongest uses of a hard drive is powering On and Off the device and most hard drive damage comes not from intensive usage but from continuous powering On/Off and reboots; constant stopping the drive from spinning shortens the life of the gadgets (also the dust can’t make way if the drive is spinning all the time)

It’s the most suitable possibility of saving power so if you don’t need your device for a couple of  days it’s advised to choose this option. Tip: In case of heat and component usage, turning Off the display is a good trick for the iMac.

Always Keeping your Gadget Turned On

Last but not least, other users always keep their Macs turned on, especially those that function as servers. Since everything is still running, the backup tasks can be scheduled to function in the system inactivity period.

• Pros: instant access to all software and sites to the exact process that you left them, servers running with constant accessibility , scheduling backup and system maintenance tasks can be scheduled for the off period
• Cons:  continuous power consumption and heat of the hardware