How often do you shut down your iMac?

I leave it in sleep mode during the day and I turn it off during the night. In my opinion, that's the better way with Mac desktops, but you can also always leave it in sleep mode if you want.

A lot of users recommend to turn it off only if you aren't going to use the Mac in days in order to save energy, but if you are going to use it after a short time, leave it in sleep mode. There are more advantages than disadvantages

You are welcome

I think how often you use your machine determines the best practices for maintaining your machine in this regard. I would agree with the following excerpt, regardless:

Skip the screensaver. "Screensavers actually use more energy than a static image, since they require the computer to do calculations," says Nordman. And they don't even save your screen: Back in the days of the flying toasters, screensavers prolonged the life of your monitor, but that technology isn't applicable to newer screens.

This would be a great topic for an experienced community member (like mende) to write a user tip about.

Is It Better to Shut Down, Sleep, or Leave a Mac Turned On

Should You Shut Down Your Computer or Put It to Sleep? |

I shut down my Macs when I know I will not be using them for over 24 hrs & once a month for 24 hours to clean them.

I only shut down when I will be out of town.

Shutting down resets the RAM, among other things,

The occasional restart or shutdown should not reset PRAM. As long as the computer is plugged into the wall, the contents of PRAM are maintained by a tiny trickle current that bypasses the power supply. Been like that for years. If you are unplugging the computer and the internal backup battery ("PRAM" battery) is now dead as a result, date and time plus a few other things maintained in PRAM will reset however.

The internal backup battery only starts working when the computer gets no external power. If you unplug the computer every night, a battery that would normally last several years can see its life drop to months.

Depending on the iMac model, which in this case we don't yet know, replacing the PRAM battery can take minutes to do at home or, with later iMacs, require an expensive trip to the shop for professional service. It behooves you to leave it plugged into the wall at all tiems to avoid a potentially expensive PRAM battery replacement. The batteries are cheap; it's the labor that will get pricey.

"Plugged into the wall" also means not using a power strip, cpower center, or external backup power supply to cut power to the Mac.

Help us determine is you have an iMac with a user-serviceable PRAM battery by doing "About this Mac" from your Apple menu and, in the resulting window, clicking the "More Info..." button. In OS 10.8, that should give you this:

Please tell us what the line I've indicated with the red arrow reads.

Joy Makon1 wrote:

It's the newest iMac, not looking to reset anything. Just wanting info on best practice for either sleep mode or shut down. I'm inclined to follow what I've always done: use sleep mode, unless the iMac won't be used for 48 hrs or more. I do restart every few days...

thanks!

There is no need to restart every few days, I normally leave my one 24/7 only allowing the display to sleep. I have had various iMacs, MB Pros and MacBook Airs and all have gone through this process. Each machine has been very stable. The only time I restart normally for a software updte.