MAC HARDWARE
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Should you shut down daily?
QI use my Mac most days in my home office. Is it better to leave it running overnight, or should I shut it down every evening?
AUltimately this is a personal choice, and depends on several factors. It was originally recommended to leave computers running so as to minimise mechanical wear on their hard drives, which definitely do last longer when left spinning in constant conditions for many days or weeks at a time.
Now that many Macs have no moving components, that’s a less common concern, but it still affects Fusion Drives. There are credible claims that leaving electronics running at a steady temperature makes failure in its soldered joints less likely, but this is more difficult to verify.
You can estimate how much energy your Mac would save over a year using figures from Apple (see the environmental report cards for your Apple device at bit.ly/mfmaceco) and the cost of your electricity. Shutting down outside office hours, including peripherals, could save up to £100 per year, but if your Mac sleeps as much as possible, those savings would be considerably less.
Patterns and availability of access are important. As your Mac is already in your home, shutting it down when you finish work, only to want to start it up later in the evening, wouldn’t only be inconvenient but could wear out hard drives, and promote ageing of its graphics card, for instance.
If you do decide to leave it running for long periods when it’s unattended, you’ll need to run it off a good uninterruptible power supply (UPS) which can cope reliably with any mains failure when you’re not there.