Do you shut down your Mac Pro at night?

[Zep Dude]

I keep my studio gear on, but in the past I've shut down my Mac in the evening after doing a backup. This was mostly to let the hard drives and TDM cards cool down, but I also found that after leaving a Pro Tools (v8,9,10) session up night after night I'd eventually come in to find it frozen.


So now I'm setting up a new system, Thunderbolt Native HD with Mac Pro 2013 (trash can model with SSD drive) which has no moving parts and wondering if this can just be left on.


This will determine where I put the Mac in the room (having to start it every day will mean a more convenient but less ideal location).

[Sardi]

I shut my gear down purely based on running costs. I’m not working through the night, so why leave the gear on and rack up a power bill?

Not to mention it’s hot enough here as is atm. why make the room even hotter by leaving all the gear on?

Also, purely from a being green point of view, we should all be trying to consume as little power as possible. Having anything running when not needed seems silly.

In terms of starting up your Mac and keeping it in a convenient location, there’s ways around that. You can schedule it to start at a certain time every day. That way you don’t even need to manually turn it on.

I’d think about convenience of the machine though. Even machine rooms in large facilities are reasonably accessible. You never know when you need to unplug a drive or reseat a cable.

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[Zep Dude]

Ha, I don't to start another gear-on vs gear-off debate!


I'm really just wondering if you keep the Mac Pro on all the time if there are any issues.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by Zep Dude

Ha, I don't to start another gear-on vs gear-off debate!


I'm really just wondering if you keep the Mac Pro on all the time if there are any issues.

Sorry. I added some more info as I hit post before finishing typing specifically about the Mac.


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[Sardi]

Also, I’m in the camp that says keeping something like a computer running 24/7 shortens it’s lifespan.

I’ve had a Mac Mini running as a file server non stop for the last 6-7 years. I’m actually surprised the HD hasn’t died yet. But, I’m sure if there was a way to test component life in that machine compared to my other Mac Minis, it definitely would be lower.


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[Zep Dude]

The scheduled start is a good idea. I had forgotten about that -did it for a while in the 90's with whatever Mac I had then.


Is there a physical device that can remote start it (not a second computer but perhaps a usb thingamajiggy)? It's too bad they took the power button off the keyboard where it should be.

[Sardi]

Not that I know of.

If you find something that does, do post it. Be curious to see what it is and how it works.


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[AlexLakis]

The old "never shut your computer off" came from the days of spinner hard drives where the stress of the drives spinning up and down during startup/shutdown would outweigh the stress of the power supply starting up/down. People were willing to ignore the extra price of electricity for this. I never bought into it. Now that everybody has SSDs, I figured this would be a thing of the past...

[Howardk]

Backups happen at night. . . I always leave it on or do backups manually and shutdown if I am not working for a couple days. . .

[JFreak]

always on