Should I turn off my G5, or just let it sleep?

Question

I tried to search the forum for this question because I'm sure someone else has asked it, but had no luck. A couple of months ago my wife's G5 had a power supply failure, which also did enough other damage that the computer was not economically savable. I gave her my G5, and bought a new iMac (good deal for me!). The iMac instructions specifically say that it is better to just sleep the computer rather than turning it off on a daily basis, and to only turn the computer off when you are not planning on using it for awhile. Since the power supply on my wife's G5 blew on startup, I started to wonder whether leaving the G5 in sleep mode might not be a way to help keep the G5 alive longer. Much as I like my new iMac, I'd rather avoid the expense of doing another computer replacement if possible!
So what is the best way to leave a G5 for the night? The machine is on for 10-15 hours/day, and is used for maybe half of that at most. During the day the G5 is allowed to sleep, and is turned off at night and re-started each morning. Am I better off treating it like the iMac and just sleeping it at night? Or are there other reasons to turn the G5 off that I don't know about?
As always, thanks in advance for your input!

Answer 1

Well, I'll provide another two cents worth of opinion.
I put my G5 to sleep rather than shut it down because by leaving applications "running" during sleep, certain conveniences like remaining logged on to this discussion, for instance, accrue, and applications that are launched remain launched. Minor conveniences, but probably the reason that I allow the computer to sleep.
The UPS comments are right on the mark. If the computer is sleeping when the mains power goes down, the UPS activity on USB will wake the computer and allow for an orderly shutdown, provided, of course, that the UPS is connected and the proper settings have been made in Energy Saver. This will even occur if a password is required on wake.
As for stress on the system, I think it is a wash between sleep and cold-iron starts. Most subsystems are the equivalent of powered down during sleep, and there is a considerable power surge on wake as there is on a cold-iron start. Interestingly, when my last failed UPS was in its death throes, I had a couple of wake events where the power supply shut itself down almost immediately. I didn't make the connection until the UPS croaked a week later.
Bottom line, it is moderately more convenient to allow the computer to sleep. The delta in hardware stress is trending towards zero, with probably a very slight advantage to sleeping. The power consumption issue (if there be one) favors turning the machine off. Basically, it all comes down to your personal preference. It's not like powering down a cluster of MicroVAXes and then waiting four or five hours for everything to come back up, so you can go either way and not see a whole lot of difference.