Is it better to leave PC on all the time?

[lavagirl669]

What do most of you guys do?

Benefits of leaving ON
or
OFF?

I always shutdown when I'm done....but is that bad?

 

[John]

60 comments

 

[HardWarrior]

Leave it on all the time:

Pro-Ready when you need it.

Con- Burns juice and wears things down faster. Things get dusty MUCH quicker.

Power it down when done for the evening:

Pro-Easier on HW in the long run, no constant noise.

Con-It's not good for components when they're hit with the initial surge of power at statup.

 

[lavagirl669]

Thanks John....

I like to shutdown because of the fans and stuff....I can't sleep with any noise or light
and my PC is flashing with meteor lights....I know I can turn those off, but.....

 

[BFG10K]

I turn it off whenever I won't be using it for more than an hour.

 

[ROJAS]

I usually leave my on all the time even when Im sleeping(usually mp3 d/l) and only turn off when at work, unless I'm completing a large download.

 

[dudeman007]

turn that *hit off!

 

[White Widow]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Con-It's not good for components when they're hit with the initial surge of power at statup.

As fasr as I know, it's NOT bad for the hardware to power-off and then power back on. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. This led to the urban legend that cycling the power on a PC would damage the system. Today's PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that's a number you likely won't reach during the computer's five-to-seven-year life span.

However, lab tests done by Dell show that an [average] PC running Microsoft Office uses 42.7 watts, and an [average] monitor uses 75.0W - Flat-panel monitors use less energy (22 watts when left on, 3.3 watts in "sleep" mode). If a typical systems runs continuously at that rate for 365 days, at 14 cents per kilowatt-hour, the power consumption costs would be $52.36 for the PC and $91.98 for a regular monitor, for a total of $144.34 for the system.

Of course, that data is based on an AVERAGE system, which includes all the old PC's out there from 1998. If you've got an overclocked Prescott, 1GB RAM, 4 hard drives and dual-21" CRT's, then you're probably looking at something on the order of 400W-500W. Even so, it' still no more than a few bright lightbulbs blazing away. All in all the electricity costs are not a king's ransom, but good enough reason to power down when you're not using it.

But the bottom line (and the original question) are what to do when you are done with the PC. The important thing is that you either power off completely or put the system to sleep. Leaving it blazing away will consume a good bit of extra power. Would you feel comfortable leaving a few of the lights on in your living room all night long? If not, then you should probably not leave the PC on all night. But the difference between putting the system to "sleep" and powering off completely is negligible.

So, I usually turn off my monitor and put the system to "sleep" - it's fast to wake up and doesn't consume much extra power.

Of course, noise is another issue completely. If you have an overclocking beast that sounds like a leaf blower, then perhaps you would want to turn it off.

 

[RussianSensation]

As far as I know, all mechanical components have a theoretical life span. So your fans and hard drives will only last so long. Yet this "short" period of time usually ranges from 20,000 to 1 million hours. Most likely than not, you'll build a whole new computer before anything gets damaged even if you keep it on 24/7.

Other Pros/Cons

Pros:
-warms up the room when it's winter time
-can use it for distributed computing projects that can be beneficial
-no hassle of turning your computer on and off every time (its a waste of time waiting for a computer to start for 30-60 seconds every time and a waste of energy turning it on physically)

Cons:
-higher electricity bill
-warms up the room when it's summer time and it's hot already (this could make your air conditioner work harder to sustain a preset room temperature for instance and again increase your elec. bill)
-if you have your computer on all the time, there is probably a reason for it as most people tend to turn them off => could become obsessed or let the computer "fun" occupy the rest of your life's time

 

[justin1466]

Personally im always turned on, but my computer is another story

 

[vegetation]

However, lab tests done by Dell show that an [average] PC running Microsoft Office uses 42.7 watts, and an [average] monitor uses 75.0W -

That must be old data with P3s or even P2s used for benchmarking. So unless you have an older system, mobile cpu setup, or a C3 or something, even the typical Celeron 2.0+ uses 50 watts of power at idle. That's right 50 watts, just for the cpu. Even with just one harddrive and zero cards (integrated graphics), your average power consumption jumps to 80 easily. Then you have those newer P4's and A64's that take up a whole lot more power.

 

[lavagirl669]

could become obsessed or let the computer "fun" occupy the rest of your life's time [/quote]

I AM already!

ha!

 

[White Widow]

Originally posted by: vegetation

That must be old data with P3s or even P2s used for benchmarking. So unless you have an older system, mobile cpu setup, or a C3 or something, even the typical Celeron 2.0+ uses 50 watts of power at idle. That's right 50 watts, just for the cpu. Even with just one harddrive and zero cards (integrated graphics), your average power consumption jumps to 80 easily. Then you have those newer P4's and A64's that take up a whole lot more power.

Yes, that's probably ture. Even so, the better question is what happens to the power consumption when you put the system into Sleep or Hibernate mode? If the power draw still drops to under 10W then the cost of keeping it on remains negligible.

Note

At $0.10/kwh, a system pulling 10W for 10 hours would cost $0.01. Is it worth one cent to have your PC get into Windows 30 seconds faster in the morning?

 

[Runner20]

I turn off my computer when I'm done at the end of my "session". During the day I leave it on because I don't want to wait for it to start. I don't see the point of leaving it on all night when your not going to use it.

Save the electricity.

 

[White Widow]

To string this out even more, I found this info which might shed some more light on the issue:

According to tests conducted by IST, Hardware Support, tests showed the following. On a Pentium 4, 1.7GH machine:

* during boot power in watts is close to 110w
* during idle, no power management,. close to 60w
* during full power saving, no hard disk spin, machine in sleep mode, 35w

A Sony 17? monitor consumed 75w when in use. When power-saver mode kicks in (and the monitor goes black with a yellow indicator light) the power consumption is negligible to the point that our test equipment did not even register any power use.

The total power consumption of a typical PC and monitor does not consume more than 175 Watts of energy at its highest rate, and typically closer to 125W during normal full-power operation. At night time when your PC is ?sleeping? it only consumes 35 Watts.

Math - 35W * $0.10.kwh * 10 hours = 3.5 cents for overnight Hibernation

Important -

1. STANDBY mode is not the same a Hibernate or Sleep. In Stanby, the PC consumes almost as much as during normal operation.

2. Screen savers do nothing to conserve power.

 

[SilentZero]

I've always continuously ran my computers (with exception of a few)...and never had a problem.
I say do what you feel is best.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: White Widow

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Con-It's not good for components when they're hit with the initial surge of power at statup.

As fasr as I know, it's NOT bad for the hardware to power-off and then power back on.

There's nothing inherent in contemporary technology that makes powering up a rig safer than it has been for the last few years. Servers are a great example of this. Being always on the components of a server get used to it. Even though a average server is composed of better FRU's than the average PC, powering a server up, after being up for months in some cases, is the time where it will usually fail if it's going to.

 

[edmundoab]

does leaving your computer on for days take its toll on the PSU one day?

 

[sisooktom]

I leave mine on 24x7, unless I'm going out of town. I have Power Management turn off the monitor and hard disks to save a little bit though. I just use my PC sporadically throughout the time I'm home, so I don't like having to power it up and down all the time. This debate has been going on forever, and I don't think anyone has a definitive answer. Do what meets your needs.

 

[dderolph]

Usually leave mine on all day and turn it off every night. However, during the day, if I think I'm not going to be using the computer for several hours or more, I'll probably turn it off.

The argument that it's better to leave them running 24/7 just is not outweighed by conservation of energy concerns. Granted, for each individual computer owner, the consumption of energy might not seem very significant. But, on a global basis, the impact of millions of computers running 24/7 that don't need to be is indeed a significant environmental issue.

We need to keep in mind that the impact on energy consumption by leaving computers running 24/7 is greater than the direct consumption by the computers. I'm a former federal employee. The federal agency where I worked had buildings with hundreds of desktop computers in them. And, many computers were left on overnight simply because people do not care. But, besides the direct power consumption by the computers, you have heat being generated in office buildings that are air conditioned. So, the cost of cooling the office space is increased due to this heat generation, including heat generated during 15 to 16 non-work hours/day on most desks. And more of the same waste occurs during weekends.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: sisooktom
I leave mine on 24x7, unless I'm going out of town. I have Power Management turn off the monitor and hard disks to save a little bit though. I just use my PC sporadically throughout the time I'm home, so I don't like having to power it up and down all the time. This debate has been going on forever, and I don't think anyone has a definitive answer. Do what meets your needs.

There isn't a definite answer considering the nature of the topic, and this thread (not a debate) has not gone one "forever." If your opinion is that the the open exchange of ideas is somehow offensive if the process takes more than two posts I would suggest that you ignore any further entries.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: edmundoab
does leaving your computer on for days take its toll on the PSU one day?

Yes it does. That's why even the best PSU's fail over time and have a rated MTBF.

 

[sisooktom]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
There isn't a definite answer considering the nature of the topic, and this thread (not a debate) has not gone one "forever." If your opinion is that the the open exchange of ideas is somehow offensive if the process takes more than two posts I would suggest that you ignore any further entries.

Excuse me, but what's your problem? If you infer any of the above from what I wrote than you need to take an atttitude check before you post. . . I said nothing of the sort.

 

[CU]

I set both of mine to hibernate. That uses zero power. Doesn't wake up as fast as sleep, but it still doesn't take that long.

 

[CraigRT]

mine's always on, but I crack SETI, and I like producing good numbers.. dont get into distributed computing, or you won't ever be able to leave PC off at any time. heh
3 PC's at home on 24/7 with no problems.