Leave computer on 24/7 or turn off daily?

[imported_Kaos]

I've got a debate going on about whether or not to leave the computer on 24/7 or turn it off daily. So what do you guys do w/ your systems and why? TIA.

 

[blakeatwork]

I generally leave mine on.. I guess it really depends on how tight you are with your hydro..

 

[airfoil]

Leave on when I'm at home and awake & around, but use Standby liberally. Normally shut it down at night. Forget about extending service life by leaving it on..this rig will probably be well past its prime when its components begin to puke.

Reasons? I pay the bills and its a total waste leaving a 350W PSU + 10W on standby for the monitor on all the time. Add up the potential savings on power and you could be putting a new rig together every 18 or so months (which I'd probably do anyway).

And yeah, I cant say I like the fan noise either.

 

[blodhi74]

I leave it on and reboot it once or twice a week

 

[sonoma1993]

i turn mine off at night or when im off to work.

 

[surreal1221]

Leave it on

 

[daniel49]

I turn them all off as anything I can do to lower my power bill makes me happy. And my machines are fairly fast so booting up does not take long. Not much of an inconvienance?

 

[imported_Kaos]

Does it hurt the circuitry/hard drive/drives by leaving it on all the time?

 

[paulsiu]

Thermal changes from starting up a cold computer can stress a computer, but then again leaving it on stress it, too. In general, if I am going to use it within 24 hours, I'll leave it on. If I leave for a few days, I turn off the computer.

Paul

 

[meltdown75]

generally off unless in use or downloading.

 

[vertigo220]

I pretty much do the same as Paul. Fast bootup, so turning it off and on wouldn't really matter, but I like to be able to just "hop" on whenever and get right to work. And just b/c you have a xxxW PSU, that doesn't mean it's gonna be sucking that much power all the time, just what it needs to run everything at idle.

 

[fstime]

Usualy leave it on but as of lately I shutdown at night, what I mean by shutdown is Standby or Hibernate.

 

[helo7050]

leave it on during the day and off during the night. . I just can't sleep hearing the fan during the middle of the night. ...

What i would like to know is about leaving your Monitor On. My LCD monitor after i shut off the PC goes into some powersave mode. I never really turn the power off on the monitor. Will that casue problems??

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: Kaos
Does it hurt the circuitry/hard drive/drives by leaving it on all the time?

Starting/stopping a hard drive is just about the most taxing thing on it. However, like others here have said, it's not likely to wear it out until long after it's obsolete anyway. It comes down to whether saving a few bucks a month is worth waiting for it to boot up every time.

 

[jai6638]

I leave it on 24/7... restart it once in 2 weeks..

 

[fuzzynavel]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
generally off unless in use or downloading.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Like he said....on when in use...turned of rest of time...but as I download almost constantly it has been on for about 2 weeks.....not unusual......doesn't seem to do any harm.....

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Unless I'm downloading something, or defragging, or doing distributive computing, or seeding, I turn it off when I sleep or not home.

 

[Calin]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
generally off unless in use or downloading.

So do I. I sometime leave it on, but only on special occasions

 

[RelaxTheMind]

mine is off for like a total of 1 day in a given year (mainly for cleaning and/or upgrading). With full battery backups and what not. I almost never have problems and rarely need to reboot(maybe once or twice a month).

 

[asm0deus]

why do you think admins are so obsessed with uptime? leave it on, i like getting home, budging the mouse and insta-computing!

 

[KB]

I turn it off unless I will use it again within 5 hours.

 

[I Saw OJ]

I always turn mine off at night, I cant sleep with the las vegas lights of a case I have going over here. I really need a new case, anyone wanna trade?


seth

 

[dragonponyboy]

I turn mine off every night all the times...and oftenly also when I know I'm going to be out for a long time.

I don't know whats with certain people being impatient about just several seconds of waiting for bootup. just get a drink or read your favorite magazine, end of story for these kind of people

dragonponyboy

 

[CHAROD06]

Turn my home computers off when not use, but completely opposite at my job. We generally leave them on in hibernation when not is use. Has not affected the computer at all either way.

 

[Rottie]

I always turn desktop computer off when I am off to work. On my day off I leave it on most of time with either standby/hibernation. I always turn off my laptop when I don't need to use it.
I leave my monitor on with sleep mode on.