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Leave computer on all the time or turn it off?

R

rust5tyle

Member
Do you guys leave your computer on all of the time or turn it off when you're not using it? Which is better for the comp? I heard that turning it off is much worse than just leaving it on because there's a slight power surge through the system when you power up.
 
I've heard the "power surge" theory as well. I just have my work computer hibernate during the week and only turn it off completely on the weekends. My home computer is on standby when I'm not using it.
 
I leave mine on constantly. Probably saves wear on the PSU from turning on/off repeatedly. But it does waste electricity.. so I might start turning it off when I have to pay for electric.
 
I leave it on when I'am home but will cycle the flat panel off if I'am not using it. When I leave to work I shut everything down. Then back on when I get home.....
 
1) Starting/stopping things causes damage. That is why lightbulbs only last for about 1000 uses. Each time electricity runs through it, the temperature changes, creating stress and microscopic fractures, eventually the bulb breaks. That is why your mother probably told you not to flash it on/off like many kids love to do.

2) Constantly running electricity through an item will wear it out (that is why lightbulbs are only rated for about 1000 hours of use). After that time, the lightbulb will just blow from the constant wear of electricity. Also, constantly running motors (drives, fans, etc) wears down parts due to friction.

So turning on/off a computer rapidly is bad, and running it nonstop is bad. In old studies done (late 1980s), an optimum was found at around 1 hour. If you leave the computer for less than one hour keep it on - for more than one hour turn it off. That way the minimum failures was achieved. Have parts changed, yes, but I guarantee there is still an optimum probably near one hour that will minimize failures.

As a more recent example in my department there were two computer labs of identical computers with identical software and the students had access to both. One lab was open 24 hours a day and computers were left on. The other lab was only open 8 am to 5 pm. The one that shut down at night had far fewer (roughly 50% less) bad monitors and bad drives (hard drives, CD drives, and floppy drives). There wasn't enough info to compare other part failures (CPUs, motherboards, etc) since these failures occured much less often.
 
If you run Folding@Home for Team Anandtech, your PC will always be doing something useful and then this won't be an issue 🙂

 
I've left mine on 24/7 for the past year with no issues. I do have my monitor turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity though. My guess is that by the time components will be worn out specifically due to being on 24/7 you'll have long since replaced them.
 
Be wary of leaving it on 24/7 since it can cause hard drive issues.
Normally manufacturers expect SCSI drives to be on 24/7, while different people expect IDE drives to be on different amounts of time.

IBM - 333 hours per month
Seagate - 40 hours a week
WD - 240 hours or so a month

There's 732 hours in a month, so be careful with leaving things on 24/7, it's not what they were designed for. They're designed for 5 years operation at the set duty time (number of hours per month).

Maxtor I think go with 24/7 for IDE drives as well though.
So you mmight get more failures with 24/7.
 
There are SO many threads on this subject, it seems to come up at least once a month or so.

Do a search and find views on it.

FYI, I leave them on 24/7 running Distributed Computing projects.


Confused
 
Hi, Yes there are tons of threads on this issue, but if your looking to save-on electricity turn it off at night. But if your doing something usefull by all means leave it on.. JMO😀
 
both (soon to be all three) of mine are on 24/7. when i finish college and move out of the house 😉 that may change. i would say it's better to leave them on, but turning it off and on once a day wont hurt, even over a long period of time. you do the same thing with your TV, and tv's dont burn out after a year of use. most people have their tv for at least a few years - not the same with computer/hardware enthusiasts like most of us.
 
I use to keep it on all the time but i rearranged my room where the pc is closer to my bed. My pc isn't really loud but now it bugs me at night and it puts out a lot of heat. My room is definintly warmer than rest of the house. So now i turn it off at night.

peace
sean
 
Well, I usually only leave my computer on hours on end if im downloading something, or burning in my oc. Other than that, i turn it off. I did a project on my own for electricity in my apartment. My bill was usually $110 a month with it on all the time, its just a regular 1 bedroom apartment, but we do have our own washer/dryer. Anyways, it was normally $110 a month with it on, i started turning it off at night, and i noticed my bill dropped by about 30%. Dropped to about $75 a month. To me, id rather save money. IMHO, i think leaving your computer on all the time is harmful to the components and it hurts your wallet with the electricity bill. Regular fans/IDE hard drives arent made to be left on 24/7. Your not running a terabyte server or anything, so why leave your computer on? Especially in the summer. Waste waste waste.
 
"Why leave it on?"

Cuz its easy, fast and...I'm lazy? 😛 NO waiting when I do want to use it. heh You can probably tell I leave mine on 24/7... Although I may think about shutting it down at night for a month and see if really makes that big of a diff. on my elec. bill to make it worthwhile..
 
I leave mine on 24/7. Leaving it on keeps the CPU chip at a constant temperature which minimizes shrinking and expansion that can lead to early CPU failure. I do turn my monitors off after 20 minutes and my hard disks after 1 hour to avoid the problems that others posted earlier.
 
Turn it off at night, when going out for >1 hour, etc. Not for all this reliability nonse but er laziness probably.
 
Originally posted by: AdamDuritz99
I use to keep it on all the time but i rearranged my room where the pc is closer to my bed. My pc isn't really loud but now it bugs me at night and it puts out a lot of heat.
Click to expand...
Funny you said that, I keep my PC on at night partially becuase it helps me sleep... for some reason I can't sleep with dead silence. Of course if I put in a hairdryer HSF it would probably be a different story.
 
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