**Official Thread** Is it better to leave your computer on or turn it off?

[Haui]

I am curious, and I thought I would gather everyone's opinion, fact's, etc here in this thread.

The ultimate computer question:

Is it better for your PC to leave your computer on all the time and restart every once in awhile, or is it better to turn it off when you are not using it?

 

[meltdown75]

this has never been done before

i turn mine off btw, unless i'm leeching arrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[ElFenix]

i hibernate it if i'm going to be gone for a while.

 

[krunchykrome]

I turn my computer off maybe once a month.

 

[Jeff7]

It's cheaper to turn it off. I turn mine off at night, and when I'm away for the day, unless I'm going to have it encoding or recording a TV show.

If you really need it to be on at a certain time each day, set the RTC alarm in the BIOS' power management section. I'll just turn it on before I use the bathroom and get breakfast ready. By the time I'm done with those other things, the PC is ready to go.

 

[m1ldslide1]

I turn my computers off. I'm strongly considering getting into F@H in the near future, in which case I will no longer be doing so.

 

[AmpedSilence]

mine's always on, unless i am leaving for more than three days (vacation or other not in my apartment activites). then it gets turned off.

 

[buck]

Home, turn off, work leave on.

 

[OutHouse]

the only time i turn mine off at work or at home is when i go on vacation.

 

[amdskip]

Work is on all the time and at home on but it is sleeping during the day/night when I'm not home.

 

[soydios]

turning it off saves power
neither way is better for the lifespan of the machine, though

 

[Amused]

Because of thermal wear and tear it is better for the lifespan of the machine to leave it on. Especially the hard drives.

Mine stay on unless I am leaving for more than a few days. Because of this and proper HDD cooling, I have had only one HDD failure ever. (And that was an IBM deathstar over 3 years after everyone else's failed).

[edit]
I hibernate my laptop though. Mostly because it gets moved around a lot and it's not good to move it a bunch while the HDD is spinning.

 

[trmiv]

My home laptop I turn off when I'm done with it every night. At work I leave my laptop on all week (I shut down on Fridays) in the dock because it takes FOREVER to boot completely because of all the management processes and tasks (Altiris), automated virus scanning, etc that run at boot.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Always on, at work and home.

 

[Syrch]

wow i didnt' think so many would leave their pc's on. what would it cost to run a typical computer all month long in comparison to shutting it down every day?

 

[effowe]

You should put a poll up.

I have been turning mine off. It runs very loudly now that I put my 8800 in there so it has to be drawing a lot of power. Only time it stays on overnight is if I have a download going.

 

[DarkThinker]

At home, my computers are setup to automatically shutdown when inactive.

At work I put the computers in my cube to standby whenever I am leaving for more than an hour.
<-----Efficient employeez get tehe promotionz!

 

[Haui]

Originally posted by: effowe
You should put a poll up.

I have been turning mine off. It runs very loudly now that I put my 8800 in there so it has to be drawing a lot of power. Only time it stays on overnight is if I have a download going.

Poll added...

 

[mattocs]

On all the time. If I am away for a few days, i'll shut down. I wonder what it does cost to run one all the time.

 

[potato28]

I leave it on all the time. It's my heater/F@H box/YARR/ just too lazy to wait for it to shut down when I go to bed .

 

[dighn]

I turn it OFF overNIGHT. I use HIBERNATE so it BOOTS really quickly.

 

[Shawn]

I voted Turn it off. However I leave my computer on 24/7.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Amused
Because of thermal wear and tear it is better for the lifespan of the machine to leave it on. Especially the hard drives.

Mine stay on unless I am leaving for more than a few days. Because of this and proper HDD cooling, I have had only one HDD failure ever. (And that was an IBM deathstar over 3 years after everyone else's failed).

[edit]
I hibernate my laptop though. Mostly because it gets moved around a lot and it's not good to move it a bunch while the HDD is spinning.

I turn my computer off whenever I am not using it. I have also only had one HDD fail. It was an old WD Caviar. I still have an IBM Deathstar in one system running strong.

I don't have any proof one way or another what is better for the hardware. I keep mine off to conserve electricity.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: potato28
I leave it on all the time. It's my heater/F@H box/YARR/ just too lazy to wait for it to shut down when I go to bed .

:thumbsup:

 

[lil buttercup]

I'm up at college, in dorm, same cost no matter how much electricity I use... this computer is staying on!