Okay to leave computer on in summer?

[archcommus]

My house is air conditioned but upstairs it still gets pretty stuffy in the summer, especially in my bedroom with the door shut and my computer on. With it on in this environment, it usually idles at around 43 C. Is this too warm to be leaving it on 24/7? Will all the components be okay with this?

 

[dguy6789]

A computer should be able to run 24/7 just fine. If it cannot, then there is a problem with the computer that needs to be fixed anyway. Probably more than half the people here leave their pcs on all the time.

 

[archcommus]

I figured so, I was just concerned with doing this in a consistently warmer environment.

 

[Ika]

unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

they should be, but parts like hard drives and PSUs do fail after some time.

Granted, I still have a computer from over 9 years ago, with original parts intact, but I never ran it 24/7. I'm not saying its guaranteed to fail, but there is always that possibility. Especially with hard drives.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

No hdd are definitely not rated to run 24/7. Depending on models... ibm/hitachi got in trouble for that.. they had a rated mtbf but their technical document states 6-8 hours daily, not 24/7. Of course, no one is willing to admit to it or have document..

ie. http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/03/20020318104326.shtml

 

[drum]

i've had mine running 3.5 years constantly and had nary a failure. thats definately not the norm i'm sure

 

[0roo0roo]

with decent cooling it doesn't matter. but leaving your pc on for no good reason is just not smart. its bad for the enviroment, its wasteful. use hibernation mode if you don't feel like full reboots

 

[corkyg]

Another thing to consider is where you live. In my area, summer always has a threat of thunderstorms and lightning strikes, and we do have power hiccups at times. If you run 24/7, then I suggest a good UPS with an automatic USB shutdown link.

Also (not a geek consideration) is simply wasting energy. At least turn off your monitor when you are not present. You can also set your power options to go on standby or even hibernate.

I run my main system 24/6 - not 7. It gets a day off every week for maintenance.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

No hdd are definitely not rated to run 24/7. Depending on models... ibm/hitachi got in trouble for that.. they had a rated mtbf but their technical document states 6-8 hours daily, not 24/7. Of course, no one is willing to admit to it or have document..

ie. http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/03/20020318104326.shtml

You're talking about one specific line of HDDs from IBM in particular. I'm sure any other manufacturer today rates their drives to be able to run 24/7.

 

[corkyg]

This and other sources indicate the average life span of a hard drive is 3 to 5 years.

Life

Just about all makers are reducing their warranties to 1 year in order to control costs. The spec to look for is MBTF for any particular make of drive.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

No hdd are definitely not rated to run 24/7. Depending on models... ibm/hitachi got in trouble for that.. they had a rated mtbf but their technical document states 6-8 hours daily, not 24/7. Of course, no one is willing to admit to it or have document..

ie. http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/03/20020318104326.shtml

You're talking about one specific line of HDDs from IBM in particular. I'm sure any other manufacturer today rates their drives to be able to run 24/7.

I know the raptors are rated for 24/7 for some crazy ammount of time (server quality)
But i doubt most drives are rated for 24/7.

I dont leave my comp on all the time cause really i dont need to use it all the time, and i can wait the 20 sec it takes to start up . In summer i'm confortable to leave my comp in 40C ambient temp running full load on every component, and it will be fine. This comp has 8 fans and i have cooling for voltage regulators etc. My second comp on the other hand i'm not so confortable with i donno how reliable the psu in it is.

 

[vegetation]

I keep my weather server PC on all the time in a room with daytime heat exceeding 95 degrees. No problem. Just remember to back up your important files (or better yet just do a full mirror on an external usb drive, in this day and age there's no excuse for that).

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Are you sure about this? Aren't the components designed to be able to run 24/7 for years? I definitely plan to keep some parts of my system for much longer than 2 years.

No hdd are definitely not rated to run 24/7. Depending on models... ibm/hitachi got in trouble for that.. they had a rated mtbf but their technical document states 6-8 hours daily, not 24/7. Of course, no one is willing to admit to it or have document..

ie. http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/03/20020318104326.shtml

You're talking about one specific line of HDDs from IBM in particular. I'm sure any other manufacturer today rates their drives to be able to run 24/7.

I know the raptors are rated for 24/7 for some crazy ammount of time (server quality)
But i doubt most drives are rated for 24/7.

I dont leave my comp on all the time cause really i dont need to use it all the time, and i can wait the 20 sec it takes to start up . In summer i'm confortable to leave my comp in 40C ambient temp running full load on every component, and it will be fine. This comp has 8 fans and i have cooling for voltage regulators etc. My second comp on the other hand i'm not so confortable with i donno how reliable the psu in it is.

Raptors are rated for 1.2 million hours which is about 136 yearsI believe? I know it's definitely over 100 years, but go do the math yourself.

That said, it's still not wise to run your computer 24/7. For the summer, sure, but if I'm worried about a component crapping out, it would be the HD. CPU and Video cards.. ehhh, that's fine, I doubt they would fry unless ur running them @ 50C 24/7, but HDs I'm concerned. I may idle around 35 - 37 C for my HD, but I would not leave it on 24/7, unless I'm downloading 24/7 =P

 

[ForumMaster]

well i hardly ever keep my system on all the time. the drive needs to rest. and since we don't have good air conditioning, my room is usually pretty hot. during the summer, my cpu get's as hot as 47 at idle while in the summer, it is usually near 35 and can get as low as 25 on air cooling! BTW, my cpu is an athlon xp mobile 2400. a good app to cool the cpu is cpuidle. get it. it helps a lot.

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Actually, you'll extend, not decrease the lifetime of the hardware simply because startup and shutdown places the most stress on the components.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Actually, you'll extend, not decrease the lifetime of the hardware simply because startup and shutdown places the most stress on the components.

This is exactly why this argument has existed forever and I'm not sure what truly is better for a computer.

BTW, my Seagate 7200.7 series has an MTBF of 600,000 hours, or about 68 1/2 years. But obviously you couldn't expect the drive to run that long, so what does this really mean?

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
You're talking about one specific line of HDDs from IBM in particular. I'm sure any other manufacturer today rates their drives to be able to run 24/7.

I know the raptors are rated for 24/7 for some crazy ammount of time (server quality)
But i doubt most drives are rated for 24/7.

I dont leave my comp on all the time cause really i dont need to use it all the time, and i can wait the 20 sec it takes to start up . In summer i'm confortable to leave my comp in 40C ambient temp running full load on every component, and it will be fine. This comp has 8 fans and i have cooling for voltage regulators etc. My second comp on the other hand i'm not so confortable with i donno how reliable the psu in it is.[/quote]

Right, I was giving an example, i think the WD Enterprise and Seagate NL series are more likely to be rated 24/7 than the "desktop" versions. Of course, they may not tell you the exact ratings..

 

[GrammatonJP]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=2&language=en

Check out the Wd Enterprise.

The Raptor & RE2 rated 1.2 million at 100% duty cycle,

the WD RE is only 1 million at 80% duty cycle.

What does 80% mean ?

Found: 80% duty cycle with 100% power on hours.
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2879-001119.pdf

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

Originally posted by: guoziming
unless you plan on keeping your computer for 2+ years, you should be fine (running your computer all the time, especially if you have overclocked hardware, would probably decrease the lifespan of your system).

Actually, you'll extend, not decrease the lifetime of the hardware simply because startup and shutdown places the most stress on the components.

This is exactly why this argument has existed forever and I'm not sure what truly is better for a computer.

BTW, my Seagate 7200.7 series has an MTBF of 600,000 hours, or about 68 1/2 years. But obviously you couldn't expect the drive to run that long, so what does this really mean?

The explanation is over at storagereview somewhere but the short version is that they take a batch of HDs and run them till one dies, then generate the numbers that way. Or something. Think i need to read up on it again too, obviously didn't sink in properly the first time

 

[GrammatonJP]

Barracuda ES are rated for 24/7 usage.. regular barracuda may not
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketing/po_barracuda_es.pdf

Barracuda 7200.10 - rating not mentioned.. meaning it may be less than 24/7
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketing/po_barracuda_7200_10_bb.pdf

 

[eLiu]

Mine idles at 51C, lol. My room temp is reasonable, but my dorm has steam heating so the floors are warm year round... and the box sits on the floor ><

Still, no problems.

Edit: ehh the 7200.7s are extremely reliable drives. StorageReview lists a huge number of people who own it, and the failure rate is really low. They're slower than the newer Seagate drives, but I still buy them for the reliability.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: eLiu
Mine idles at 51C, lol. My room temp is reasonable, but my dorm has steam heating so the floors are warm year round... and the box sits on the floor ><

Still, no problems.

Edit: ehh the 7200.7s are extremely reliable drives. StorageReview lists a huge number of people who own it, and the failure rate is really low. They're slower than the newer Seagate drives, but I still buy them for the reliability.

You think MORE reliable than the 7200.8s, 9s, or 10s? That'd be odd.

 

[Gstanfor]

Heat is a HDD's biggest enemy. I have Western Digital HDD's dating back to 1996 that still work with no trouble. Ensure the drive have good ventilation (I use the CM Stacker case that has a quiet 120mm fan cooling the drives), choose a decent brand of drives (WD or seagate) and you shouldn't run into much trouble (get rid of the stupid rubber seashield on any seagate drive that uses it though, those things hold heat in, the last thing you want).