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POLL: How may of you leave your system online 24/7 ?

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I'm a college kid here, so my schedule is very erratic. I sleep in patches. My computer is always on 24/7 so I can get on it without waiting for it to boot up. I think 75% of college kids leave it on. For me, it's because I'm cracking for rc5 (used to do some Seti stuff) and so friends can get it contact with me. AIM/email... I'm an addict... and yeah, them hot deals too!
 
I never saw any credible research about the spike story.

However, one thing is for sure Monitors deteriorate in color, and sharpness with use. So the more your monitor is on for nothing the faster you will need a new monitor. Actually, it is even worst the visual deterioration of the monitor is slow, and our eyes adapt to it, so we don?t even notice. By the time you notice the decline, it is after long time that the monitor already caused visual fatigue, and more.
 
I leave mine on 24/7. Quotes from Upgrading and Repairing PCs by Scott Mueller:


Frequently, powering a system on and off does cause deterioration and damage to the components. This seems logical, but the simple reason is not obvious to most people. Many believe that flipping system power on and off frequently is harmful because it electrically "shocks" the system. The real problem, however, is temperature or thermal shock. As the system warms up, the components expand; and as it cools off, the components contract,In addition, various materials in the system have different thermal expansion coefficients, which means that they expand and contract at different rates, Over time, thermal shock causes deterioration in many areas of a system.

For a pure system reliability viewpoint, it is desirable to insulate the system from thermal shock as much as possible. When a system is turned on, the components go from ambient (room) temperature to as high as 185 F within 30 minutes or less. When you turn the system off, the same thing happens in reverse, and the components cool back to ambient temperature in a short period of time.

Thermal expansion and contraction remain the single largest cause of component failure....

Now, I am not saying that you should leave all systems on 24 hours a day. A system powered on and left unattended can be a fire hazzard...

Based on these facts, my recommendations are that you power the system on at the beginning of the day and off at the end of the day. Do not power systems off at lunch, breaks, or any other short durations of time. If you are a home user, leave it on if you are going to be using it later in the day or if instant access is important.

No matter what, these are just guidelines; if it works better for you to leave your system on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then make it so.

End of quotes..
 
I'm in college also so I don't turn my computer off. The school pays for the electricity bill so I don't worry 🙂


I leave the computer on when I go to sleep and caan't sleep if the computer is off. I leave the computer on to either download software or run RC5. When I sleep I notice the harddrive "clicks" and when I notice there hasn't been a "click" in a while I would know that a) my computer crashed or b) my computer is idle and not being efficient! 😛 I would wake up and fix it. Damn am I obsessed.


-Jimbo
 
I've got 3 beefy machines running 24/7. Ya gotta like hopping on the net or checking your mail at the drop of a hat. The reason I upgrade all the time is because I am very impatient and the faster the better. That is why I leave my machines on ALL the time, I just don't like to wait if I don't have to. 😉
 
I used to.

But then electricity bills in the city tripled so it costs me a ton of money to leave it on the all time (well not a ton...but ~$45 US / month...more than I care to spend on it).
 
Key crackin', Counter-Strike servin' fiend!!

I leave it on as long as possible. With Win2k(heh... rc3, I'll update it after reformat) 🙂

no risks yet... no crashes either
 
Oh and I have never... ever seen my electricity bill very high. Seems normal to me 🙂

Just remember to turn off the monitor 🙂
 
we have gas heat, gas hot water, gas stove gas dryer, so dish washer 2 fridges microwave tv, 4 pc's (i tell my brat sis to shut off her cyrix but she uses it as a room heater) but all the monitors are either energy efficients, or hand shut off when they can be
 
I've left my system on 24/7 for the past 3 years (although the system has steadily been upgraded). I worried about heat, but i now believe that keeping the system a constant hot temperature is better than turning it off at night and then back on again (thereby heating it up and cooling it off in succession). Also, i run an ftp server, which of course needs the system on 24/7. My most recent win2k server install (about 6 months old) has NEVER crashed (thank god for my UPS) and running 24/7 causes NO problems at all for me. I reboot about once every week or so, just cause i feel like it. My mail server runs for months on Win2k Advanced Server for MONTHS without reboots. I must say that i am most impressed with Microsofts latest foray into OS's.
 
I turn mine off...I use win2k's hybernation to power off/on. It takes less than 30 seconds to power on from hybernation. Plus, all apps that were open during shutdown are left as is when powering up the computer. It's like leaving the computer on but you are actually powering it off.

I've been using it ever since installing win2k, and haven't noticed any bugs. I do restart the computer every once in a while.
 
7 comps on 24/7. All have monitor power off enabled, and no other power management (I can't begin to count how many times the hard drive spin-up/spin down has totally screwed up some programs) features on. They do eat a chunk of the electric bill...but hey, I can access the net from about anywhere in the house 🙂
 
i keep it running rc5 on 24/7, have no idea how much it costs me.
monitor is off when not used, and i can sleep 2 meters from it.
can you post how much kilolwat/hour a system like mine takes? (using 250W PS)
 
I haven't restarted or shutdown my computer in 26 days 🙂. Utilities are included in my apartment's rent, so I don't worry about the electric bill.
 
my comp stays on around the clock and my electric bill is ~$20/month. the monitor turns off at night and when i leave for school at such. my tv is also on wayyyyy too much. bottom line: it doesnt cost $1/day unless you got some crazy shiz goin down
 
I've been running 24/7 for the past few months... with a few restarts for various reasons here and there. I'm going to have to shut down though, 'cause I can't take my computer home for christmas break. 🙁

Marty
 
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