Turning computer off every night a good thing?

[Logical One]

like once a week or so...

I personally leave it on but some people have told me I'm crazy...

 

[BigJimbo]

Ive heard its better to leave it on as cold boots are "harder on the components"

At the same time...youll be paying a little more electric depending on the rig.

 

[BGuardian75]

I just leave mine on 24/7, no biggie.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: BGuardian75
I just leave mine on 24/7, no biggie.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: BGuardian75
I just leave mine on 24/7, no biggie.

 

[Kogan]

For longest life, you should turn electonics off while not using them. These things are not designed to last forever, and will eventually fail based on an average of how long they've been powered on. (look up each component's MTBF (mean time before failure))

Computers don't have combustion engines. Cold-booting doesn't damage them unless they've already got faulty components.

 

[jimbob200521]

i started my computer life turning mine off every time i was done with it. then i went through a phase and left them on all the time. now im back to turning them off when im done because i am a firm believe that 99.9% of the time, the components will outlast how long i have the computer/how long i will live.

 

[rickn]

I turn mine on in the morning before I go to work, and I leave it on, and I turn it off when I go to bed.

 

[Logical One]

were there any tests done about this?...it seems everyone has their own opinion...

 

[CalvinHobbs]

let's put it like this, leave it on and your bill gonna increase and over a period of one year how much is that, turn it off when you don't need it so what's got to die will die when it's time comes, what will cost more to replace a part or the electricity bill? You find your own answer and decide...and btw like someone said these components won't last forver meaning they will fail one day whether you keep it on or turn it off...

 

[ShadowBlade]

I turn my computer off every night before I go to sleep and turn it back on when I get home from school/work.
We got a $260 energy bill this month.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

I work from 8 to 5, so I will turn it on when I get home, and turn it off before I go to sleep.

If I turn it on and plan to use it 2 hours later, I will leave it on.

Pretty much a daily thing.

 

[biostud]

no reason to have them running while not using them. It uses electricity, and the components will be horribly outdated before failing.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

My bro and I used to be on a network, and he would leave it on, with 3 IE windows open(some of them logged into mail accounts), 24/7...

I seriously recommend against this for power, security, failure rate issues.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Originally posted by: rickn
I turn mine on in the morning before I go to work, and I leave it on, and I turn it off when I go to bed.

 

[0roo0roo]

wasting power for no reason is wasteful. its like starting your car, thats hard on a car sure....

by the time your compnents wear out they willl be obsolete. its not pratical

 

[SPARTAN VI]

In my family, powering off definitely has an advantage, and it shows. My father keeps his PC running 24/7, the only time it saw shut-eye is when there were rolling blackouts in CA. My sister does the same, 24/7 on bittorrent downloading anime, sucking up our bandwidth.

I'm the only one that shuts off my PC, but just recently I've started using stand-by. I like stand-by as it emulates a shut-down PC; there are no lights, no fans, absolute silence, but when I'm ready to go Windows is already loaded.

My father, bought his PC last year: P4 2.4GHz (533) Asus P4S533, X800Pro, and it just took a dump last week. Nearly lost all of his files and barely boots at all. My sister has gone through 3 PC's in one year. The one she's using now is my old P4 3.0E Prescott. PRESCOTT and she leaves the beast running 24/7, on the second floor of our home, in Southern CA! It'll probably be dead by February. I've had the Prescott for a year before I slid it off to my sister, and I've had this system for about 8 months. So.. we'll see how things turn out.

 

[imported_OrSin]

I leave mine on in the winter so it can heat my den. My den is usually nice and toasty when i get home. I got 3 systems in thier. In the summer I shut things off when i go to bed, except my e-mule commuter. I'm going to get bittor on it next.

 

[McPudd]

When I am going to be afk for more than one hour, I turn it off until I need to use it again.

 

[quackerww]

Nothing gives me more pleasure then turning on my computer. It it about the only thing that I can turn on.

 

[450R]

I leave mine on and use Scheduled Tasks as an alarm clock. A $1,500 alarm clock.

I've been meaning to buy a real alarm clock but they're so hard to figure out ... reminds me of my many failed attempts at recording a TV show at a preset time and channel on my old VCR.

I'd be interested in seeing what kind of savings a typical 2-3 PC household would see by turning the computers off when not in use.

 

[gwai lo]

distributed computing?

where...

 

[joecool]

turn it off. here's why:

- save electricity (maybe a small amount, but over time it adds up!)
- more secure - no matter how secure your box is, it can be hacked. the less it's on the net the less likely this is to happen.
- winblows works better - yes, despite it's extreme robustness as an os, over time you will get memory leaks, zombie processes, etc etc etc. when my machine has been on for multiple days for some reason i will reboot it just to clean things out.
- kick the habit. why do you need to have it on 24/7? don't be addicted to your computer! every once in a while, just to shake things up, leave it alone. interract directly with your own kind (humans). your computer will be ok. i promise.

joe

 

[imported_OrSin]

The last time I left my computer alone for 2 too long it got mad at me and took it out on my cat. I left the case top off, so the computer could have a nice view of the new ceiling fan I put in. Yes I'm nice to my PC like that. The cat ,I guess, heard the fan and decided to play with it. Not sure what happened next but I know the cat was missing one claw and there was blood all over the damn carpet. I want to killed the cat but my wife likes her so the vet bill cost me $600 (for a damn $30 cat). After turning my computer back on (didn't remember turning it off) from coming home from the vet the cat would hide. I had no idea why but I don't care. Cars are stupid any way. I wanted a dog, but that another story. First you have to know I can't smell anything at all. My wife walks into the den and says it smell like I'm roasting a pig. I could semell but after look around I found the reason. It seems thier is cat blood all over my HS, and the smell is very bad ( from what I'm told). Well my computer is still working so I decide not to clean out anything. Plus he got the kill (really he just hurt ther cat, but I don't want to hurt his fellings) so he gets to wear the war paint. I now have the den to my self and the cat still will come upstairs if he can hear (or smell not sure which) the computer on.

Lesson for the day.
Sometimes a bloody mess is a good thing if it gets you your den back.
Also I get the real Killer PC, the rest of you guys PC are just want to be.

 

[Spike]

I leave my main machine on 24/7 and my energy bill is ~$22 a month, so I'm not so worried. I will reboot approx every week to ensure a clean windows but I have gone as long as a month. Basically if I am doing anything on it I leave it on and as my torrent program has been running for a long time I always leave it on for that.

I would use my slower pc for this but it's too freaking loud. As soon as I quiet it down some I will turn that into my torrent pc and leave that one on all the time.

-spike