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What does more damage?

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I have a seven year old computer. It's been shut down every night and turned on every afternoon since it was purchased. It obviously still works. Just do whatever you prefer to do.
 
I always shut mine off overnight. Remember the hard drive has a useful life also. I guess the components do too somewhat. I think when people say it's better to leave it on than turning it off and on, they're talking about if you turned it off, but planned to use it again in a few hours or less, and turned it back on. Personally I wouldn't want my PC on while I'm asleep or gone. There have been a few reports of fires (w/ deaths) where I am, from PC's/monitors catching on fire. Do the people that 'brag' about leaving their PC on all the time never think about this, or just think it doesn't happen?
 
Originally posted by: spelletrader
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: Elcs
I doubt that its really calculable. Its probably more likely to be killed by user error or being struck by lightning than to die early due to either method.
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Zero practical difference.
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All three of my PC's hibernate after two hours of non-use.

 
I used to leave my main PC on all the time but now I shut it down every night. I live in the city and even though I have filters on all my fans I had to clean the filters at least once a week cuz of clogs.
 
Originally posted by: Mik3y
i hear that turning it on and off a lot does more damage, just like flipping a light switch too much.
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I turn my pc on/off at least 6-8 times per day sometimes more for years now,and i never had any problems whatsoever.

When it's on it uses power and gets used,when it's off it's off so no damage.
 
Both are correct. Temperature changes and cold starts put a strain on everything. I prefer to turn mine on when I need it and off when I go to bed, so that's on and off once a day.

Here's my reasoning for it:

Mine pulls as much juice as a light bulb when idle, which is why I strike a balance between leaving it on 24/7 and firing it up once a day.

I hate cleaning it out. It sucks up dust better than my Hoover.

I usually replace the board, CPU, hd and maybe the video card each year or so. If I honestly thought I would ever build a system that I would not want to touch for a few years I might think differently about it.

 
so many people say "turning it on and off does more damage then just leaving it on" but ive never seen any proof of that....

and all of the technical stuff ive seen on the subject have to do with computer parts pre-1990. (back in the early days of pc's it was supposedly very true that turning on and off was hard on the pc)

if anything it seems to be the opposite now (especially with harddrives) IBM harddrive problems with the 75gxp supposedly was from being on to many hrs a day... was it the 180gxp?? or 120gxp?? that in the white paged set the mtbf based on a certain number of on-time hours a day (i remember some people got upset cause it meant that they shouldnt be used in 24hr servers) i dont remember the numbers, but it was like less then 12hrs a day or the mtbf was dramatically lower.

and now look at all the harddrive failures in the last 3 yrs or so that has made the big guys change to a 1yr warranty instead of 3yrs. i know for sure that of all the harddrives i have to RMA (which is anywhere from 1 thru 10 a month) that by far the majority are pulled from systems that are run 24hrs a day. and very few are pulled from systems that are shut down each night
 
Leaving a comp powered up for 2-4 days or so, or turning it off each night?
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This comes up all the time,you`ll get pros and cons from both sides,IMHO it does not matter either way,both will be negilable in the real world,for what it`s worth I turn mine off every night(for the last 8 years now) I let you know when one of my PCs die from the flick of the switch 😉.
 
Originally posted by: NewBlackDak
uptime for 45 days now, time before was 92. I've only rebooted for kernel upgrades since I installed my 9800 and reservior.
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You havent intalled a program, driver or anything else that requires a reboot? 😱
 
Yeah seriously...just turn the mutha off. You're electrical bill will be a lot higher than any new components you have to buy four years down the road if it ever croaks for those reasons.
 
I'd turn it off to save on the power bill, but I wholeheartedly agree that if you ARE going to leave it on then put a distributed computing sreensaver on the computer so you can make use of the idle clock cycles. Folding, cancer, SETI, which one you choose is up to you, but please help out the worthy causes with your donation of clock cycles.

(Dontcha all wish you could get a tax deduction for donating all those clock cycles?)
 
Originally posted by: Slickone
I always shut mine off overnight. Remember the hard drive has a useful life also. I guess the components do too somewhat. I think when people say it's better to leave it on than turning it off and on, they're talking about if you turned it off, but planned to use it again in a few hours or less, and turned it back on. Personally I wouldn't want my PC on while I'm asleep or gone. There have been a few reports of fires (w/ deaths) where I am, from PC's/monitors catching on fire. Do the people that 'brag' about leaving their PC on all the time never think about this, or just think it doesn't happen?
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Considering there is a furnace in my basement whos sole purpose in life is to contain a billowing fire that oil is pumped in to, my computer doesn't really seem that aweful.
 
Originally posted by: effee
Originally posted by: NewBlackDak
uptime for 45 days now, time before was 92. I've only rebooted for kernel upgrades since I installed my 9800 and reservior.
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You havent intalled a program, driver or anything else that requires a reboot? 😱
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He prolly just logs on/off. Sort of the same.
 
Man, PCs are built to run for days on end (if not weeks or months), they are also made to shut off whenever you need them too.

Quit worrying about it and just do whatever suits your needs, lifes to short to worry about whether to turn it off or leave it on....
 
Running Linux, so anything I install is automatically useable, or useable after a service restart.
The only thing I reboot for is new hardware, WC cleanup, or a new kernel. Since I need a stable machine I don't try all the latest bleeding edge kernels. The wife factor keeps me from frequent hardware upgrades, so I get the best I can when it comes time.


I also looked since I'm at work:
My Mac Workstation - OSX
21:36 up 20 days, 5:07, 3 users, load averages: 2.48 1.91 1.57
Email server - GentooPPC
21:36:54 up 107 days, 22:44, 1 user, load average: 0.01, 0.00, 0.01
DNS1 - Solaris9
9:36pm up 242 day(s), 4:48, 4 users, load average: 0.44, 0.46, 0.47
Database1 - Solaris8
9:36pm up 43 day(s), 22:14, 2 users, load average: 0.03, 0.07, 0.09
File/Print server - Gentoox86
9:37pm up 242 days, 4:44, 6 users, load average: 1.44, 1.46, 1.47


I'd also like to add that alot of OSs like to run their system maintenance and cleanup in the middle of the night. Keeps your system healthier that way.
 
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