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Most of the hardware failures I've had (especially hard drive crashes) have happened when turning the machine on, so is it better to leave your computer on all the time or not? For years, I've heard arguments for...
and against...
and I'm still not sure. | ||||
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I leave it on. I schedule all sorts of updates/scans/de-frags in the wee hours of the night. That way all that system maintenance is done while I sleep, and I can do more cough productive cough things when I'm actually at my machine. Essentially, my time is worth more to me than a small amount of wear on a hard drive or power bill. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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An idle desktop computer can use 70-100W of power, even with the latest power saving hardware. That's a huge waste. If you're worried about the time it takes to start back up, use a sleep or hibernate mode. It's like saying "I leave all the lights on in my house because flicking the light switch is too much work." As for components like hard drives, these can fail whether you leave your computer on or not. Hard drives especially. Always keep a backup. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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I'm absolutely appalled by the majority of the answers given here. Don't any of you care about the environment? Electricity doesn't come out of the socket without an impact on the Earth's resources, you know. If you're not using it then switch it off! | |||||||||||||||||
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Sleep mode does wonders if you want it to boot fast and save some power etc. For the rest I don't think you will still use your computer by the time you wear out your hardware by rebooting every day. So I would just shut it down if you go home or go to bed. | |||||
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I think you should just set up sleep/hibernate mode properly, and forget about the issue. Most modern machines know not to sleep when a long-running operation is running (e.g. download or defrag). Two arguments for this:
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For me, it comes down to this:
Leaving your computer on all night while it isn't doing anything useful is a simple waste of resources. | ||||
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You should have it always on in case I might need something from it :) | |||||||||||||
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I turn my machines off ... saves power less heat less noise better security (remote rather than console) | ||||
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No, turn it off. What computers do when they're on and not doing anything: What computers do when they're off: Hard discs do not suffer that much from turning off/on, as has been presented here. I've got three of them in the drawer/attic, which range from 15-10 years old, and have been turned off/on, regularly for 10 years, several times a day. All still work (I'm not using them of course, but they still work). The price of energy has been calculated by someone already. | |||||
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I turn my computer(s) of in the evening .. I sleep in the same room and the noise drives me up the wall ... I'm also the person paying the utility bill .. | ||||
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I leave mine on unless I am going to be away for 2 days or longer. With EnergyStar(TM - Whatever) components and the proper power settings the difference in energy costs is negligible. My main concern is the wear/tear on the HD from spinning up and down and changes in temperature. This is a good link - Turn the PC off or leave it on? | ||||
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It depends on your definition of "better". I normally turn my PC off at night and when I'm at work because of the power issue. Whether or not electricity is cheap where you live, that still adds up to a large amount of energy. Considering that we're now being told to switch off devices like TVs and DVD players at night instead of leaving them on standy, when their standby power comsumption is only in single digits, the idea of permanently leaving on a 100+ W device seems incredibly wasteful. Now, in the 10 years I've owned a PC (and maintained other people's), I'm not aware of any hard disks failing purely because they've been turned on and off too much. I certainly remember hearing in the past this argument for not turning PCs off unnecessarily, but I'm not convinced that this is still the case. So my point is: unless the PC needs to be on all the time, is the damage to your bank balance/damage to the environment/minutes saved in not booting (delete as applicable) really worth it? | ||||
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No, turn it off. E.g. if you know you will not be using it for the next two hours or more (unless some background process is running - like defragmentation or downloads). The power cycles will definitely shorten the life of the harddisks and other components, but your computer will be outdated long before the harddisks die. In any case you should take steps to ensure a harddisk failure will not affect you (backups and/or a RAID system, etc.). Leaving it on is an unnecessary waste of resources, regardless of wether you or your employer pay the electricity bill. | ||||
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It's generally better for the computer to leave it on all the time, if you can afford to. Most wear and tear on electronic components occur during electrical surges when the devices are turned on and off (and during line surges if you aren't running behind a surge suppressor/power filter). For hard drives, most mechanical wear happens with the drive spins up and spins down. Avoid these two events as much as possible and you will maximize the lifespan of your computer. | ||||
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The problem I find with turning it off is the time it takes to boot. But there's a solution. In many modern computers, in the BIOS (hardware settings), you can set a time for the PC to automatically power on. I have this set to 6 a.m. or so. And I use TweakUI to automatically log on. So I power down every night, but when I get up in the morning, my PC is already on, booted, and ready to use. | ||||
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Yes. If you turn it off, you have to wait for it to turn on again. In all seriousness, this is why I leave it on. The hardware will have to fend for itself. | |||||
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My desktop is left on all the time because I run some servers on it (like MagicJack, SVN). My laptop is always put into Sleep/Suspend mode when it's not used. I, personally, think that you should never "Shutdown". You should always sleep or hibernate your computer. There's really no reason to shut it down and restart it except for updates. | ||||
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I think you've answered your own question! If you are worried about cost and don't use the PC remotely or for schedules then the power usage on a high power machine MIGHT be higher than the cost of replacing the odd hard drive every few years. For cheap components, power cycles are very stressful but for quality goods with good soldering and proper heatsinks + thermal paste etc I doubt you'd see much problem. Having said that, very high end enterprise grade equipment doesn't get power cycled at all so they are probably made without that in mind! I don't plan to reboot my SAN more than once a decade! | ||||
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I setup the monitor to power-off when idle for sometime. I used passive cooled components on one of the machines to keep noise low But, if possible, I choose to turn them off. | ||||
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You can nullify the HDD wear by either having the drives turn off when your machine is idle for more than a few minutes, or by using a SSD. I usually leave my system on. It produces nice white noise that helps me sleep and I can keep my work open so I know where I left off when I start work again tomorrow. If I turn the machine off, I will likely forget something I was doing prior to going to bed. I do turn my monitors off, though, whenever I leave my machine. That's 200 watts of power easily saved. I used to turn my machine off at night for a couple of reason. It would heat my room beyond a comfortable temperature. Also, the fans collect grime faster if they're churning through more air. | ||||
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Work desktop: I turn it off, so I will
Personal laptop: I leave it in standby when not used. Media center: It's off when not used. | ||||
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If you're worried about your computer overheating when you turn it down, some power supplies out there actually spin for a minute or two after shut down to exhaust all your hot air. I'm not sure if they do or can run your fans as well, but this is a possibility. If you can find a power supply that will do it (or even just a battery), you could wire up a circuit using a 555 timer chips that runs the fans for about 30 seconds after power off. | ||||
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I leave mine on. Partly it's because I loathe re-setting-up my desktop all the time, but the maintenance issues you touch on are in there. As far as I can tell, it's just a universal property of systems like these that starting them up and shutting them down is far harder on them than time spent running in a steady state. Some kind of chaos theory phase transition thing going on in there, I'm sure. | ||||
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Personally I turn my PC off at night.
I used to feel the same way, back when I was still in college and I used my PC all day. However, now, I have a real day job (scary!). I turn my PC on in the morning, check email and whatnot before work, and all my defrag / backups / etc complete while I am at work. This way I can also remote desktop from work if I need something important from my home machine. Frankly, I don't have nearly enough automated tasks that I need my PC to be running all night and all day every day. | ||||
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Sleep / Hibernate / Shutdown it. Leaving it on without anything to do, would be like leaving your car turned on all night in the garage because you don't want to turn it on the next morning… Don't be lazy ;) | ||||
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A couple of things. Yes, leaving your machine on uses power, wears out mechanical moving parts (fans, mostly) and leads to more accumulated dust and nastiness inside your PC, which can cause airflow problems (this is why you shouldn't keep your computer on the floor). Windows isn't really designed to run all the time without a reboot, and memory leaks are still depressingly common - depending on how you use your PC, you may find it feels a little more responsive after a reboot. Some components inside your PC will last longer if left running permanently, and some will last longer if they're turned off when not in use. The debate over what will last longer isn't really anything to worry about, since by the time the components have run for long enough for this to become an issue, they'll be obsolete anyway. Having said that, if you're going to leave your PC on overnight - say, for a hefty torrent download - then if you're feeling energy-conscious, you might want to have a look at this link. World Community Grid will allow you to donate your unused CPU cycles to help develop the next generation of solar cells (IE "solar cells that are more useful than the ones we have right now - which really aren't terribly useful at all"). This is exactly the sort of thing that's useful for people who leave their PCs running permanently. They do other research as well; check it out, it's very interesting. | ||||
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I leave my computer most of the day and just hibernate it when I am out or sleeping. But no need to keep it working all the time, sure closing it will increase the hardware life time. | ||||
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First and foremost, the reason there are two sides to this issue is that both arguments are correct. I will just add one factor to the mix .... if you live in an area prone to thunderstorms during a particular season, definatley turn the PC off when not in use. I go as far as removing the surge protectors plug from the outlet during the springtime, as we have frequent and powerful storms. The rest of the year, I leave my PC on as my motherboard and operating system have features to conserve some electricity, and I feel the "wear and tear" factor is real. | ||||
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Keeping your computer on all the time is (I believe) a hold-over from the olden days. Way back when there were vacuum tubes and then the advent of those delicate transistors and flip-flops, keeping power applied all the time was necessary to reduce spikes and wear and tear on these sensitive electronic parts. Turning your gear off and on was a no no. This process was carried over to the first desktops (Apple II's, Lisa, etc.) and perpetuated through misinformation and ignorance. The electronics in today's computers are much more hearty and reliable; consequently, not with standing individual need for updating and number crunching during the wee hours, it is not necessay to keep your computer on when it's not in use. Also keep in mind that memory is refreshed at boot-up and malicious software using your computer during the night is also eliminated when you shut down when the computer is not in use. Savings on your power bill is another plus - businesses with many to hundreds of computers seldom require employees to turn their computers off at the end of the work day; imagine the energy savings if they would. | ||||
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I have frequent need for ad-hoc access to the desktop throughout the evening and I frequently run stuff overnight, so I run 24x7. I place all my peripherals on a separate power-strip however, and simply flip the switch to disable the displays, speakers, and nearby lights. | ||||
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