Turn the PC off or leave it on?

[arsonistx]

I leave my computer on all of the time. I very rarely shut down or restart my computer, unless I just installed something that requires a restart, or if I'm leaving the house for days at a time. I think turning the computer on and off all the time will wear out your hard drive and memory.

 

[XtinctionZ]

In my opinion, it is better if you shut it off when you're not using. The computer is one of the electrical appliances that consume large amount of energy.

So, for the environment, I will say shut it off. Save energy, save the Environment, save the Earth

 

[-Genesis-]

I run a program called Folding@Home on my home PC:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

It's a program which uses your space computing power to simulate protein folding, to help researchers find the causes of, and ultimately the cure to, many common diseases including: Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

It runs in the background at the lowest possible priority and only uses CPU power when it is not allready being used by another application. I leave my comp on at all times with this program running...hopefully i'm helping to cure some of the worlds most horrible uncurable diseases!

 

[liamk12]

i thought that the components might melt so i turn my pc off before bed and its off for 13 hours around and then on for about 8 hours when im working on something and i rarely clean it and ive had it for around 4 years and ive had it fixed 4 times due to viruses not the components.

 

[-Genesis-]

My laptop is a 3 year old vaio...interestingly, it's cooling fan seems to be controlled by cpu usage rather than core temperature. Nice idea in theory, but in practice it means that if leave it overnight doing cpu heavy stuff like converting videos it stays nice and cool, but if i leave it doing nothing it practcally burns a hole in the desk! Crazy huh...well that's sony vaio's for you i guess...

So yeah, i leave it on but allways doing something like this program -> http://folding.stanford.edu/

 

[nakg0d]

well, if you can put it on standby, that works, too

 

[catz154]

I leave my computer on for about three days at the a time, when I am not using it it goes to sleep. I clean it out often. But i think that it is your choice.

 

[phoenix mystic]

I have always kept my computers at home on (both Macs and PCs). The reason is because I don't want to keep having to wait for everything to start up whenever I turn it on. Also, I keep my them on so that I can access them remotely.

 

[Scott B]

My computer is always off when I'm asleep. Its horribly loud and I don't want it waking me up lol

 

[phoenix mystic]

Actually, it really depends on your needs. If you have a server, obiviously your not supposed to shut them down. Also, if yuo need to ever connect to your computer remotely for any reason (i.e. VPN), you must leave your computer on. However, if you don't use it much, it is typically better to shutdown the computer or put it in standby at least.

 

[Sheer Cold]

Of course, I never leave my laptop on overnight. I always shut down my PC too. If I need to leave for a while I usually put it on standby. Waiting for svchost to finish executing on my laptop is pretty annoying, but I'd rather not listen to its whirring fan all day.

 

[Godhelm]

Last time I left my PC on for less than a week straight, it started to make disturbing noises.. It still works fine then, but I couldn't leave it on from then on because it bothers my very much needed sleep.. Now my younger brother owns that unit, and with my new one, I'll definitely shut it down when it's idle.. (anyway, this is just about my case right?)

 

[David_Tiger]

Well my PC with a 30cm diametre case fan and 5 fans inside including graphics fan is very noisy at night when the house is quiet, so it goes off
during the day my pc is at the opposite side of the room from the door and i can stand just outside my door and hear the fans whirring. Also its got bright blue fan lights and case lights so at night in darkness the PC lights up the room and hard to sleep.

So for me Off at night, and sometimes laptop in bed with me for secret browsing from parents when supposed to be sleeping.

 

[sfan123]

Yeah I usually turn ours off it pretty wuiet but with it being new in all I don't want to risk any thing about it yet probaly shouldn't hurt it though

 

[Conmiro]

Honestly, shutting it down causes the computer to perform a lot of tasks at once to close all programs which wears down the hardware over time. I mean not in a year, mabey 5 years. But leaving it on too long will cause it to over heat if you dont have a good fan.

 

[neverlate2day]

another point i'd like to add is the reliability is compromised like all viruses depend on u rebooting at the same shutting down helps clear ram

I'm confused, what really does better from only performance point of view(i dont mind boot time)

 

[stealth_thunder]

for me I think switching on and left it for 7 days 24/7 is ok for me, but I more worried about the hardware wear off will also be at state... I think no matter how much I leave my computer on forever or shut it down... the wear and tear of the pc will never change for the better thi is because by switching it on and leaving it there, the heat the is accumulated and the hardware is running for such a long hours even a good fan will not help in preventing the circuit in those hardware to wear off...

Either of them are good because both will cause wearing off but I think switching it on for long hours will wear it off faster unless I am working on my computer for 24/7 without sleep...

 

[Spritey]

One would think that leaving it on would cause more wear, as the components would be hotter and get more use. I mean, it's common sense, no?

Still, I have to wonder what shutting down does to the components. Why would it damage them? It doesn't really make sense.

 

[David_Tiger]

Well when things get hot they expand (get bigger) and as they cool they would contract (smaller), although you dont actually notice it but each time you turn it off they cool, then few hours later you turn it back on, causing them to heat up, few hours later you turn off again....... and so on..... may over time cause them to wear out etc

I think this would cause more damage than turning it on and leaving on keeping the components hot rather than cooling all the time. Because they wont be cooling as much, although playing a game they heat up, put off the game they would cool to there idle temperature. so maybe this would have the same effect only smaller?

 

[Spartan Erik]

Now that I think about it, leaving it on 24/7 would make components such as fans last for a shorter amount of time (MTBF)