Turn the PC off or leave it on?

[Spritey]

The expansion and contraction is a valid point, but quite frankly if you're turning your PC on and off that much then you probably shouldn't have one in the first place. If you turn it one and off and such then it should only really happen once a day, on in the morning/afternoon and off again in the evening/at night.

And components don't cool down again whilst the computer is idle, at least none of the ones I've worked with have. Indeed, the computer I'm using right now heats right up simply by virtue of being on. If you left it on all the time it'd just kill itself every so often because it's too hot. Which I'm sure you'll agree is far worse for the components than turning it on and off.

 

[cursedpsp]

Depends - is the box on the floor where it'll get more dust, or airborne?


Cause if it's on the floor, SHUT IT OFF AND SHUT IT OFF NOOOOOWWWW! Dust = Bad. Lotsa dust = REEEEEELY bad. Dust'll help the pc heat up faster which WILL kill the components faster, so your buddies may have had a point there.


Now if it's airborne, I'd keep it on cause theres a lot less dust to help heat it up. Then it becomes a matter of whether you believe the theory that each time you turn the system on it's like a power surge to all the components, similar to a light-bulb - flick it on and off too many times'll shorten its life too.



Theres always a bit more to it isn't there? I mean I'm gunna keep my pc's on as long as possible, but none of them in the house are any lower than 3 feet off the ground (and most are higher than that), so they don't get nearly as filled with dust as some of them I've seen (some look like theres enough dust to make a sofa cushion out of it). Any of them on the ground should ideally be shut off even though it IS like a lightbulb (turning it on/off too many times would kill it), simply because turning it off is the lesser of the two evils. I'd rather have a component die than melt

my pc on the floor is left on all the time (almost) - and it is in my bedroom. Just turn it off every now and then to give it a quick blow and everything is all fine and dandy!

And who cares abot the electric bill - just turn off the monitor when you arent using it

 

[David_Tiger]

Yes well on my PC i have over 6 fans including a 30cm side case fan, i leave my PC on all day and off all night. My idle CPU/Cores temperature is around 20°C with the graphics card idling about 30-35°C....

When i play crysis for a few good solid hours it can reach up to 80°C, but when i come out they cool slowley back to around 30-40°C

 

[kkenny]

So what are the benefits of leaving your computer on, and not leaving it on? I always happen to leave my computer on for a very long time, but I hope I don't break it since this is one of the only things I have left and I treasure it. I'm really eager to find out what is better for the computer in general.

 

[hermitobserver]

I leave my computer on in the day and off while i sleep. Turning off the computer lets it cool down. Which makes it faster. But letting your computer stay on means that you don't have to wait for it to reboot. Which is more convenient. But min freezes up and I have to shut it down anyway every half hour, so I don't really mind a little dust.

 

[kkenny]

Heh, mine is kinda blah computer. It doesn't slow down after a while. It just can't handle as many programs as a fresh computer boot. I really just want to know that if you leave your computer on for a while does it do any damage to its internal hardware?

 

[Jarryd]

I have never had any troubles when i use to leave my AMD on, it never went off...for about 3 months straight i had it running, never damaged any hardware, and windows never got slower.

It could handle all of the programs fine, the only problem was when the wet season came in darwin, we started getting a heap of blackouts.

Otherwise i would have kept it on longer than 3 months.

 

[AFIRE]

I shut mine down at the end of the day, though since I'm not home alot of the time, it's either off or in standby most of the day.

I personally believe it's best to turn it off if you don't plan to use it for a long time (like 6+ hours), both to give the internal components a rest, and to conserve electricity. If you're leaving it for just a while, maybe a few hours, put it in standby or hibernate. It's still technically running, and all you have to do is wake it up and perhaps log back in. It would only takes 20 seconds, though it's usually more like 7 or 8 seconds for me to get mine out of standby and back into my account in XP Pro.

As far as convenience, if you're always using your computer, or if it's a server or something like that, then of course, leave it on. But just restart it daily, and that will clear out all the memory and stuff, giving you your speed back.

You can also play with the Power Management settings in Windows. You can set it to automatically turn off the monitor and hard drive(s), go into standby and/or hibernation at set times.
Edit:
I shut mine down at the end of the day, though since I'm not home alot of the time, it's either off or in standby most of the day.

I personally believe it's best to turn it off if you don't plan to use it for a long time (like 6+ hours), both to give the internal components a rest, and to conserve electricity. If you're leaving it for just a while, maybe a few hours, put it in standby or hibernate. It's still technically running, and all you have to do is wake it up and perhaps log back in. It would only take maybe 20 seconds, though it's usually more like 7 or 8 seconds for me to get mine out of standby and back into my account in XP Pro.

As far as convenience, if you're always using your computer, or if it's a server or something like that, then of course, leave it on. But just restart it daily, and that will clear out all the memory and stuff, giving you your speed back.

You can also play with the Power Management settings in Windows. You can set it to automatically turn off the monitor and hard drive(s), go into standby and/or hibernation at set times.

 

[coolnos]

well,

i never turn my box off, i have two PC's in my room... P2 intel (the one i use) , and an AMD K6-2 as a server with ubuntu on it... and another 3 PC's and a Laptop around the house.

my server hasn't been turned off until yesterday for about the last month... when i accidentally disconnected the power cord... because my father just likes to turn on the PC and surf online immediately... hehe and i keep a download queue from the beginning of the month so i keep the server on 24/7... i clean it when i turn it off only + i have 4 System fans built inside...

bottom line for me, i never turn my systems off ( It's more healthy for the PC itself... hehe )

Cheers!

 

[sclewin]

There are several reasons to shut off your computer. The largest is the fact that the computers that are left on all the time suck up more electricity which, in turn, cause pollution. But, also every moving part in the computer see wear and tear and, very simply, the longer you leave your computer on the more wear and tear. The power supply is one component in particular that will see the blunt of leaving your computer on and will need to be replaced regularly. The fan in the power supply will eventually break, stop spinning, and cause your power supply to overheat.

There is simply no real reason really to leave your computer on all the time. If you leave it on to download stuff, it may be cheaper just to get a standard speed broadband or to simply be patient than to leave you computer on all night.