Is it better to leave your PC on all the time?

[Guest]

Hi, I'm having a little squabble with my stepdad. He believes a PC shouldnt be on at all times and should be switched off while not used. So he keeps switching mine off. While I think that it's better for the hardware if the computer runs all the time. I've heard that from several tech people and one of my University teachers even told me that. Don't worry about the cooling, I have sufficient cooling and my room isn't very warm. The hardware isn't overheating, it's been ever since I bought it 3 weeks ago (with the exception of 1 night).
Please clear this up as this is the only way I can get him off my back.
Thanx!
Sia.G

 

[alltaken]

well i don't know if anyone can clear it up 100% for you, there are a few issues involved.

A) hardware can handle being left on for basicly as long as you wat.
my internet server is up for approx 2-3 months between reboots. i know that mates of mine have had their computers running stably for similar periods

B) software cannot always handle being left on without reboot, windows XP can become unstable after long periods of use as it is crap at clearing out unused stuff. but can be left on with no problems for some periods, i also know many people that have had WinXP running for months without problem. Linux can be left on almost indefinatly.

C) Power consumption, computers will consume power when being left on, but will not if left off. makes sense right

D) Noise, i turn mine off every night to sleep, basic fact is i would leave it on like my dad leaves his on all the time if it wern't in my room.

E) stress of being turned off and on, the stress of startup on components is not zero, shutting down and starting up involves spinning discs up to full speed, spining fans up to full speed, and putting a load on the power suply.

F) leaving a PC on with fans running all the time will fill the case up with dust.





basicly its damn funny. nomatter what you do there is a consequence, most of these issues will happen over periods of years and the problems would arise long after the usefullness of your computer has run out. bascily by the time anything happens your computer will be obsolete EITHER WAY you do it.

on one hand you have potential dust build up, overheating, and power useage from leaving it on, on the otherhand you have potential mechanical failure from turing it on and off all the time but you will have a more stable OS.

neither of these issues is that big a deal, and its up to the individual as to what they prefer to do.

i cleaned out my brothers old PC after dust build up. (obsolete PC by the time i did)
thats all the problems with it being left on.

but HDD failure is a bit more serious if its important (thn again it should be obsolete by the time it dies, we got a 4Gb HDD that is still going after rather a bad life LOL)



Alltaken


<A HREF="http://www.mud-puddle.co.nz" target="_new">http://www.mud-puddle.co.nz</A> its where its all going on

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I was looking at diagrams for a HDD write head. I mean if the human hair is: ------------------------------
thaty wide, the head is ---- that wide.Pretty much same dimensions for the height. So my teacher told me to be careful about the switching on a off all the time, it's fragile stuff.

 

[HarrY]

now i am asuuming u donot have ne power fluctuations etc,
if u switch the monitor off......then
the system will consume 80 % less than what it does
(again assuming ur video card dosent require a
a hell lot of power.......i m not sure abt this one though)

Yes..........if u are on broadband.......n dl material
then go on mate........leave the baby up all the time

 

[Guest]

If I'm not here, monitor is off (thats about 300W less power usage). My GFX Card is standard. Currently doesnt even have a FAN! Im getting a Radeon Pro soon with 1 fan so thats alll good.
I have broadband as well, so its nice to leave it on at nights and have finished DL's in the morning! Ahh... like fresh cofee!

Anywayz guys, this should be enough evidence to prove my stepdad wrong. Thanx!
(If anyone knows more, please do tell!)

 

[HarrY]

I hope u r dad agrees

 

[upec]

I only turn off the Monitor. I usually keep my computers on all the time. It is better for the computer because when you just turn a computer on or off the temperature inside the computer changes fast. There are a lot of chips soldered into different boards. It might cause the chip or the soldered contact to crack.

 

[pIII_Man]

no offense to your dad, but he is wrong, in fact you probably put the most stress on your computer and powersupply in the first second that you switch it on, why? Because your capacitors (ya those big ass things in your ps, around your cpu socket, and chipset) have to power up, in the time that they are powering up the amount of current that they draw can be equivilent to that of a short circut. There are however some electronics onboard to limit the initial power surge such as chokes but still, a lot of stress is put onto your system.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

 

[umheint0]

that's exactly what I do

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--

 

[umheint0]

The best thing to do is turn the machine off if you are not going to use it within 24 hours. So, if you use it every day, leave it on. If you are going to be away for a longer period of time (like over the weekend if it's an office machine), then turn it off.

All the aforementioned advice holds, but the above is really the best idea.

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--

 

[4Ryan6]

I use mine then shut it down, I'm not leaving it on all the time, for it just to sit there and use power, now if you were filesharing or something like that, well that'd be different, but its not like you're powering the thing up with lightning, its a controlled startup, I'll be upgrading anyway before any damage is done from powering up the system. Look how many times the machine restarts itself doing an OP/SYS installation, and reloading all your software, whether cold boot or hot boot it really doesn't matter, its not a diesel. Your stepdad probably is the one paying the bills, you volunteer to pay the power bill each month and he'll shutup and get off your back.

<b>*****</b><b>Missster Anderson!,,,Welcome Back!</b><b>*****</b>

 

[4Ryan6]

Very good points Alltaken , we have a lot of lightning storms where I live and even though we have the best surge protectors available, I shut everything off during one of those storms, TV included, and I sure wouldn't want my computer running, while I was gone during the day in one of those storms, so I use mine then shut it down, been doing it that way for about 4 years straight now, upgrades but no problemos.



<b>*****</b><b>Missster Anderson!,,,Welcome Back!</b><b>*****</b>

 

[BunnyStroker]

If you don't need it on, switch it off.

Do you notice how most hardware you buy has a rating on its tech spec sheet MTBF? It stands for mean time before failure. The probability of an electrical component failing increases as the total time it has been in use increases. Accordingly, when you run stuff all the time the useful life of the equipment will be partly wasted as you run it doing nothing.

The exception to this is when you have a poor surge protector/no line conditioner/dirty electricity. In this case the voltage spikes incurred in starting a PC will tend to degrade the equipment faster than just running it all the time.

On the other hand, a lot of equipment will last longer than is useful. My current PS, for example, has a MTBF of like 50,000 hours - ~5.7 years. So who cares - I will probably get a new one before it wears out.

<b>1.4 Ghz AMD T-Bird underclocked to 1 Ghz...just to be safe!</b>

 

[BunnyStroker]

...not to mention, you waste electricity. Once you've started to pay your own bills, you realize very quickly why conserving energy is a very good thing.

<b>1.4 Ghz AMD T-Bird underclocked to 1 Ghz...just to be safe!</b>

 

[pIII_Man]

No matter how clean your power is, there will be a VERY high amprege surge when starting up your computer, the surge protector has nothing to do with it, in fact the capacitors in the surge protector may even make it worse.

BTW there are only 3 devices that really die, fans, optical drives and hard drives. Hard drives and opticals are off when your pc is not in use and fans are cheep.

Other than that, the only things that can go are capacitors but that is over the course of years. So i am a firm beleiver of leave it on for the whole day w/ power saving options enabled.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy