QOTD: Do You Shut Off Your PC At Night?

News
By Tuan An Nguyen
published

Because of mechanical wear and tear in traditional hard drives and fans, I've never really liked turning off my computing devices. A steady on state is better for the hard drive in the long run.

Just like constant highway drive, stop and go traffic is bad for your hardware. However, all the concern these days for being green and conserving resources have caused me to slightly change my computing habits. Now, I make sure my displays are off before bed, but I still leave my desktop and laptop on almost all the time. The desktop is even protected by two massive UPSes from APC, just in case there's a blackout.

Still thought, I like my equipment instantly accessible at all times.

The question of the day is: Do you turn off your PC at night?

Tuan An Nguyen
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217 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tayb
    I don't have a desktop PC at the moment but I put my laptop to sleep every night and unplug it from the wall (as well as the charger from the wall.) I turn it off maybe one or two times a week just to clear up anything but not very often. I can't see a reason for not putting the computer to sleep or standby, it just doesn't make sense not to.
    Reply
  • Most time time my PC is on because I use Windows Media Center. But when I'm done watching TV at night I sometimes put it in sleep mode. It's setup to wakeup when it needs to record.
    Reply
  • zerapio
    I hate to break it to people here but mechanical wear and tear is negligible unless you're turning the system on/off every few minutes. Maybe a cheap motherboard fails with less stress but from the articles I've seen here motherboard manufacturers take stress and fatigue into consideration when testing.
    Reply
  • mlg779
    put my computer to sleep every time I step away from it more than 10, 15 minutes; The laptop stays on from the time I come home to the time I go to sleep because I have the Skype on, and because of Skype I'm looking forward for something small between 7"-10"-12" with web cam to take less power
    Reply
  • haze4peace
    Most of the times I leave it on, unless my computer is doing absolutely nothing. It's also in the room I sleep in so sometimes i don't want to hear the sound of the fans spinning.
    Reply
  • anonymous x
    I always turn my PC off unless I'm downloading/uploading something HUGE or running a virus scan (not that I ever get viruses, just for peace of mind)
    Reply
  • jn77
    My computer is a heater in the winter months :-), but it gets unplugged from the network when not using the connection for anything.
    Reply
  • persianwhite
    Folding @ home 24/7
    thus my system is on 24/7 (most of the time..)
    1.5kVA UPS makes it easier to keep the system on while I am not around.
    Reply
  • magicandy
    zerapioI hate to break it to people here but mechanical wear and tear is negligible unless you're turning the system on/off every few minutes. Maybe a cheap motherboard fails with less stress but from the articles I've seen here motherboard manufacturers take stress and fatigue into consideration when testing.
    A quick reading of the article would have shown you that Tuan was referring to hard drive wear and tear, which is definitely a factor for people that turn their computer on/off every day, especially since those are often the types of people that not only turn it off at the end of the day, but also turn it off any time they're not using it.
    Reply
  • magicandy
    To that I will add that I've never had a 24/7-on hard drive fail on me. I have, however, encountered the dreaded clank of death in many mainstream-use hard drives.
    Reply