Leave the computer on or off

[Zelgadis]

I was wondering if I should keep my computer on all the time or if I should turn it off everynight. I've been told that it is alright if not good to keep the computer on. The individual that told me this said that it doesn't take that much electricity. I just want to get a few opinons from you guys. Thank you in advance for you replies.

Zel

[yaroa]

Mine is on 24/7. I only reboot when Window is low on resources.

[hd581]

No harm in leaving it on all the time I don't think. The only wear and tear it could possibly cause is on components with moving parts (fan, hard drive). Wouldn't hurt to put the hard drive on some sort of spin down time out. As for power consumption: Your monitor sucks up the majority of your power and you'll want to have it power down after a while, or turn it off manually.

A lot of people I know like to reboot every morning anyway just to clear memory leaks.

[GroundZero3]

Leave mine on all the time too reboot when window is being a pain.
JaYsin

[This message has been edited by GroundZero3 (edited 05-15-2000).]

[seti]

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/005465.html

[Joel Kleppinger]

Of COURSE it's running 24/7. How else is it supposed to be cracking RC5 when I'm not around? http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif
http://www.sysopt.com/rc5team.html

[ceedee]

depends
i wouldnt
should your ps go belly up
youve had it

[jad1097]

24/7 here also. I have the monitor power down after an hour of no use. Running Windows 2000 so no need to reboot unless I go into another OS.

[Zelgadis]

Well thanks to all who gave me their opinion. Actually for the last 2 years I've been running it 24/7 except when I left the house for more than 2 days. I just wanted to hear what you guys felt about the subject. Well then I will continue to run it at 24/7. Thanks all

Zel

[This message has been edited by Zelgadis (edited 05-16-2000).]

[wyvrn]

I would have but my roommates complain they think it takes to much juice. I have everything turn off after 20 minutes of no use, so the power consumption becomes minimal. Now that I pay the electric bill, I am leaving this baby on all the time!!! Booting windows IS a pain. And booting it 5 times a day so everyone can use it must cause more damage than leaving it on.

[madthumbs]

In standby mode, the fans stop running, and the CPU gets hotter than normal, so I dont recommend standby mode if your CPU is expensive. Most Bios settings are defaulted (i think) to power down the hard drive after 15 minutes of non use. I think it is the stopping and starting that cause allot of the wear and tear. Complete shutdowns are good for cleaning up problems when junk gets left in the memory. Reboots don't always do an adequate job. I would recommend a full shutdown at least once a week. I have a CD burner, so I don't use screen savers or monitor standby. If I leave the PC for a good amount of time, I simply turn the monitor off to save electricity. I think the monitor is currently one of the biggest electricity hogs. (Electric is 15 somthing per kilowatt hour here except at night) The type of user your are may make a difference on how often you should shut down. If you go back on your PC every hour or so it may be good to leave it on. If your gonna be gone for a day, I would shut it down. Just my thoughts here... I'm not a tech BTW.