So I have always wondered this.. Is it better to turn your computer off everynight or let it run non-stop. I have heard different opinions.

1. Spiking the PSU will where out the components
2. Letting it run all day will where out the components.

I have no idea what can you tell me.

I usually just let mine run, every couple days I'll restart it.either way the composite are going to experience wear so 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other imo. ONLY time I've had composite failure was when the north east decided to spike the grid. my psu popped.

On the other side you have the electric bill to think about, so if your making Lincoln scream you might was to power down if your not going to use it for a few hours

just my personal experience

I think it depends on the computer. My MacBook pro idles with the processors at around 2% and the fans at >500rpm, but my roommate's p4 runs at full speed all day with the fans cycling between jet engine and cyclone mode. His we turn off, mine we leave on.

I used to be in the camp of those who always left their computer running. About 4 years ago, I started disabling my Local Area Connection, but would leave the computer on.
Recently, however, I upgraded to a GeForce 8400 video card and it has a fan on the chip. Now my computer (since it currently sits in my bedroom) is too loud and prevents me from drifting off to sleep.
When I move, later this spring, I'll have the PC as my HTPC in the living room and I'll probably go back to just disabling the LAN connection and leaving the computer on.

Well if you are at all interested in saving the world and using less fossil fuels , then turn it off

That seems at first glance to be the most obvious solution, but then if you think about it-- When a part burns out in, lets be extreme, half the time, then you have to use more fossil feuls to produce a replacement part for it. What would use more feul? Running a computer in low power mode for a long time, or the entire production process to create a replacement computer? My calculations are probably way off one way or the other, but it's interesting to think about from all angles. Kinda like biodiesel taking more feul to produce than it saves at the consumer end.

Yea well you stink

I just threw threw my previous comment out there to cause some Sunday controversy .

This. Or if you're more interested in cutting down on your bill like me. Depends on the computer system, but some, (like mine), are real power hogs.

If I were going to leave it on 24/7 I would definitely look into one of the many distributed computing research projects that are going on, like genome mapping, (I think), and put that power to good use. I'd guess that there are probably some climate modelling ones as well, so while you're burning that extra energy you can be a part of investigating the consequences. Certainly something to think about, and now that I do think about it I'm going to see if I can set up a project at work to utilize some of our end of life servers.

speaking of bio diesel I'm going to produce my own eventually. Thats a few years down the road though. When deisel was invented it was running on vegetable oil.

linky
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again

I didn't turn my one pc off for about 4 yrs , now my son has it in his room so it did get shut down for an hour or so,, I try and tell him to shut it down at night , my other pcs are turned off until used ,, laptop gets kicked around from room to room so it is off when not in use. I think it really matters how you have your settings for power mode ,keeping them on is no big deal ,in my opinion. How did you do last night during earth hour.. ??? We shut down everything ,but my son decided to uplug things instead of turning off so now we are setting clocks and plugging things back in , .

I heard a little bit about this "turning computers on and off damages them" business a long time ago, like in 486 "dx2" (that's what they called them right?) days. I found the claim dubious then and I find it less believable now. Cars, appliances, personal electronics, lights, TVs, etc. etc. etc. all work fine for a VERY long time when they're turned on and off, why would computers be any different?

Also, I'm not a tree hugger, but I do believe wasting electricity is bad. If you're not going to be using the computer just turn it off...

Better yet, put it into sleep mode. That way it's still on and you save electricity.


As has been mentioned fans will drive you to turn computers off if you're trying to sleep next to them. Fans (and hard drives) will wear out, and it's definitely worse to leave them on compared to turning them on and off. Especially important are video card and north bridge fans (which are small, usually spin faster, and usually fail faster). If a fan has a MTBF of say, 30,000 hours that's 3.5 years with them on all the time, if you're only using the computer half the day and you turn it off for the rest of the day you've just doubled your computer's life expectancy.

I was given to understand that the concept of the diesel engine was to replace steam engine assemblies and also to make use of the coal oil by products, which had no true use at that time. It wasnt until the Otto company started encouraging people to use veggie oils that this came into play.

As for the Leave it on question...

I have a computer in my main office that controls the lighting and heating for the house. If the family leaves without turning off the bank of halogens in the kitchen this computer senses it and issues a shut off command at 8:00AM. It does this with severl other problem lights in the house, saving me a little cash in process. In my case, it saves me money, but bottom line is computers get outdated every three years so just turn it off if you aren using it.

Still leaving it on? Well then run some SETI units or some protein folding sequences and help out your fellow man..

SJ

I have always turned off all computers I have owned and have newer had a component failure. Just thought I would share this as I have had computers dating back to the commodore vic 20, any one remember these?

Oh yeah first program I ever did was on that. some music programe that came in a vic 20 book. There was a spaceship game too but I only managed a bit that that it was massive great game though ( folks finnished that one, took 3 days)

all 4 of my computers run 24/7 plus my ps3. i fold with them and my apt. building is free electric. it cuts down on heating costs for sure in the winter months. i have never had a component fry out of die because of leaving it running. 3 of 4 are water cooled so they dont really make much noise but i always sleep with a fan on anyway because i like the sound

with my p4 3.0ghz I turned it off because it was a power hog and would heat up the room (living in TX heat is not your friend). My new AMD 5200+ paired with the 780g board throttles down when not in use and even when it's running at full load it uses much less energy/heat. It's also very very quiet!

In terms of damage I think you're talkin many, many years before you'll have a component failure due directly to whether or not you've left the computer on. I'd go down the power saving path- if ya don't need it, don't leave it on. You could also use the hibernate function, which uses next to no power (i believe) but has super fast load up. I'm often torrenting so it stays on, otherwise i shut her down.

Another option in terms of power saving if u like to dl overnight is use a laptop. My desktop is a power hungry beastie and a did this for a while, but then got tired of transfering all the data

I usually turn mine off when I'm not using it....just for energy conservation because I dont ever keep any parts long enough for them to wear out....I just dont see a point in letting it run while Im not around