Computer - ON or OFF

[5614]

It has long been a debated subject; whether to leave your computer on or off.

 

There are many different views and research on the matter and to be honest, it is not proven whether it is best to leave your computer on when not being used for long amounts of time or turning it off.

 

If you leave it on you are preventing the possibly taxing start-up procedure and are stopping the HDD (hard drive disk) from having to be stopped and started.

 

However leaving your computer on can ware out the motor for the HDD

 

So... what do you think; is it best to leave your computer on or turn it off?

[Perennial]

Yeah, as you said it's a topic long debated ... I've seen many long threads which haven't really arrived at a resolution of any kind. How I go along personally is that I keep mine on all the time ... except for the periodic reboots when XP (on a laptop btw), firewall etc. develop memory leaks, virtual memory "fragmentation" etc. Haven't noticed any problems on my PCs either way ... e.g. currently use one periodically with on/off each day and my main piece of hardware being on all the time.

[5614]

Yeah, as you said it's a topic long debated ... I've seen many long threads which haven't really arrived at a resolution of any kind.

 

so i came to a conclusion that it was personal preference.... so i wondered what each person thought... i havent seen any threads on it - was it here on SFN? can you gimme a link? if so, this is a bit useless as i didnt think that it had been discussed here.

 

so what does each individual person do and why?

 

(personally i turn my computer off at night when im not using it, but try to leave it on whilst im at home)

[Lance]

I turn mine off alot because the fan is anoying.

[TimeTraveler]

I do both, it just depends when I plan on using it next, if it is going to be more than 24 hours then I turn it off, if not I leave it on. But if it has been on for a long period of time I will turn it off.

[Perennial]

so i came to a conclusion that it was personal preference.... so i wondered what each person thought... i havent seen any threads on it - was it here on SFN? can you gimme a link? if so, this is a bit useless as i didnt think that it had been discussed here.

 

No, I was just being inaccurate ... on some other forums this has popped up, I'll see if I can find links to those threads and whether there is anything worthwhile ... and since I at least haven't seen it turn one way or the other I see this thread more than worthwhile.

[MulderMan]

i have argued before that starting and stopping your cpu all the time (heat up - cool down) may reduce its life. that was just on the basis of what people say about overclocking, the hotter the cpu gets the shorter its life, but im not sure how inconsistentcy effects it. just a guess.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If you leave it on for a few hours without use, at least set it to turn the hard drive off after a while.

[5614]

well...

 

1) inconsistency means it gets to cool down so its good

2) inconsistency is bad because it cant get "used to" a normal constant temperature

 

as you can see the argument goes both ways, i just wondered what others do... (as no one knows what THE right thing to do is)

[YT2095]

Other than power failures or upgrades, My Amiga computers are on 24/7 and have been for the last 8 years without a problem, this PC I`m on now is the same too, I stay online 24/7 barring ISP probs or Resets/Crashes.

 

I say leave them ON (I am the electricity Payer though).

[bloodhound]

i leave my laptop on 24/7 as i am usually downloading like 10 gigs through bit torrent.

[ecoli]

What about in terms of energy usage. Does it cost more energy to leave your computer on all the time, or turn it on/off every time you use it (say you use your comp a couple of times per day)

[YT2095]

prolly best to leave it ON then.

the Cap recharging in the SMPSU takes a large surge initialy, and the cost offset against wear and tear in HDDs, if you`re a regular `ON and OFFer` daily, best to leave it ON

 

If it`s once a day for a couple of hours or less, I`de do the On Off thing, better OFF in that case

[ecoli]

Thanks, I'll take your advice. Now that I'm on a vacation I'm using my comp. more often. When I start going back to school, I'll leave it off.

[YT2095]

that`s what I`de do for myself (and do).

 

it works out much cheaper in the long term, and I wouldn`t give you Bad advice if I could give you Good

[MolecularMan14]

Well, usually, when I go to school, I turn it off, but sometimes, I do leave it on. I guess the only reason I find to leave it on is just for the distributed computing, or when Im finishing up a download (like a movie or something), but normally, when Im off, so is the computer.

[goodyhi11]

I left the computer on for most of the time. The reason I turn it off is it keeps me away from it so that I don't have to waste too much time on the internet.

[Auburngirl05]

I have a laptop, and it tends to get hot after a few hours (I do have one of those ventilated lap desks for it, but apparently it's not that effective), and the fan gets on my nerves, so I set it to "hibernate" when I'm not using it and completley shut it down overnight. When I had a desktop I left it on all day and shut it down at night.

[5614]

same - i normally turn mine off at night coz that's the only time im not using it! when i go out during the day i normally leave it on doing system scans, check disk, spyware scans and virus scans and other things which im not gonna wait around while it does it!

 

talking of that i need to open it up and hit my new 2nd 160GB HDD coz its making a few strang noises, then i just move my computer like 1/100000 of a milli meter and it stops making the noise which makes me think its just outta place or sumin, which means if i leave it on over night and its busy (not in hibernate so the HDD is still on) then i can hear which is annoying, although i must say newer comps are much quieter than they used to be.

[bloodhound]

ur paranoid about security dude. with all those checks.

[5614]

its not all security checks, its just like anything which takes more than 1 bit of memory and more than 2 mins has to be done when im not using the computer! so thats:

 

defrag *2

disk clean up *2

check disk *2

(and other disk maintenance for both of my two HDDs)

and:

spy scans (spybot, adaware and spyware doctor)

norton AV

avast before boot AV scan

 

so if my computer is on and im going out and will use my computer when i get home i may as well just do a scan in the mean time - its not security, more it has to be done, so why not?

[Rasori]

I tend to leave it on for impatience's sake. Hell, if I log off so other people can get on (without my programs running in the background) I get annoyed just logging back on. I can't imagine having to start it up everytime lol.

 

Then again, I'm a five-times-a-dayer, myself.

 

What I do know is that the computer I'm on now (at my mom's) is on 24/7 unless there's a storm or, obviously, a power outage and it's starting to make some WEIRD noises. Sounds like a car's engine, and that's from the floor below it lol. It used to be that I could kick it and it'd shut up, but that stopped working. Must've kicked it one too many times...

[The Nacho]

Well, I think It's sort of a speed thing...if you have a slow computer and it takes 5 minutes for it to boot, then you should probably leave it on. On the other hand, If you have a fast computer, and it takes 2 seconds to boot up, you might want to turn it off every once in a while. Even though I have a 2 ghz machine, I like to leave it on all the time. It's been running nonstop for about 3 years now. (Excluding reboots and power outages.)

[boka-fett]

Hehe, thats almost like saying 'cigarettes wont kill you instantly.' Not saying that i use checks all the time, but ill leave it on for a defrag of course.

 

I usually have a pattern. Ill leave it on, and then if it starts smoking, ill turn it off. If your computer catches fire before you turn it off, this means your timing is off. I can leave mine on for a while and it really wont matter, but its also on its last leg, so i am testing its durability now. If you decide to leave it on for extended periods of time, id turn the monitor and all other external devices off, and put the computer on hibernate.

[boka-fett]

**Hehe, thats almost like saying 'cigarettes wont kill you instantly.' Not saying that i use checks all the time, but ill leave it on for a defrag of course.**

 

Replying to Bloodhound's funny statement earlier.