Leave computer on all night or turn it off?

[Fiera]

I leave my server on all the time, except for reboots and hardware changes. My workstation I leave on at night only if I'm downloading newsgroups or something like that.

 

[Snapster]

<< i keep them all on. otherwise i can't sleep. the fans and consoles beeping away during the night put me to sleep. >>



lol

I leave mine on 24/7, saves me booting up in the morning plus I have apps running all night anyways. I do turn my monitor off though. Feels strange when it's turned off at night, too quiet lol.

 

[LarryJoe]

24x7. Maybe this is why my electric bill is $200/month?

 

[ojai00]

<< 24x7. Maybe this is why my electric bill is $200/month? >>



Probably is...if I had to pay for electricity, I would turn it off at night. Luckily, I don't have to so I leave it on all the time.

 

[Dreadogg]

turn it off you are just wasting money! Unless your running a server.

 

[giocopiano]

How stupid are you people? Have you never heard of power management? Put your computer in sleep mode on the timer, it will take two seconds to revive and a good motherboard should have the option to turn fans on in suspend state.

 

[Mavrick007]

If you don't need it, why use it, is my opinion. It just depends on if there is a running process before I go to bed. I can always boot up when I get up and it would be ready way before I even get in the shower. It doesn't use a whole lot of energy but if you have more than one going all the time then it can add up. Servers should be on all the time but PC's only need to be on for however long you need to use them. Now if I was going to use it again in less than a couple of hours, I leave it on.

 

[jar5tyle]

<< plus - run Seti or RC5 for Team AnandTech 24/7
minus - none >>



yup lol

 

[c8]

7/24 on 4 systems.

2 powering satellite
1 powering ftp and www on Cable.
1 stand alone machine.

Electricity bill about CDN$70 / month.

All Good

 

[Amused]

I leave my systems on all night. Only the monitors turn off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

There's no way the thermal strain of spinning my disks up and down at least 365 times a year can be good for them.

That and active cooling is why I think I've never had a HDD fail on me... even though many of my drives are IBM 75GXPs and 60GXPs.

 

[Micah]

Do you guys realize how much juice these things eat? I use mine as a space heater when my room gets cold. I just put my hands down near the fan outlet to get warm.

Do the environment a favor and shut them down at night or when you go on vacation. Sure it may strain your HDD a little to spin up/slow down/spin up/slow down... but otherwise you are straining the electric bill!

 

[Amused]

<< Do you guys realize how much juice these things eat? I use mine as a space heater when my room gets cold. I just put my hands down near the fan outlet to get warm.

Do the environment a favor and shut them down at night or when you go on vacation. Sure it may strain your HDD a little to spin up/slow down/spin up/slow down... but otherwise you are straining the electric bill! >>



No more than leaving a 100 or 200 watt bulb (per system) on all night. My electric bills aren't all that high.

Hell, my outdoor lighting eats more electricity than my systems when they're idle.

BTW, my P4 idles at 85 F. Hardly a space heater.

Oh and I do shut them down if I go on vacation, or if a thunderstorm rolls through.

 

[bjc112]

leave it on...no reason not too....

PLUS... it doesn't hurt it...

Minus...ehhh..

 

[jhu]

i leave it on during the day so i can access it remotely

 

[Grendel99]

I leave my system on about 16 hours a day and shut it off at night. I can't sleep with the damn thing on, it's too loud. I might leave it on all night if I'm downloading something or running some programs, but that's about it.

 

[CStroman]

I leave the box on, but I turn my monitors and speakers off when I'm away.

 

[Mem]

I turn my PC off at night when I go to sleep no point in wasting electricity also it only takes less then a minute to boot it up from cold so you hardly have to wait when you do boot it up,I find it funny people go on about wear and tear when you turn it off yet most guys here probably change their parts within 2 years so wear and tear is not an issue, besides that`s what the on/off button is for.

I`ve been doing it this way for the last 8 years with no problems.

 

[Amused]

<< I turn my PC off at night when I go to sleep no point in wasting electricity also it only takes less then a minute to boot it up from cold so you hardly have to wait when you do boot it up,I find it funny people go on about wear and tear when you turn it off yet most guys here probably change their parts within 2 years so wear and tear is not an issue, besides that`s what the on/off button is for.

I`ve been doing it this way for the last 8 years with no problems. >>



Well, for me wear and tear is a long term thing. All my old parts are made into computers for friends and family, and have to last for years. None of my old HDDs have failed on them either. Of course, I teach them to leave their systems on 24/7 as well.

 

[techwanabe]

How stupid are you people? Have you never heard of power management? Put your computer in sleep mode on the timer, it will take two seconds to revive and a good motherboard should have the option to turn fans on in suspend state.

I also put mine into sleep mode... seems to work well and uses very little power. At my last apartment, my electric bill was about $25 a month - which was mostly the Fridge and general electrical use. Not bad. My present bill includes elect heat and hot water... it's much higher!

Generally the only time I shut down is during periods when Thunder Storms are forcast.

 

[Mem]

<< Well, for me wear and tear is a long term thing. All my old parts are made into computers for friends and family, and have to last for years. None of my old HDDs have failed on them either. Of course, I teach them to leave their systems on 24/7 as well. >>



I too have never had a HD fail yet(there`s always the first time ) also my old PCs I`ve given to my family,friends etc and they are still turning them on and off at night,ones a 486DX2-66 & the other is Cyrix 150+ & Cel-333 PC so there`s no proof turning the PC off does any harm.

 

[jhu]

Well, for me wear and tear is a long term thing. All my old parts are made into computers for friends and family, and have to last for years. None of my old HDDs have failed on them either. Of course, I teach them to leave their systems on 24/7 as well.

i don't think it's really necessary to leave the computer on all night. the parts have been designed to take this abuse. do you tell your friends who have xboxes to leave it on 24/7?

 

[Amused]

<<

<< Well, for me wear and tear is a long term thing. All my old parts are made into computers for friends and family, and have to last for years. None of my old HDDs have failed on them either. Of course, I teach them to leave their systems on 24/7 as well. >>



I too have never had a HD fail yet(there`s always the first time ) also my old PCs I`ve given to my family,friends etc and they are still turning them on and off at night,ones a 486DX2-66 & the other is Cyrix 150+ & Cel-333 PC so there`s no proof turning the PC off does any harm.


>>



Actually, there is proof that the thermal stress of spinning up and down a HDD will wear it out faster than just leaving it on. I think the question here is, does this apply to the general home user. In my opinion, yes. In yours, no.

 

[Amused]

<< Well, for me wear and tear is a long term thing. All my old parts are made into computers for friends and family, and have to last for years. None of my old HDDs have failed on them either. Of course, I teach them to leave their systems on 24/7 as well.

i don't think it's really necessary to leave the computer on all night. the parts have been designed to take this abuse. do you tell your friends who have xboxes to leave it on 24/7? >>



I don't have any friends with Xboxes.

 

[cbuchach]

24/7 here

I run backup, virus scanning, and defragmenting apps every night as well as Seti all the time. During the day I have an FTP server set up as well as Terminal Services so that I can access my machine remotely from campus.

 

[speed01]

4 machines on 24/7 cracking RC5. The fifth would be on if I could get the Linux RC5 client to work right. Along with the 8 port hub, 4 port router, DSL modem and 7 disc SCSI cd tower. I guess I'm just too lazy to go around turning everything off and then back on in the morning.