Leaving pc on

[tweeve2002]

now that i have moved my computer out of my room, I leave it on just about 24/7. The noise form the Fans and the lights in the cmputer would keep me awake. Now i just leave my laptop in my room when i sleep, It also never gets truned off, standby yes, off rarly.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: MrControversial
Your computer draws more power booting up than it does just running.

my computer draws ~5-6 amps on boot I believe... 2-3 running (according to kill-a-watt). I'd say running it for 12hrs unused seems a bit wasteful. At school I wouldn't care.. but I have to pay the electricity bill now.. heh. And the wear as stated, is probably minimal... unless someone has some hard research I could look at.

as for heating a room... unfortunately, my basement out temps my computer so it doesn't work for me

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: MasterFul
Is it better for the pc to leave it on most of the time or should it be turned off whenever its not in use?

I turn mine on in the moring then off when I leave the office. Similarly with the home (gaming) PC.

I live in the Smoky Mountains and we get snow/ice/high winds which sometimes results in power outages/spikes. Also this is a high lightening strike occurance area.

Surge protectors are actually pretty ineffective (have worked in the field and your basically buying insurance - know the little card in the surge protector box?).

So for the saftey of my PC components I turn it off when I'm done.


Fern

 

[CraigRT]

I do honestly believe 24/7 operation is better

with that being said, I never have any problems with my machines and parts failing so to speak

 

[meltdown75]

I generally turn mine off when not in use, although I have been known to leave it on for as long as a week. If I'm on a downloading binge, it gets left on for days and days.

 

[Cardio]

Do you keep a computer till it "wears out"? We have a room full of 8088's that are about 30 years old and none of them is worn out, just no longer useful. They are usually useless long before they actually quit. I still have a SOL, my first computer. It has been turned on and off probably half a million times in its 40 years and it still works fine. If the millions of computers in the US alone are running constantly the energy use is not trivial. Thermal stress is of less importance than would be electron migration, which is the cause of "P4 sudden death syndrome" present in Prescott P4's in rather large numbers. Electron migration only takes place when power is present. Thermal stress from cold starts is the greatest cause of wear in automobiles, do you leave your car running all the time? If gasoline were free would you? Your television also suffers thermal stress from cold startup, although cathode heaters try to help in this regard. Constant Heat is the worse thermal stress and is present if a computer is running. Strange that people do things for no real reason just some perceived idea.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Cardio

Thermal stress is of less importance than would be electron migration, which is the cause of "P4 sudden death syndrome" present in Prescott P4's in rather large numbers. Electron migration only takes place when power is present.

The A64's do not suffer from "sudden death" Also, "electro migration" occurs when the CPU is at 100% load. This is caused by heat. The CPU shouldn't be hot when it's idle.

Thermal stress from cold starts is the greatest cause of wear in automobiles, do you leave your car running all the time? If gasoline were free would you?

This a ridiculous comparison. You are comparing a combustion engine, to a computer.

Your television also suffers thermal stress from cold startup, although cathode heaters try to help in this regard. Constant Heat is the worse thermal stress and is present if a computer is running. Strange that people do things for no real reason just some perceived idea.

Do you shut off your hot water heater when you're not using hot water for a few hours? Strange that people leave the hot water heater running when nobody is home all day.

If you have a cordless phone, do you unplug the phone base from the wall every day when you're not home?

A computer in suspend mode, with the monitor off uses about as much electricity as a night light.

 

[randomlinh]

just to throw out there... suspend is pretty much off in my book... HD's spin down... and that's really the only important thing (data). I'd just suspend my computer, but for some strange reason, something keeps kicking it back on

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: Amaroque

A computer in suspend mode, with the monitor off uses about as much electricity as a night light.

That is exactly why someone saying thermal stress from being on is bullshit. The cpu is dissapating at most 6w.

 

[MDE]

I leave mine on and run Folding@Home.

 

[Tostada]

Anybody who is confused about what MTBF means *cough* ribbon13 *cough* should read about it:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/qual/specMTBF.html

The MTBF of the Raptor might be 1.2 million hours, but this is often totally theoretical, and like Matthias99 was saying, it is the representation of many drives running for a short period of time.

For example, say they shipped 30,000 Raptors. One year later (8,760 hours) they had 219 dead ones returned to them.

30,000 * 8,760 = 262,800,000 hours total service for 30,000 Raptors
262,800,000 hours / 219 blown up Raptors = 1,200,000 hours MTBF

That's certainly not bad, but think about it. Even if over 20,000 of those drives saw constant use, that still means you have a solid 1% chance that your drive will die within the first year. It really isn't quite as impressive as 1.2 million hours first seems.

The fact is that no matter how it is calculated, actual reliability is probably far worse. If the MTBF comes from the lab they certainly do less than a full year of stress tests. If the MTBF comes from RMAs they certainly do not get 100% returns on faulty drives.

The chance of failure increases rapidly over time. If a drive isn't DOA or acting funny the first time you power it up, it'll probably last 6-12 months, but who knows how the Raptor 74 will be holding up after 3 years? It's certainly not going to last until it's totally obsolete.

Then again, I do still have two Quantum Atlas 10K IIs (from early 2000) and a Viking II (from early 1998) which are still doing just fine. If WD is building Raptors as solid as Quantum/Seagate builds 10K drives, I suppose a decent number of them will live till they're obsolete.

The specs on the Raptor also say:

Contact Start/Stop Cycles: 20,000 minimum

That's lower than average ... and this is another quasi-legitimate statistic. Obviously there would be a good chance of damaging the drive if you spun it up/down and crashed the heads into the landing zone 20,000 times in a row.

 

[ribbon13]

Well, I have an original 10mb winchester that still works. 25 years later.

BTW a little late there...

 

[PanzerIV]

I leave my computers on for convenience sake. I have a broadband connection and I don't want to wait for the computer to use it or any other of the functions of my system. I want to sit down in front of it, type in my password and do whatever I want.

The only time I turn them off is if I am going out of town for several days on vacation.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: MasterFul
Is it better for the pc to leave it on most of the time or should it be turned off whenever its not in use?

It can be turned off!?? :Q

 

[ribbon13]

Yes, how else could it soak up all your money with a constant upgrade cycle?

 

[dds14u]

What about leaving a laptop on all the time? Higher idle temps right?

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Sparky Anderson
leaving on the monitor will cost you more on your electricity bill than leaving the computer on will...

In don't know of anyone who leaves there monitor on 24/7. I leave mine on 24/7 but turn my monitor off.

 

[imverygifted]

i leave mine on 24-7 but stuff like fans and leds have a lifetime...

 

[ribbon13]

LEDs lifetime is rather extreme compared to a fans.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: dds14u
What about leaving a laptop on all the time? Higher idle temps right?

My laptop stays on 24\7 running Folding@Home.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Duvie
I leave my on 24/7 except when I knwow a thunderstorm is near, or I go on vacation for longer then 3 days....

Ditto.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Many people used to argue that turning your computer on and off regularly would wear out your computer. But it's been many many years since that has been said, and I have yet to hear or see a computer that has been warn out due to powering on regularly.

OTOH, laptop HDs, which spin-up/down more frequently than most, fail more often than most. Mere coincedence? I tend to think not. As far as blowing out a CPU like a light bulb, when turning it on - that's pretty unlikely. But sometimes fans can get clogged while running, and turning them off, well, they may not want to spin up again when turned on again.

 

[Matthias99]

OTOH, laptop HDs, which spin-up/down more frequently than most, fail more often than most. Mere coincedence?

They also tend to take a *tad* more physical abuse than a hard drive in a desktop computer. There are a lot more differences there than just how often the drives power up and down.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Cardio
Do you keep a computer till it "wears out"? We have a room full of 8088's that are about 30 years old and none of them is worn out, just no longer useful.

Constant Heat is the worse thermal stress and is present if a computer is running. Strange that people do things for no real reason just some perceived idea.

I'm not so certain that I would agree with that. Of those old 8088's - if they were turned on/off regularly (daily) - how many weeks/months do they go, without a failure, that requires opening them up and re-seating all of the DIPs in their sockets, because thermal expansion/contraction tends to make them pop out of their sockets, eventually. I had to do that with my old XT-class machine about every six months to a year. Thermal stress from power-cycling is real. A continuously-powered state has less of that sort of stress.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Tostada
The specs on the Raptor also say:
Contact Start/Stop Cycles: 20,000 minimum
That's lower than average ... and this is another quasi-legitimate statistic. Obviously there would be a good chance of damaging the drive if you spun it up/down and crashed the heads into the landing zone 20,000 times in a row.

From what I understand, drive mfg's are including CSS in their specs now more than before, because it is a more relevant statistic in terms of reliability these days than pure MTBF is, which can be nearly meaningless in terms of relation to real-world usage.