Turn off or Leave on

[tuffluck]

i had a C2D rig i built a few years ago that i literally kept on for 24/7 the entire 4 years of owning. after 2 years i OC'd it to its maximum, and right before i built a new rig this year i noticed the OC sometime in the last 2 years overrode itself. i tried to reset it but it would not go above about a 5% OC for some reason. i didn't know if the reason was age, heat, or what, but i can without a doubt confirm that time and/or an OC can wear on a processor big time.

now with my 2500k build, i'm not OC'ing the 2500k yet but can tell you my boot up/down time is so quick with the SSD that i have been turning the computer off after each daily use. sometimes i turn it on at lunch when i come home from work, and sometimes at 5pm when i get home. either way, it shuts down at midnight daily (unless i don't use it at all).

also the old rig succumbed to my electricity-saving ways in 100+ degree weather in the summers when we would set our AC to 85 while we were at work, so i'm sure that was very bad weather to leave the computer on during. i'm hoping to avoid that with this rig by simply not having the computer on at all when the AC is essentially off or set to very high.

nevertheless the argument of turning it off every day wears things out still resonates in my head. what do you think? healthier to leave on all the time or turn off when you don't use? it may sound like blasphemy to many of you, but generally i build a PC to last me 5 years, and during that time about the only upgrades i make is a video card and RAM. everything else i want to get the most life out of.

 

[DSF]

i didn't know if the reason was age, heat, or what, but i can without a doubt confirm that time and/or an OC can wear on a processor big time.

I think you're jumping to conclusions.

There are plenty of people on this forum who run their overclock 24/7 (or close enough to it) and don't run into the problem you had after 2 years.

Problems with holding overclocking/BIOS settings sounds more like a motherboard issue than a CPU one if the processor is still working just fine.

 

[tuffluck]

I think you're jumping to conclusions.

There are plenty of people on this forum who run their overclock 24/7 (or close enough to it) and don't run into the problem you had after 2 years.

Problems with holding overclocking/BIOS settings sounds more like a motherboard issue than a CPU one if the processor is still working just fine.

yeah, maybe the appropriate wording would have been that the equipment was affected, either by leaving it on 24/7 for 4 years or by the OC, or by both. or it could have just gone defective on me. either way, no conclusive evidence to show the OC aided or didn't aid in the process.

 

[fixbsod]

there's a big discussion on this in the highly technical forum -- no surprise that there is no general concensus on the matter but still you may find something interesting to read

i myself am a 24/7 kind of guy fwiw

 

[Slugbait]

I always turn off, been doing it for over a decade now (I used to be a 24/7 guy, until Nimda came along).

Yes, the hardware can be negatively impacted if left running 24/7. Everything has an MTBF...especially fans. As the fan wears down, it's cooling efficiency drops. It suddenly dies, and you might be replacing a component. I've had fans die on my CPU, GPU and PSU (I've lost three PSUs cuz they burned up after losing a fan...caught it time for the CPUs and GPUs).

Hard drives are the next worst MTBF, IIRC. And data loss is far worse than component loss. If they aren't spinning, they aren't draining lifetime expectancy.

So for some machines, I learned to accept waiting; for other machines, I learned to love S3.

 

[ElFenix]

i'm too cheap to run the air conditioner when it's only 80ish outside and i'm not home, so i appreciate leaving the computer off (or asleep) keeps the computer room from warming up as much.

back before the SSD waiting for it to turn on was kind of a pain, but with an SSD boot time is so fast it's not inconvenient. there's also sleep mode.

and between sleeping and work that saves about $0.20 a day. that's without counting additional cooling costs.

 

[Binky]

There's another mostly pointless thread about this same subject here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2221435

Summary: Yes, No, Maybe

 

[mfenn]

I turn mine on in the morning and turn it off at night. This is mostly just habit from when the machine used to be in my bedroom though. I think there are factors that effect reliability in both directions and that it probably doesn't make a significant difference either way.

 

[Dude111]

I always turn off.....

Stupid not to really..... Waste of power,resources,etc.........

 

[Charlie98]

Mine is either on or off... I don't sleep mine (with a SandForce SSD.) I don't see any reason to idle a computer if it's not going to be used.

 

[mfenn]

Mine is either on or off... I don't sleep mine (with a SandForce SSD.) I don't see any reason to idle a computer if it's not going to be used.

I think that all computers are either on or off.

 

[Charlie98]

I think that all computers are either on or off.

To pharaphrase Yoda: "On, or not on... there is no maybe." :biggrin:

 

[thelastjuju]

Stupid not to really..... Waste of power,resources,etc.........

It absolutely is not.. at least not since computers have become more efficient.

an idling PC today, assuming you don't overbuy with the ridiculous amounts of power people here insist on, can idle at less wattage than a traditional lightbulb .. at about 25 watts.. this is like 2 cents per hour we are talking about. :ninja:

 

[0roo0roo]

its irrational to leave things on.

would you leave your car engine going 24/7, after all the wear and tear happens during a cold start.

leave your lights on for the same reason...

the fact is the pc depreciates too quickly for you to care if it suffers minor wear from power cycling, it becomes worthless in 3-4 years. add the fact that it is wasteful, never mind the environment bit, its just wrong.

 

[0roo0roo]

It absolutely is not.. at least not since computers have become more efficient.

an idling PC today, assuming you don't overbuy with the ridiculous amounts of power people here insist on, can idle at less wattage than a traditional lightbulb .. at about 25 watts.. this is like 2 cents per hour we are talking about. :ninja:

a laptop or a nettop idles at 25 watts
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/10/15/intel-core-i5-760-review/7

its getting better over time, but these things still use power.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i leave mine on 24/7 and i usually use budget mb's and ive never had one go bad before i stopped using it, but i dont overclock. i read once that the surge from turning on is worse for eletronics than leaving on

 

[cdmccool]

It doesn't matter either way. The people that want to debate this to the extent that they do are pretty silly.