Turn it off each night or leave it on?

[fasteddy1970]

I just bought a new computer with lots of memory. Some of my friends say leave it on 24/7 and others say turn it off each night and re-boot in the morning. What do some of the experts here say? thanks

[Freakin]

leave it on and reboot if it gets sluggish or something stops working right.

set your monitor to power off after 10 minutes or so.

your computer when idle uses very little electricity.

Some think that the constant heating and cooling of components can damage them over time. I think its crap, but I don't want to wait for it to boot for me to use it.

[fasteddy1970]

Freakin: So you're reason for leaving it on 24/7 is that you're impatient? I was hoping for more scientific reasons for doing it

[BiPolar_Nut]

Electronic components get their most "wear and tear" on the initial surge of electricity. Light bulbs burn out far more often in that single bright flash when you first flip the switch than when left on 24/7. I leave my computers on 24/7 and have had upwards of 25 computers running in the house before (down to 5 now). One of my boxes has 248 days uptime...been on since I moved here (obv not a windows machine lol).

That being said, *mechanical* devices have more wear when left running. That's basically include fans and hard drives. Fans are cheap...they're a non issue. Hard drives, on the other hand, hmmmmmm tough call since they are both mechanical and electronic...AND a common item to fail. Some would argue they'd last longer if powered off when not in use. I tend to think spinning them up and down and giving the initial power-on surge every day is worse than leaving them run all the time (assuming they have ample cooling) but I have no hard evidence to back that up. I wouldn't get into a serious debate with anyone that claimed it's better for them to be powered off when not in use...I'd just agree to disagree.

Cliff's notes: I leave mine on.

edit: Powering off/on also puts more of a strain on the power supply because the current required to spin up a hard drive is substantially higher than keeping the drive platters spinning (as well as the initial electronic surge and temp changes).

[CORed]

Another advantage to leaving the computer on is that you can schedule updates, virus scans, backups, etc. to run in the wee hours of the morning when you aren't using the computer.

[BiPolar_Nut]

[ QUOTE ]
Another advantage to leaving the computer on is that you can schedule updates, virus scans, backups, etc. to run in the wee hours of the morning when you aren't using the computer.

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Good point...kinda forgot I'm taking advantage of that by leaving them on 24/7.

[LuckyTxGuy]

Good arguments made so far for leaving your computer on. Personally, I'm a "turn it off" guy and mainly for the reasons that BiPolar mentioned. Electrical and mechanical parts in any machine, a computer included, will not last forever. They might last years....many years, or they might not. I just figure that every hour I have my computers on that I don't need them on, is just getting me one hour closer to a failure. I basically leave my computers on most all day unless I know I won't using them for several hours. In that case, I use XP's hibernate feature because it's fast and I can pick back up right were I left off. At night I shut down before I go to bed and restart in the morning.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that leaving a pc on is not the end of the world. Heck enough people leave their's on 24/7 to prove that. I just like turning mine off and for the reasons I mentioned above. I'm not a die hard in either direction though.

Also here is an article I found last week and it says leaving one computer on will cost you $100 a year on your electric bill. Pretty interesting read.

[jjshabado]

[ QUOTE ]

Also here is an article I found last week and it says leaving one computer on will cost you $100 a year on your electric bill. Pretty interesting read.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you forgot the article, but I would imagine that is figuring the computer is on or running or in use or with a monitor. When a computer is on but not in use it uses very little power.

As far as I'm concerned the answer to OPs question is, it doesn't matter. I generally leave my computer on because I'm lazy, but I generally restart it once a week or so. It is a windows machine and random processes start to accumulate after time (stupid mshearts).

[fasteddy1970]

Thanks a lot for the great responses. Sounds like it's a toss up and there's not right or wrong answer. I think I'll compromise and leave it on a few days at a time and reboot 4 times per week.

[Dementia]

Reboot only when you need to. I leave mine on at night and when I'm asleep I have spyware/virus scans scheduled to run, wake up and they're already done.