While not as popular as the PC vs. Mac or Windows vs. Linux debates are today, the argument for either leaving your computer on all the time or turning it off at night has certainly had it’s fair share of discussion. So to revisit this subject, I thought I would pass along a few articles which address this very subject:
- Q/A on HowStuffWorks – This post raises an interesting analogy between your computer and TV which makes a lot of sense.
- Post on Computer Hope
- Post on World Start – An interesting take on what if your computer starts overheating while you are asleep.
From what I have seen, it seems the overwhelming majority of information out there says it is best to shutdown your computer at night. Personally, I used to run it 24/7, but about 3 years ago I went to shuting it down every night. I have not had any hardware problems and I have noticed my home office is typically signficantly cooler when my “space heater” isn’t sitting idle.
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I’m another one for turning it off. I’d rather pay for someone else to do all the server hosting, and just use my PC as a PC. Besides the energy savings, when it’s powered down all the way then it can’t be hacked or conscripted into a botnet. With the soft auto-off switch these days, most pc’s can be turned on remotely (if someone’s happened to sneak something onto your machine) but the power switch kinda throws that ability out the window – and the less time it spends on and connected the less chance I’ll end up with something unintentionally downloaded.
Crystal
I’ve been leaving my PCs on 24/7 for something like 8 years now and I have yet to encounter a problem. I run maintenance utilities at night (like defrag and backup), plus I run BOINC, so it’s convenient to have it on all the time.
I always hear stories of PSUs starting on fire and other horror stories, but I’ve never seen any factual reports. Plus, I homebuild my computers and use only quality parts, so hopefully the PSUs I use are designed not to catastrophically fail.
I’ve been repairing PC’s since 1981.
This is what I’ve seen happen to PC’s running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hard drive bearings fail and scream in pain.
In energy saving mode, PC on, drives not spinning, a controller IC flamed and sparked out while trying to spin up the drive.
Increased dust and dirt accumulation around air inlets, fans, and heatsinks. Most people don’t clean them on a regular basis off or on, this speeds up overheating past the point of design.
In offices with heavy smoking, more tar and sludge gets sucked into the machine, adding a sticking point for the dust bunnies, prevents optical and diskette drives from working.
More prone to power glitch and storm problems, even if UPS is installed because customer does not want to power down machine if UPS battery is past its prime.
I’ve had a PSU go up in smoke before when I was sitting at the desk. It was supposed to be a quality part, but the builders took advantage of me by not knowing anything at the time. I got my money back, got the pc fixed, and been working on my own every since. I’ve never had another hardware problem because thanks to this site and the forum, it’s so easy to do my homework first.
But I still don’t leave the pc on when I leave the house.
I live in South Florida and have been disconnecting completely whenever I am not using the computer for more than an hour or so, due to the prevalence of thunderstorms.
Also, if I am completely disconnected from the power and internet, there is no likelihood of being hacked, or my wifi being compromised, during that time.
I have not had any hardware problems, and the little bit of extra time it takes to hook everything up and boot each time I want to use it, is worth it, at least to me.
I leave mine on sometimes. The one thing I do is place it on a standby mode instead of shutdown. Sometimes I have to shutdown in order to install updates.
I leave mine on. I do backups, virus scans, etc. at night. The expense of running a PC is negligible, maybe $100 per year. So shutting it down half the time saves you maybe $50 per year. I’ll pay that no problem if I can have instant access.
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