[SOLVED] Is it ok to put a gaming pc to sleep or leave it on for the whole day ?

[j1mmyy]

I heard from someone that putting a pc to sleep is bad but I’m not sure if that’s true.

 

[lvt]

Always shut it down when you are not using it.

It's a consumer computer, not a server.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

No need to shut it down every day, putting it to sleep is just as effective at minimising wear-and-tear and saves that long wait for it to boot up when you next want to use it.

Rebooting it occasionally will flush the RAM contents and reset any little glitches.

Putting your PC to sleep is not "bad". It's very useful.

 

[j1mmyy]

No need to shut it down every day, putting it to sleep is just as effective at minimising wear-and-tear and saves that long wait for it to boot up when you next want to use it.

Rebooting it occasionally will flush the RAM contents and reset any little glitches.

Putting your PC to sleep is not "bad". It's very useful.

Is is true that there’s somewhat of a power surge when you turn a pc on which can damage it?

 

[Schlachtwolf]

If your house wiring is standard and you have an OK PSU there is no power surge that will damage your PC. The power delivered through the wall and PSU is regulated so the power surge thing is just an old wives tale.

 

[ClapTrapper]

If your house wiring is standard and you have an OK PSU there is no power surge that will damage your PC. The power delivered through the wall and PSU is regulated so the power surge thing is just an old wives tale.

A good surge protector is a must!
I know you are replying to normal boot up,but we don't want people to think they don't need a good surge protector when they absolutely do.
And it is not just for lightning-a car running into a telephone pole down the street will fry a neighborhood of electronics. My computers were fine; my unprotected tv didn't survive. Oh well,live and learn.

 

[ClapTrapper]

On or off? This debate has been going on for at least 40 years. Nowadays the consensus to turn the computer off if you are not going to use it for a while (like at night when you sleep).

But sleep mode is not going to hurt it. If you are worried about wear and tear on your computer,the odds are you are going to outgrow and replace the computer long before what miniscule stress the boot process does up your computer.

 

[Schlachtwolf]

Here in the EU we don't have that issue and no-one needs an extra surge protector as it is already installed in every home as standard, no-one would even think of it being an issue. The standards in other parts of the world are not to the same standard but if just turning on your PC was a massive danger....then it is a wonder so many get sold.

 

[USAFRet]

I heard from someone that putting a pc to sleep is bad but I’m not sure if that’s true.

Always on is not 'bad'.

Sleep may be, but just from a software viewpoint. Slightly more possibility of getting corrupted coming out of sleep, vs no sleep involved at all.

 

[mamasan2000]

I read somewhere long ago, every time you shutdown the PC and let it cool, harddrives (and maybe other parts) age 8 hours. So I took that as a guideline. Don't know how true it is. I have 2 harddrives in my current PC from 2005-2006, nothing wrong with them.
If I am going to be away from PC less than say 3 hours. I'm putting it to sleep. If I am approaching 6-8 hours, I shut it down, absolutely.
I don't use Hibernation. I specifically disable it. Why? Well, Windows creates a hiber-something-file, that takes a lot of space (for me it is). I tend to run my Win10 from a 120 gig SSD. I can't have hiber take up 10+ gigs.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/tr.../deployment/disable-and-re-enable-hibernation "The size of this file is approximately equal to how much random access memory (RAM) is installed on the computer."

 

[Zerk2012]

I heard from someone that putting a pc to sleep is bad but I’m not sure if that’s true.

Your not going to get a real answer on this their no 100% way of doing it.

You can make a case for or against anyway of doing it. In general it don't matter their made to run all the time, be put to sleep, or turn off.

My personal settings monitor goes off after 1 hour, sleep is set to never.
Before work I use the PC when I'm going to work or bed I turn if off. Today I'm off work so the PC will be used throughout (not all the time as it's yard work day) the day so I will just leave it on till bed time

 

[USAFRet]

And the side bit about surge protectors and lightning strikes....electricity can follow very very strange paths, and do damage to things other than the PSU.

From a recent nearby lightning strike, items that were killed:
PC - ethernet port
Printer - ethernet port
Stereo receiver - 2x HDMI ports
Invisible Fence circuit board - Burned, and the cover blown halfway across the garage.

This is in a 1980's house with good quality wiring and circuit breakers.

The pc, printer, stereo were all on high quality UPS's. Different ones.
PC and printer were separated by 2 switches and a router. None of which were affected.
The devices the receiver were connected to via HDMI (TV and HTPC) were not affected.
The invisible fence was physically unplugged from the wall. My ex had installed that years ago, and it had not been used in many years.

In none of the multitude of devices in this room, were any of the power supplies cooked.
A couple of the PCs rebooted, and came right back up.

And for those who say "I always unplug my PC if there is lightning..."
For every storm with lightning, there is a 'first one'. This was that.
It was rain rain rain BAM.

If I were to unplug everything every time it rained, devices would be OFF more than ON.

 

[geofelt]

Sleep will put the pc and monitor into a very low power state that is similar to full power off.
If you use sleep to ram(no hibernate) the sleep/wake time is small, only a handful of seconds.

I use sleep regularly.

On occasion, you need to shut down for maintenance or work on the parts.
If you have a problematic app that leaks ram, or causes other problems, then occasional restarts can help.
But, normally, I see a week or two without the need for shutdown and reboot.

Even powered off, there is power going to the pc which allows it to respond to the power button.
There is power going to the monitor which allows it to respond to a pc boot or the monitor power button.
I doubt it is worthwhile to unplug devices with any degree of regularity.
Certainly any electricity savings will be negligible.

As to protection from electrical disturbances, that is another topic.
If your house electrical system is properly grounded and has, perhaps a while house surge protection, that is a good start.
If such is not possible, then a good UPS will tend to insulate whatever is connected to it from power issues.

 

[ClapTrapper]

Here in the EU we don't have that issue and no-one needs an extra surge protector as it is already installed in every home as standard, no-one would even think of it being an issue. The standards in other parts of the world are not to the same standard but if just turning on your PC was a massive danger....then it is a wonder so many get sold.

I didn't know that.