QOTD: Do You Shut Off Your PC At Night?

[Guest]

I turn all of my computers off at night. Been doing it this way for 30 years....probably will not change.

 

[Guest]

I leave my computer on but thats because my screen saver is http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ it's a program that allows you to donate your computer time to distributed computing research. Cancer, SETI, Hunger, Diseases, Natural disasters, basic science. You get to choose what programs you support. I've been running some form of this on my computers for over 14 years and I've calculated the cost in $$$$ for electricity is about $90-110 per year. Something I'm happy to donate to research. So no I don't turn off my PC, but I think I've a good reason not to. Much like Sony's playstation folding@home I think this is a good use for my PC when I'm not running it.

 

[maigo]

Nope. Vista takes soooo damn long to boot, also have to sit around and wait so i can F8 and disable driver signing. Also, all my fans rattle like DEAD until they get up to speed

 

[eddie84]

Turn mine off at night. It doesn't take that long to boot up (running Vista 64bit). Just hate leaving it on, connected to the internet 24/7.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

First, this article is refering to people turning their machine off at NIGHT! Anyway, the system power scheme usually has the hard drive turn off after 20 minutes of idle activity. So, how would turning your machine off have a different effect? In fact, I disable the power profile for my hard drives. I keep them on all the time and at night, unless I am downloading something.. I turn my machine OFF.

 

[Guest]

I leave mine on during the day and shutdown at night. I'll even shut it down during the day if it's idle and I know I won't be using it for some time. I can't imagine giving away money to the electric company just for my convenience. At 13 cents a KW, and with a house of 3 computers, this would add up over 30 days. I haven't experienced the wear and tear that others mention. The only time I ever came close to experiencing this was when I a robotics technician and we had to leave computers on continuously. When the robot when down or lost power, sometimes the computer would not come back because of the long duration that it had been on. For people that ask me, I tell em to leave on during the day so that it could get updates, etc. then simply shutdown at night.

 

[Shadow703793]

I turn off most of the PCs but one of my PCs usually running 24/7.

 

[twanto]

I think believing that "extra" wear and tear on your PC by shutting it down and starting it up equates to paranoia. I've always shut my PCs down at night, and I've never ever ever had a hard drive fail on me, not since 1999 when I started using computers. Maybe I'm lucky? If I want my system accessible at all times, I put it to sleep- it takes a couple seconds to fire back up and uses minimal energy.

 

[g0rilla]

My tower stays on all the time. I haven't had great success with hibernation on it (the usual lock up upon restore). The dual CRTs and speakers are off when I'm not using them. I often remote desktop to the desktop from the laptop as well as listen to music or watch videos stored on the tower on my laptop over the network. The printer is also on the tower and shared over the network. Essentially, the desktop is my server. I should get a networked printer and a NAS box.

My laptops go to sleep when I'm not using them.

 

[Mr_Man]

Yep. I turn it off anytime I'm not going to need it for at least 15 minutes (and usually if I'm getting up, that means I won't be using it for a while).

 

[ModdoG]

my PC is always on 24/7 for the last 3 years,before that i put it of sometimes

 

[Dannar]

I did an on/off every night for a month with my Desktop, and then a leave it on for a month, to compare electricity bills (granted there could have been other factors in the change in price), there was no appreciable difference in the cost of the electricity bill, therefore, I leave it on.

 

[wasmithee]

I turn my laptops and workstations off, or sleep them every night and when I am not using them.

My NAS, however is up 24/7 but draws less than 15w. It downloads torrents, serves us files, streams movies to my TVs etc.

This is a good solution for me since it saves electricity, allows me to have a RAID 5 for data integrity and centralizes my data so that all of my workstations and laptops can access the same data. (2.7 usable terabytes is nice to have as well.)

The thought of leaving on a workstation 24/7 is odd to me given the large selection of NAS devices on the market from small to large, many at reasonable price points.

I've never had a problem with my workstations failing due to being turned on and off too often. However I must stress that I buy quality hardware and generally build my own systems. I suppose if you buy a cheap-o depot system you should expect some issues due to any number of causes including powering off and on too often.

 

[x3nophobe]

I put them to sleep.

 

[harrycat88]

I leave my computer on all the time because I'm usually downloading something, compiling C++ source code, encoding Video files and burning 8.5GB DVD's at 3 o clock in the morning and the best thing I like about leaving the computer on 24/7 is, it makes a great night light with all the Blue, Red, and Green LED fans.

 

[aj6065]

I dont turn mine off at night. I use it to listen to music when I go to bed but I turn off the monitor

 

[theubersmurf]

It's set to sleep after 45 minutes, I turn the monitor off and that's about it. Sometimes I turn it off, but rarely.

 

[Timbo70]

Got to say I am shocked. There is no excuse for hibernating your PC over night. Turn the darn thing off. Maybe we should be penalized for using to much energy. Especially coal fueled countries with crazy energy habits

 

[gamerk316]

I turn my PC off, as its quicker from cold stop to startup then it is to recover from sleep mode...

 

[marsax73]

During the week, I usually turn it off at nights. During the weekend, it stays on all the time because I find myself hopping on it more often. We have another pc that is always on because it is our file and print server. Eventually, I'm getting a NAS for the file serving and a wireless printer.

 

[brett_monkey]

Just because you have a 750-1000 watt power supply does not mean that your PC is using a lot of energy. 99% of all computers out there would do just fine on a 400watt quality power supply. A high wattage power supply is way overated. Anyhow, yes I shut the computer down every night. I do not turn it on until I get home from work which is about 14-15 hours later.

 

[Glorian]

I always turn off my monitor, my pc on the other hand is always on, only shuts down when something gets installed of course. I also keeps my room warm during those cold winter months

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

I shut it off every time I'm not using it. It takes 1 minute to boot so it's not like it's inconvenient. It saves me over $150 because I honestly don't use my comptuer much. I don't download/fileshare anything either.

I couldn't care less about reliabilty. I replace my computer every two years.

 

[average joe]

I turn mine off because they make noise. Also if they're not online they are secure. I've never had a fan die or a hard drive fail on my personal equipment. I replace them before that point usually because they're slow and noisy. I just replaced a fan on my case with a whisper quiet one that came with rubber boots to dampen noise. I think its louder than the old one. I might be due for a new motherboard. I have software control of the fans but there is one in there that runs constant and is loud enough that I switched my speakers for headphones.

 

[deadlymunkywrench]

I turn it off at night so I can sleep. The fans keep me up, so does the blue lights lol.