QOTD: Do You Shut Off Your PC At Night?

[jsc]

Workhorse machine on, media machine off.

 

[AdamB5000]

I save a few $$$ on my electric bill each month, so yeah, I turn it off at night.

 

[goonting]

usually turn leave it on when downloading files...but turn it off when nobody is at home.. more on safety precaution against fire...

 

[ewood]

[citation][nom]superhighperf[/nom]i leave it on 24/7. i have an old crt monitor that is on it's last leg and if it turns off i need to hit it with a pipe so that it works again. no joke.[/citation]

hahaha classic... this could make anyone think twice about powering down... even for software updates.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

I turn both my computer and my laptop off before going to bed. If you're not using it turn it off. You'll save money in the long run. As for rare and tear you would need to turn your computer on and off about 10 thousand times a day to notice rare and tear. Just like in traffic. Stopping twice isn't going to impact your car that much. But if you stop and go a 100 times then it affects your car.

Everything doesn't last forever even cars. If you run your car all night long would it last long? Running your computer all night long does more damage than turning it off.

This idea that turning your computer on and then off when you're done for the day some how greatly harms your computer is a myth and it needs to stop.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

also you should know that just because you have a 750 watt power supply it doesn't mean you're drawing 750 watts. It's a power supply and it supplies what your computer needs up to 750 watts. I have a 620 watt power supply and out of that I use at most 250 watts. I have a 2.8quad core, a 8800gts, a 10k velocity raptor, and a 620GB seagate drive with 4 2gig sticks. I have a p5q deluxe asus motherboard. I have 5 120mm fans and 1 zerotherm heatsink that attaches to the motherboard because it's huge and that has a 120mm fan.

A lot of this is hype and paranoia. Unless you're doing dual, trio, or quad sli and/or dual sockets you do not need anything larger than a 400 watt power supply.

[citation][nom]brett_monkey[/nom]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.[/citation]

 

[donpacific2k]

I understand that people want to save energy by turning off a computer, but what we should also be measuring is how much useful work a computer performs per watt. I typically leave my computer on in the winter 24/7 running a distributed computing program like folding@home. That way it is doing some presumably useful work, and adding a little extra heat to my house. In the summer, it goes on standby when not in use. It may be slightly less efficient than running the gas furnace, but then again, my gas furnace isn't helping to cure cancer or search for aliens while it heats the house.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

That is perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with that. I have a problem with people scaring other people that turning off your computer somehow harms it. It's a myth. If you WANT to leave your computer on go ahead but don't do it because you believe turning it off damages your computer. This is wrong. I've been in the IT business for years and I'm telling you leaving your computer on does more damage to it.

[citation][nom]donpacific2k[/nom]I understand that people want to save energy by turning off a computer, but what we should also be measuring is how much useful work a computer performs per watt. I typically leave my computer on in the winter 24/7 running a distributed computing program like folding@home. That way it is doing some presumably useful work, and adding a little extra heat to my house. In the summer, it goes on standby when not in use. It may be slightly less efficient than running the gas furnace, but then again, my gas furnace isn't helping to cure cancer or search for aliens while it heats the house.[/citation]

 

[ram1009]

[citation][nom]zerapio[/nom]I hate to break it to people here but mechanical wear and tear is negligible unless you're turning the system on/off every few minutes. Maybe a cheap motherboard fails with less stress but from the articles I've seen here motherboard manufacturers take stress and fatigue into consideration when testing.[/citation]

I wouldn't really take issue with what you said about mechanical wear being negligibly although it does exist to a certain degree. What you don't say and perhaps don't know is that hot/cold cycles are very telling on electrical components. A constant though elevated temperature is very beneficial. I have left all my machines running 24/7/365 for about 15 years now and can say I have seen no negative side to this practice. Occasionally a fan will begin to make noise which usually means a spec of dust has gotten into the bearings. Removal of the fan and application of a squirt of silicone spray followed by a blast of compressed air will do wonders for a noisy fan. I've even replaces a couple as a precaution. For me, the cost of electricity is less than the cost of repairing/replacing machines.

 

[stromm]

Not unless there's going to be a lightening storm. I have an old dual-Celeron 300a running Server 2000 and the only time it's been off for any reason other than storms was when I moved. It's been running since 1999. Pretty much just waiting to see when it's going to die.

Only machines that get shutdown are laptops. Everything else runs all the time.

 

[dark_lord69]

I turn it off because I am away for so long.
Power down at night, sleep, go to work then when I get back home I might turn it on but I may not. I might just use my laptop. I typically leave my laptop plugged in and on sleep mode though. Cause either me or my fiance are using it everyday.

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

I really don't understand why all you people leave your computers on. It's just wasting your money. @ 250 watts left on 24/7 with .15 cent a KWH power a computer is costing you 90 cents a day. Just power the stupid thing off and SAVE your wallet AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. That's over $328 worth of power each year. If you use your computer for an average 2 hours a day when you get home from work you'll save yourself $300 a year!

Stop being ridiculous. You don't need your computer on 24/7. All you guys that leave them on must be living with your parents or rich.

(250W is an estimate, computers use less when not under load depending upon the computer. My power is also under 12 cents a KWH, so that depends on where you live)

 

[Purrorritt]

No, just the monitors. But, I'm running Folding@Home, so SOME useful work is getting done.

 

[bildo123]

I always put my PC to sleep If I know I'm going to be more than 15 minutes or so. The downside is I believe a lot of general PC users don't realize how fast and energy efficient sleep mode is. This can be noticed when Windows Vista appeared. Most of you might have been tricked for a second when the shutdown button was swapped with sleep. I thought it was a nice trick.

 

[ljport78]

Most of you that are turning your computers off could probably do without even having a personal computer. Why don't you go completely green and give your computer to someone who can actually make use of it. “But OMG how would I use twitter?” Next you will be asking us to turn off our phones when not making calls.
I do turn off my work computer when I go home because I know it wont be used until the next work day. I have energy saving light bulbs in all my fixtures at home too, but I own a personal computer for communication, convienience, time saving, and entertainment all of which would be hampered by powering the system down.
If you want to save energy and “go green” start with biking to work if you want to do something that will make an actual impact.
Giving someone a thumbs down on their comment just because they actually need to use their computer and you don’t is kind of pathetic.
My suggestion for most of you that turn your computer off all the time is replace your PC with a smartphone cause you probably don’t need a PC at home.
Those of you that leave your machine running all the time at least have your monitor set to power down and let your computer go into some kind of low power state (even if that means just powering down the HDs).

 

[quietstorm]

I usually shut down my rig at night - the wife's machine stays up 24/7 since she can't wait two minutes for it to boot and connect to the net. Haven't had any problems with either machine due to staying on or getting switched off every evening.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

I always leave em on. My E8400 system doesn't use much power when the multiplier is dropped, and my power supply is 80-plus certified. I'm a HUGE multi-tasker (3-4 desktops all filled with different projects...) so turning off my computer would be a pain.

I only usually shut my computer off if 1) I'm vacuuming the dust outta it, 2) If I'm leaving town or something for more then a day, or 3) If there's a storm out (several of my computers have been killed by power surges).

 

[HermDawg]

I have a desktop PC that has turned into a server on 24/7. It's my home phone (Magic Jack), FTP server, Media server and anything else I'm testing out server. The laptop gets turned off at night.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

[citation][nom]bildo123[/nom]I always put my PC to sleep If I know I'm going to be more than 15 minutes or so. The downside is I believe a lot of general PC users don't realize how fast and energy efficient sleep mode is. This can be noticed when Windows Vista appeared. Most of you might have been tricked for a second when the shutdown button was swapped with sleep. I thought it was a nice trick.[/citation]

Yea, but it's not so neat, when you're changing RAM and hard drives, while mistakenly thinking that the computer is shut down!

 

[heavylikemetal]

I turn my computer off because my room becomes a sauna then my chunda sweat starts to stink up the room..if ya get my drift.

 

[kezix_69]

I've always turned my computer off every night and then I turn it on the first time I use it. I use my computer pretty much everyday. I have never had a problem with hard drives dying or any other parts going bad and I do not replace my computer often.

So basically I turn my computer on and off once a day. If I don't use it for an hour it goes into sleep mode which might happen once or twice a day as well. Though I haven't used sleep mode much and have thought about making it wait longer than 1 hour.

 

[xizel]

Folding @ home 24/7 also.
but my notebook is off as soon as im not around it...

 

[killmenow]

When I think I finished with it for the day, I shut it down.
If there is a storm comming, I unplug it.

 

[ram1009]

[citation][nom]hillarymakesmecry[/nom]I really don't understand why all you people leave your computers on. It's just wasting your money. @ 250 watts left on 24/7 with .15 cent a KWH power a computer is costing you 90 cents a day. Just power the stupid thing off and SAVE your wallet AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. That's over $328 worth of power each year. If you use your computer for an average 2 hours a day when you get home from work you'll save yourself $300 a year!Stop being ridiculous. You don't need your computer on 24/7. All you guys that leave them on must be living with your parents or rich.(250W is an estimate, computers use less when not under load depending upon the computer. My power is also under 12 cents a KWH, so that depends on where you live)[/citation]


I have no way of measuring the wattage consumed by my machines however I can tell you that if it were anywhere close to your estimates my power bill would be at lease double what it is.

 

[gm0n3y]

no