What happens if you leave a computer running programs for a long time

[jnam13]

I've been having this discussion with a friend about if it is bad for the computer to leave on for a long period of time. I did a bunch of searches but the results are all over the place and some are from pretty old resources.

The reason it came up is my friends computer is barely running now after a little over a year and its a fairly nice computer and was curious if it was due to him leaving the computer running constantly.
On a daily basis, he'll have photoshop and illustrator running as well as chrome and will also leave them running in the background while playing games as well. After he's done playing he'll leave the game running and will basically have all those on for weeks at a time.

He swears up and down that it makes no difference where I lean on the safe side and close all my programs and leave my computer on sleep when I'm not using it.

I just want to get some clarification on if there is any aggressive effect on the computer from running multiple programs for weeks at a time. Am I being overly cautious?

Thanks!

 

[Gam3r01]

You arent going to degrade a system by leaving programs running, at least not on a measurable timeframe.
Heat and physical damage are a way bigger concern than leaving a PC on.

 

[Unolocogringo]

If a computer is properly set up and stable it can run for months at a time between restarts.
My folding computers run 24/7/365 @ 100% load and are only restarted for windows updates or cleaning about every 3 months.

 

[doolittle]

I've been having this discussion with a friend about if it is bad for the computer to leave on for a long period of time. I did a bunch of searches but the results are all over the place and some are from pretty old resources.

The reason it came up is my friends computer is barely running now after a little over a year and its a fairly nice computer and was curious if it was due to him leaving the computer running constantly.
On a daily basis, he'll have photoshop and illustrator running as well as chrome and will also leave them running in the background while playing games as well. After he's done playing he'll leave the game running and will basically have all those on for weeks at a time.

He swears up and down that it makes no difference where I lean on the safe side and close all my programs and leave my computer on sleep when I'm not using it.

I just want to get some clarification on if there is any aggressive effect on the computer from running multiple programs for weeks at a time. Am I being overly cautious?

Thanks!

have to agree with the consensus, it is not bad in itself to let a pc run 24x7 for the entire life of the pc as long as it's properly cooled, cleaned as necessary and has proper power protections.

However, the way he runs applications in the background may be contributing to the overall performance degradation since they will use CPU and RAM. If he as an 8c/16t cpu with 32Gb of ram, it may not be a problem lol. Windows itself does degrade a bit as you add / remove a lot of applications, although it is less of an issue in windows 10 (since every major release update is pretty much a fresh install, and the majority of problems can be resolved by creating a new user profile).

A good way to test, would be to have him run a synthetic benchmark like the passmark performance test while the apps are running, and another while the apps are closed.

 

[jsmithepa]

Leaving programs open doesn't mean it's pushing the hardware. Programs can be in "idle modes" as if nothing is being done. So as others say is TEMPERATURE. So if by running programs causes components to be on high temperature all the time will reduce lifetime of usable hardware, and of course waste electricity. People leave computer on 24/7 because sometimes it's more hassle/want instant access blah-blah and some people don't need the fan noise, all lights blinking disturbing sleep... whatever man, to each his own.