[-0MEGA-]

I've heard this all the time as well, some people say that when you turn off a PC all the fans turns off immediately, causing the components to overheat. I've heard that turning it on is the same as x amount of hours/minutes as if you left it on.

IMO, I would only leave a computer on if I knew I'd be back within a couple hours. Anything longer then that I usually just put my computer in standby, or turn it off completely. I've had computers that were 10-15 years old and still work, so I don't believe that it would actually wear out before the computer is useless anyways.

It really comes down to whether or not you want to pay for the electricity or not. But remember, leaving a computer on for 8 hours overnight wears it out as well.

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voyagerfan99

I turn it off at night simply because it is right under my bed and the fan keeps me awake. (I like total silence when I sleep.) Like others have said, it doesn't hurt it enough to make a difference.

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Yeti

And I would say that's a pretty conservative calculation. Some homebuilt computers can consume 30W just from the fans.

The problem with that arguement is that if the power is cut to the fans it should be simultaneously cut to the processor. With no heat load the temperature cannot increase.

In my opinion, any slight risk of damaging components is offset by consuming less resources as well as saving money. If you need to quickly access the computer just put it in standby or hibernate.

diduknowthat

I turn it on when I get home (around 4 in the afternoon) and turn it off when I go to bed (about 11). I could leave it on overnight if I wanted to, but I really don't see the point of it.

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just a noob

my grandmothers computer(windows 95) that was shut down every night for 5 years, still worked when i fired it up in january, and a computer i got for free had windows 98 on it, shut down every day until they got rid of them 7 years later, still worked when i hooked it up 2 days ago

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shenry

I always shut it down at night unless I am downloading something big like a game demo or something. Saves money on bills and gives my parts a break. Also my fans won't suck in as much dust!

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fortyways

If someone's computer uses 300W at idle I doubt his or her electricity bill is high on his or her list of priorities anyway.

shenry

Suppose so. Another thing is that its not my electricity bill anyways!

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jnskyliner34

time for the Mythbusters to crack this myth!

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Timo

I want to correct something.

I made a faulty calculation.

Ok lets be really really optimistic here and say that your computer runs 200watts whilst idling. Don't want to know what you're running but ok it's 200watts idle.

Then you'd be using 0.2 Killowatts per hour. This is what I missed; Per hour. And if you sleep 10 hours, thus letting it idle 10 hours. That would be 10 times 0.2 killowatts... Which is 2 Killowatts per time you let it idle 10 hours.

So that would be 0.2Kw * 10hours * 0.15euro's = 0.30 euro's a night... And that times 365 days would add up to: 365*0.3 = 109.50 euro's... Over here you can buy a nice Raptor from that...

@Yeti: 0.3Killowatts.. That's 300 watts Idling... That's quite much for me :p

Ké perhaps a more unconservative calculation lets say you idle at 400watts (jeez...) 0.4*10*0.15*365 = 219 euro's per year! You can almost buy the new Velociraptor for that money over here! That would mean that if you turn of the computer for 10 hours a day instead of letting it idle those 10 hours you would be able to buy a Velociraptor 300GB's every year... After 3 years that would result into a killer RAID0 setup

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