Turn off PC every night...or not?

[Jerrick]

I dont know. I had Xp since it came out, and that system stayed on for as long as possible unless I had an update that needed a restart. I finally switched from that system a week ago. But during times where there wouldnt be a restart for a few months, it ran fast and stable.

I took all three drives from that comp to this one, and 2 out of those three came from two computer before my last one. So two of my drives have been up and running for about 8+ years.

The three computers in my closet that are very old, all still boot up, and I ran those like I do with all my systems. Running as close to 24/7 as i can, usually with torrents downloading and uploading.

 

[Okedokey]

electricity isnt that expensive.

it costs well under $100 a year for a good pc to run 24/7

Can you explain how you worked this out please? It is simply incorrect.

Working on $0.12/kWh (the average cost of electricity in California where the OP lives), 24/7 operation of a computer that draws 150W (a conservative estimate - for your "good pc") it will cost: $157.68 to run pa (+/- s/error). It will also generate 363kg of GHG (@0.27kgCO2e/kWh for Calif.). This doesn't include the monitor and any other peripherals, which will add to the running costs and GHG produced and only considers the PC at idle. If you included the PC at load times with peripherals (e.g. monitor, printer, speakers etc), that will increase to approximately $250 pa and nearly 600kg of ghg or more.

Now consider that if you only used the PC for say, what, 5 hours? It will cost around $50 a year and produce 120kg of CO2e.

There is no scientific evidence to suggest that within the working lifetime of any particular computer component, that turning it off will cause premature failure. It is simply a myth that stems from early computing days (which I remember), that are no longer relevant. Guys, seriously, turn it off, save yourself $200 or more and the environment. Just think, some of you guys could use the savings on a decent PSU...

 

[Dazzeerr]

I turn it off pretty much every night. Leave it on during the day if I know i'm going to be coming back to it soon.

I only leave it on at night if it's downloading something large or defragmenting.
Just seems wrong leaving it on, I think the people saying it wears down their hardware so they don't turn it off are just using a lame excuse for wasting energy and are impatient with a 20-60 second boot-up time.

 

[FatalityTech]

I do not believe that leaving it on 24/7 is necessarily good. I mean you need to refresh your ram. Its does go corrupt. Considering that it is always being accessed.

 

[jdbennet]

Can you explain how you worked this out please

i was assuming 4 hours of use, then S3 standby

 

[Okedokey]

You cannot say S3 and "running a computer 24/7" is the same thing. S3 consumes the same amount of power as when you shutdown a machine (5W), thus your point is either contradictory or plain wrong (probably both). As you said nothing in your first post of S3 and you said running a good PC 24/7 is cheap, I conclude it was the later. I wouldn't have worried about this normally, but the topic is essentially around the benefits of either shutting down a machine or not. Clearly financial/environmental costs are worth considering, and misguided information is not helpful. btw Jd, im not flaming here, coz 99% of your posts are spot on.