What's better to turn off your computer each night or leave it on? - Page 2 - GoFuckYourself.com

infecto · 08-31-2005, 02:50 PM

Wow this thread showed how computer dumb people are. Now even turning it off every day won't cause a ton of wear but it does cause wear on electronic components. Computers these days draw very little power compared to way back. It is better to leave a computer running then turning it off...and jesus whoever said a desktop computer is only made to run like 8 hours a day...your a fucking moron...there is not real difference between a desktop and a server unless your talking about high end equipment. Oh and one other thing...it doesn't hurt your Harddrive to leave it on. In face keeping your hard drive off for extended periods will hurt it more then leaving it running.

Dalai lama · 08-31-2005, 02:58 PM

I always turn it off.

CDSmith · 08-31-2005, 03:09 PM

Always on here.

Kyo · 08-31-2005, 06:22 PM

There's two ways you have to look at a computer to analyze this. Firstly as an electronic device (most of it) and as an electro-mechanical device (mainly the hard drive).

For an electronic device, the *only* appreciable wear-and-tear it gets is during power-up while it is coming to its normal temperature. The chips begin warming up, causing the circuit board to flex due to uneven heating. Even though the amount of flexure is small, it still represents bending the traces (wires) on the board...and you know what happens to a piece of wire if you bend it back and forth enough. Once the temperature has stabalized on the board, there's no appreciable wear and tear.....no flexure, and electrons moving around on wires don't wear out the wire at all. Ergo, for things with circuit boards, you want to minimize power-down/power-up cycles to minimize wear and tear.

For hard drives, it's not much more complicated. They can and do wear out, as all mechanical devices do. So the question is, what causes it to wear out faster? If the system is idle, this boils down to two main things....the motor that is spinning the platters, and the bearings supporting the spindle. Modern hard drives have sealed bearings filled with a long life lubricant. Like any bearing lubricant, it is thicker when it's cold and thinner when it's at operating temperature. Thus, if the machine is at room temperature and you power up, there is more resistance in the bearings causing the platter motor to work harder (causing wear on both the bearings and the platter motor). Next you have to consider the platter motor itself. It should be obvious to anyone who has endured a high school physics class that it is *much* harder for a motor to spin up the platters from a dead stop than it is to simply keep them spinning once they're already at speed. So, again, the most wear and tear happens at power-up time.

It should be clear and obvious that leaving your system on 24/7 is easier on the system than powering it down each night. However, this fact is mitigated by the insane MTBF (mean time before failure) ratings of modern hardware. Whether the extra wear and tear of power-cycling the equipment daily is significant enough to affect you over the life of the system can be debated, but is closely akin to rolling dice. It might break, it might not.

As far as energy consumption, know that a modern PC doesn't burn much power at all....a couple of amps max. If you have a CRT monitor, however, that's what's sucking power. The system I'm using to write this consumes about 2A, the CRT burns about 4A. So if energy usage is an issue to you, my advice is to leave the system on, but turn off the monitor at night. Or, if your monitor is EnergyStar compliant, quit using a screen saver and set your computer to simply power off the monitor after about 20-30 mins of non-use.

chaze · 08-31-2005, 11:03 PM

Wow nice detail,

I didn't see you emphasize on heat that much, since heats tends to kill hard drives so much you don't think leaving it at hot tempatures is worse then letting it cool down and back up. I know the metal changes from the differance in heat but I think leaving it hot affects the bearing and arms.

I mean my hard drive is hot when I leave it on, really hot by morning.

I have used the hard drive shut off option but it fuck up my system once a couple years back so I stopped using it.

Maybe it's just cause it's a laptop but leaving it on keeps things cookin so I shut it down.

Th!nk · 08-31-2005, 11:11 PM

I usually turn it off every after use.

IceMaster · 08-31-2005, 11:14 PM

I turn it off every night.

tony286 · 08-31-2005, 11:19 PM

I shut all of mine down, with all the thunderstorms here lately to want to wake up to a fried computer. I have surge protectors on them all but there times it doesnt save it. I ve seen fried computers that were on surge protectors.

View Poll Results: leave your computer on or off at night
on	58	64.44%
off	32	35.56%
Voters: 90. You may not vote on this poll

08-31-2005, 02:58 PM	#52
Dalai lama Strength and Honor Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 16,540	I always turn it off. __________________ A program you can trust. Gallerybooster Run multiply TGPs of 1 script

08-31-2005, 03:09 PM	#53
CDSmith Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2001 Location: My network is hosted at TECHIEMEDIA.net ...Wait, you meant where am I located at? Oh... okay, I'm in Winnipeg, Canada. Oops. :) Posts: 51,460	Always on here. __________________ *Promote Wildmatch, ImLive, Sexier.com, and more!!* ALWAYS THE HIGHEST PAYOUTS: Big Bux/ImLive SIGNUP ON NOW!!! Put some PUSSYCA$H in your pocket. ICQ me at: 31024634

08-31-2005, 02:50 PM	#51
infecto Confirmed User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,697	Wow this thread showed how computer dumb people are. Now even turning it off every day won't cause a ton of wear but it does cause wear on electronic components. Computers these days draw very little power compared to way back. It is better to leave a computer running then turning it off...and jesus whoever said a desktop computer is only made to run like 8 hours a day...your a fucking moron...there is not real difference between a desktop and a server unless your talking about high end equipment. Oh and one other thing...it doesn't hurt your Harddrive to leave it on. In face keeping your hard drive off for extended periods will hurt it more then leaving it running.

08-31-2005, 06:22 PM	#54
Kyo Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: VA, USA Posts: 87	There's two ways you have to look at a computer to analyze this. Firstly as an electronic device (most of it) and as an electro-mechanical device (mainly the hard drive). For an electronic device, the only appreciable wear-and-tear it gets is during power-up while it is coming to its normal temperature. The chips begin warming up, causing the circuit board to flex due to uneven heating. Even though the amount of flexure is small, it still represents bending the traces (wires) on the board...and you know what happens to a piece of wire if you bend it back and forth enough. Once the temperature has stabalized on the board, there's no appreciable wear and tear.....no flexure, and electrons moving around on wires don't wear out the wire at all. Ergo, for things with circuit boards, you want to minimize power-down/power-up cycles to minimize wear and tear. For hard drives, it's not much more complicated. They can and do wear out, as all mechanical devices do. So the question is, what causes it to wear out faster? If the system is idle, this boils down to two main things....the motor that is spinning the platters, and the bearings supporting the spindle. Modern hard drives have sealed bearings filled with a long life lubricant. Like any bearing lubricant, it is thicker when it's cold and thinner when it's at operating temperature. Thus, if the machine is at room temperature and you power up, there is more resistance in the bearings causing the platter motor to work harder (causing wear on both the bearings and the platter motor). Next you have to consider the platter motor itself. It should be obvious to anyone who has endured a high school physics class that it is much harder for a motor to spin up the platters from a dead stop than it is to simply keep them spinning once they're already at speed. So, again, the most wear and tear happens at power-up time. It should be clear and obvious that leaving your system on 24/7 is easier on the system than powering it down each night. However, this fact is mitigated by the insane MTBF (mean time before failure) ratings of modern hardware. Whether the extra wear and tear of power-cycling the equipment daily is significant enough to affect you over the life of the system can be debated, but is closely akin to rolling dice. It might break, it might not. As far as energy consumption, know that a modern PC doesn't burn much power at all....a couple of amps max. If you have a CRT monitor, however, that's what's sucking power. The system I'm using to write this consumes about 2A, the CRT burns about 4A. So if energy usage is an issue to you, my advice is to leave the system on, but turn off the monitor at night. Or, if your monitor is EnergyStar compliant, quit using a screen saver and set your computer to simply power off the monitor after about 20-30 mins of non-use.

08-31-2005, 11:03 PM	#55
chaze Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 9,752	Wow nice detail, I didn't see you emphasize on heat that much, since heats tends to kill hard drives so much you don't think leaving it at hot tempatures is worse then letting it cool down and back up. I know the metal changes from the differance in heat but I think leaving it hot affects the bearing and arms. I mean my hard drive is hot when I leave it on, really hot by morning. I have used the hard drive shut off option but it fuck up my system once a couple years back so I stopped using it. Maybe it's just cause it's a laptop but leaving it on keeps things cookin so I shut it down.

08-31-2005, 11:11 PM	#56
Th!nk Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 6,996	I usually turn it off every after use.

08-31-2005, 11:14 PM	#57
IceMaster Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 8,920	I turn it off every night.

08-31-2005, 11:19 PM	#58
tony286 lurker Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: atlanta Posts: 57,021	I shut all of mine down, with all the thunderstorms here lately to want to wake up to a fried computer. I have surge protectors on them all but there times it doesnt save it. I ve seen fried computers that were on surge protectors.