How many hours per day should a PC be on?

[alertalbert]

Hello, I have a quick question for the community. How many hours per day should a PC be on to have a reasonable lifespan? I use my PC moderately on and off throughout the day, but it is usually on from 7AM-8PM. Am I overusing my PC and shortening the lifespan?

[VG Docs]

Hello, I have a quick question for the community. How many hours per day should a PC be on to have a reasonable lifespan? I use my PC moderately on and off throughout the day, but it is usually on from 7AM-8PM. Am I overusing my PC and shortening the lifespan?

Nah, as long as you don't have serious overclocks, overvolting, overheating and stuff you'll be fine for a long time. It's not a console

The only thing you should really be keeping an eye on if you're safe elsewhere is your HDD. Even then it should take at least a couple years for it to start failing. That's sort of the nature of HDDs though.

[Godlygamer23]

I won't tell you how often to use your PC, but if you're constantly spinning the hard drives up and down(if you have any), you're straining the spindle. My PC is normally on 24/7.

[Psykomantis00]

24.

[Novistion]

That should be fine. (The only time I "turn" mine off is for updates haha)

[alertalbert]

Nah, as long as you don't have serious overclocks, overvolting, overheating and stuff you'll be fine for a long time. It's not a console

The only thing you should really be keeping an eye on if you're safe elsewhere is your HDD. Even then it should take at least a couple years for it to start failing. That's sort of the nature of HDDs though.

I have an SSD, would that have a better or worse lifespan than a hard drive?

[Godlygamer23]

I have an SSD, would that have a better or worse lifespan than a hard drive?

Better. Starting up and down won't put as much(if any) strain on it compared to a hard drive. Just flash chips, a controller, and a PCB.

[terrytek]

I leave mine on 24/7. It actually is quite beneficial to leave your pc on long periods of time, provided you have a reliable cooling system. It puts less stress on parts, especially hard drives.

[brokencross]

I won't tell you how often to use your PC, but if you're constantly spinning the hard drives up and down(if you have any), you're straining the spindle. My PC is normally on 24/7.

Yeah. Google made a study years ago that proved that too many powering-on cycles strain hard-drives and lead them to premature failure. 

[VG Docs]

I have an SSD, would that have a better or worse lifespan than a hard drive?

ooo, it'll definitely have a better lifespan than an HDD. HDDs use moving parts that wear and create inaccuracies and get corrupt over time. SSDs (like flash drives) don't have any moving parts, so you don't have to worry about that. 

[Vek1313]

Better question: Why should I turn off my PC?

[SansVarnic]

Hello, I have a quick question for the community. How many hours per day should a PC be on to have a reasonable lifespan? I use my PC moderately on and off throughout the day, but it is usually on from 7AM-8PM. Am I overusing my PC and shortening the lifespan?

Turning your pc on and off throughout the day strains the system whether you have mechanical or solid state parts. Thermal shock is the result of constant on-off-on use. This will decrease our systems life expectancy. If you use your system throughout the day sporadically I would leave it on. During the day and only turn it off at night if your worried about your electric bill otherwise turn it on an leave it on 24/7. 

 

Think of it as doing this;

Go jump in a swimming pool

Then after 10 minutes jump into a hot tub

Then after 10 minutes go jump back into the swimming pool

Stupid thing to do huh? This can cause pulmonary damage to your heart and other system shock to your body. Same thing happens to your PC but on a different scale.  :unsure:

 

 

And no I am not a doctor or a nurse.

 

**Edit**

Take in mind that Thermal Shock has been mitigated over the last several years with the implemented Japanese grade components, filters, architectural designs and such. But please don't let people fool you into thinking it no longer exists as it doesn't have the impact it used to have but over time it does have an effect. ON-OFF-ON use can and will decrease life expectancy, just not as drastically as it used too.

[Cookybiscuit]

I use my 780 as a room heater at 99% GPU usage overclocked to 1200/7000 for probably like 8 hours a day, and have been for the last 2 years. It's probably not healthy, but it works just fine still.

[GoodBytes]

Hello, I have a quick question for the community. How many hours per day should a PC be on to have a reasonable lifespan? I use my PC moderately on and off throughout the day, but it is usually on from 7AM-8PM. Am I overusing my PC and shortening the lifespan?

Exactly 15h 24min and 11 sec per day.

Seriously though, you can leave the computer 24/7 open or turn it off or put it to sleep 10 times day, it doesn't matter. Assuming quality components used, and no manufacture error, it should pass 7-8 years easy.

So sit back, relax and enjoy your system

[Lethal Seraph]

You ought to check the different thread about how long I'd your PC uptime. Lol. Anyhow, I've read some here here on the forums about a brutal ssd test, all 4 competitors started dying after 18-months of constant read-writing. And that's a very long time! So yeah, no worries about that dying.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

I stability tune my PCs and leave the running 24/7 21~30day uptimes, restarting only to install something.

[Psykomantis00]

Yeah. Google made a study years ago that proved that too many powering-on cycles strain hard-drives and lead them to premature failure. 

Any electronic that deals with heat will deteriorate over time. Heating and cooling over and over can cause the solder points to loosen which is bad and will eventually cause a catastrophic falure. It's probably not a huge deal these days but I know older radio equipment had serious problems after years of heat/cooling cycles. Computer parts don't stay around as long as analog audio stuff did back in the day.

[brokencross]

Any electronic that deals with heat will deteriorate over time. Heating and cooling over and over can cause the solder points to loosen which is bad and will eventually cause a catastrophic falure. It's probably not a huge deal these days but I know older radio equipment had serious problems after years of heat/cooling cycles. Computer parts don't stay around as long as analog audio stuff did back in the day.

It's not about heating and cooling necessarily. It's more of a mechanic failure.

Moving parts will always be affected by power-on cycles.

[Theo]

The only reason I see for people not turning off their pc when they aren't going to be using for a few hours is that they either don't pay for their own electricity, or it doesn't cost much

[Psykomantis00]

It's not about heating and cooling necessarily. It's more of a mechanic failure.

Moving parts will always be affected by power-on cycles.

Hard drives specifically, but I've had to re-solder old audio equipment simply because the solder gets weak after so many heat cycles. Granted this was on old hardware that was around for 10+ years and used everyday and the solder points were not that great to begin with... but you still see it today. That's why sticking your video card in an oven works. It reheats the solder and flows back to where it should. 

[ofr057]

about 10

[Hero7750]

As many as you can...

[Nexxus]

Nah, as long as you don't have serious overclocks, overvolting, overheating and stuff you'll be fine for a long time. It's not a console

The only thing you should really be keeping an eye on if you're safe elsewhere is your HDD. Even then it should take at least a couple years for it to start failing. That's sort of the nature of HDDs though.

Even consoles are fine with 24/7 towards the end of its life and after I got my xb360 my ps2 was litarally never shut off, it was just waiting for me on FFXIs char select screen since its ALL I used it for also HDDS have more then a couple year in them my 256gb that I got in what....2006? is still running fine.

[ThomasD]

My i7 860 system has been running 24/7 for 5 years at stock speed. 

[gill2k]

My file server is on 24/7.  I turn my main rig off when I'm not using it.