Is it fine to leave my PC on 24/7?

[lyricalosu]

i am planning on leaving my pc on the weekend Fri-Mon so i can remote desktop into it. is it fine to leave it on during that time? i wont be home or able to go home during that time. also do not factor in electricity. i am aware of how much it can cost

[bellabichon]

In the long term, definitely a good practice to shut down/restart occasionally to prevent issues, but for three days you'll be completely fine. 

[dizmo]

Yes.

10 minutes ago, bellabichon said:

In the long term, definitely a good practice to shut down/restart occasionally to prevent issues, but for three days you'll be completely fine. 

Eh, not really. I've left my PC on for years at a time, never had an issue. Restarting occasionally is usually a good idea, but not turning it off does nothing bad.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

6 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Yes.

Eh, not really. I've left my PC on for years at a time, never had an issue. Restarting occasionally is usually a good idea, but not turning it off does nothing bad.

It can cause serious performance issues after a while, though.

Tiny memory leaks are common and so are background processes building up. After 3 months a noticable performance increase is possible

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

It can cause serious performance issues after a while, though.

Tiny memory leaks are common and so are background processes building up. After 3 months a noticable performance increase is possible

Hence the restart. 

Though it rarely makes that much of a difference. Depends what programs you run I guess. 

[WhitetailAni]

Nope! I left my PC on for 2 weeks once, chugging along with F@H and BOINC.

Monitored its uptime by using F@H XOC stats lol. Didn't crash once.

 

Just make sure can't get too hot.

[lyricalosu]

20 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Hence the restart. 

Though it rarely makes that much of a difference. Depends what programs you run I guess. 

well in my case, gaming and light video editing

[MarvinKMooney]

I knew I saw a video about this

[thrasher_565]

your computer and phone do things even when there "off" like just plunging in there ether net cable it will it start sending packets somewhere... your hdd also dose things at night it seems...

[Needfuldoer]

It will be fine, don't worry about it.

 

Windows starts getting cranky if you use it daily for a couple months without restarting, but a warm reboot clears that up.

[Anghammarad]

1 hour ago, thrasher_565 said:

your computer and phone do things even when there "off" like just plunging in there ether net cable it will it start sending packets somewhere... your hdd also dose things at night it seems...

Mine does party a little, but in the morn they cleaned up all their messes again... 

 

[Kisai]

7 hours ago, mrekk said:

i am planning on leaving my pc on the weekend Fri-Mon so i can remote desktop into it. is it fine to leave it on during that time? i wont be home or able to go home during that time. also do not factor in electricity. i am aware of how much it can cost

Depends what it is.

 

If it contains liquid cooling. The answer is No. If it's overclocked, the answer is No.

 

If it's air-cooled and the fans are all operating at 100%, that's fine. If they're making bearing-wear noises or grinding noises, the answer is no.

 

Basically, you want to avoid two scenarios:

1. The temperature in the room gets too hot, and it's unable to cool itself, because you aren't running the Air Conditioning/exhaust fans

2. The computer gets stuck in a failed state where the fans turn off, but the CPU/GPU is still at maxed out.

 

The former is something that can, and does happen in warm climates. If you're going to leave your computer alone, leave the door to the room with the computer open. If there is a bathroom with a programmable timer for the exhaust fan (required in all humid climates to prevent bathrooms from getting moldy) make sure it's operational. That will take care of the potential overheating scenario.

 

The latter is a bit harder to anticipate. If you're running Windows and have the power settings set to balance, the fans will spin up and down as needed, but if it BSOD's, it might get stuck in a low state or a boot loop. So I'd actually suggest leaving the fans at a setting where they are always running, never at 0%

 

I have never had a computer "die" on me despite leaving them on 24/7 (I've literately gone on month-long trips), however I've had incidents happen to the apartment while absent (both involving water leaks), and that's the kind of risk you have to assess before leaving a computer on. Don't put the computer some place where it will be sitting in a pool of water if the room floods (eg the computer should be on your desk,) don't have "top vents" exposed to things that could potentially fall in it during an earthquake, and so forth. 

 

You can't anticipate everything. But you largely want to avoid a situation where the computer causes a fire due to it's location or proximity to combustible materials.

 

 

 

[Vishera]

I actually did an experiment on the subject...

Two identical PCs,the PC the was on 24/7 won and still ongoing,

While the PC that i turned on in the morning and turned off at the evening died a lot earlier.

 

24/7 PC:  2013 - current day

ON/OFF PC: 2013 - 2016

 

So i leave all of my PCs on 24\7 based on the results of my experiment and my experience.

 

I also have a FX 8120 + HD 6970 system from 2011 that is still alive and i leave it on 24\7.

 

Do you know how many times i heard about PCs dying after being left off for a very long time?

[thrasher_565]

26 minutes ago, Vishera said:

I actually did an experiment on the subject...

Two identical PCs,the PC the was on 24/7 won and still ongoing,

While the PC that i turned on in the morning and turned off at the evening died a lot earlier.

 

24/7 PC:  2013 - current day

ON/OFF PC: 2013 - 2016

 

So i leave all of my PCs on 24\7 based on the results of my experiment and my experience.

 

I also have a FX 8120 + HD 6970 system from 2011 that is still alive and i leave it on 24\7.

 

Do you know how many times i heard about PCs dying after being left off for a very long time?

probably has to do with voltage spikes

[lyricalosu]

4 hours ago, Kisai said:

Depends what it is.

 

If it contains liquid cooling. The answer is No. If it's overclocked, the answer is No.

 

If it's air-cooled and the fans are all operating at 100%, that's fine. If they're making bearing-wear noises or grinding noises, the answer is no.

 

Basically, you want to avoid two scenarios:

1. The temperature in the room gets too hot, and it's unable to cool itself, because you aren't running the Air Conditioning/exhaust fans

2. The computer gets stuck in a failed state where the fans turn off, but the CPU/GPU is still at maxed out.

 

The former is something that can, and does happen in warm climates. If you're going to leave your computer alone, leave the door to the room with the computer open. If there is a bathroom with a programmable timer for the exhaust fan (required in all humid climates to prevent bathrooms from getting moldy) make sure it's operational. That will take care of the potential overheating scenario.

 

The latter is a bit harder to anticipate. If you're running Windows and have the power settings set to balance, the fans will spin up and down as needed, but if it BSOD's, it might get stuck in a low state or a boot loop. So I'd actually suggest leaving the fans at a setting where they are always running, never at 0%

 

I have never had a computer "die" on me despite leaving them on 24/7 (I've literately gone on month-long trips), however I've had incidents happen to the apartment while absent (both involving water leaks), and that's the kind of risk you have to assess before leaving a computer on. Don't put the computer some place where it will be sitting in a pool of water if the room floods (eg the computer should be on your desk,) don't have "top vents" exposed to things that could potentially fall in it during an earthquake, and so forth. 

 

You can't anticipate everything. But you largely want to avoid a situation where the computer causes a fire due to it's location or proximity to combustible materials.

 

 

 

would a ryzen 5 3600 clocked at 4ghz with the stock cooler be fine? room temp is 63 degrees fahrenheit

[Kisai]

8 minutes ago, mrekk said:

would a ryzen 5 3600 clocked at 4ghz with the stock cooler be fine? room temp is 63 degrees fahrenheit

As long as it's running at it's factory settings and not OC'd, probably fine. If you have it OC'd, then I wouldn't risk it unless the cooling is always set to max. The reason why I say stock would be fine but OC'd not is because OC is more likely to crash and leave the cooling in a non-functional state. If it has yet to crash on you, it's up to you if you want to risk it.

 

Fire risk assessment is probably the same however.