Here’s why you need to stop turning your computer off at night

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

If you want it to last, that is.


 

Each time I pick my long-suffering MacBook up and put it on my lap to feel the warmth of its overworked insides, I feel a pang of guilt for being the worst at remembering to turn it off more than maybe once or twice a week. But in reality, the practice of regularly shutting your computer down and booting it back up is not without its dangers - all that work can actually stress a computer out. So what should we do to ensure the longevity of the machines that keep our work (and home) lives humming along? Simon Hill from Digital Trends took this (digital) age-old question to the experts.
 

The short answer? "It depends on how often you use it," tech support guy Steven Leslie, from Geek Squad, told him. (Being Australian, I had no idea what a 'Geek Squad' was, but it turns out they’re a group of computer technicians who run a 24-hour support service out of the US.)

 

"If you use your computer multiple times per day, it’s best to leave it on. If you use it for a short time - say an hour or two - just once a day, or even less, then turn it off,"says Leslie.
 

And here’s why there’s a difference. Leaving a computer on all the time, day and night, is stressful for your computer, but it’s a constant stress. If you’re not making things worse by overloading your computer with a stream of memory-munching programs, it will steadily power its way through. But if you’re turning your computer on every morning - or multiple times a day - and expecting it to work for many hours a day over several years, that small surge of power that helps spin everything up can ultimately shorten its lifespan.
 

But on the other hand, if you have an old machine, the risks of leaving your computer on for extended periods of time could actually outweigh those associated with turning it off and on all the time, says Hill at Digital Trends. If you’ve got a newer machine, it likely contains a solid state drive - a device that has done away with all the moving parts of the traditional hard disk drive to achieve a better lifespan. The problem with traditional disk drives is that those parts wear down the more you use them, and this only gets worse when your computer heats up from constant use.
 

"Some items have a limited life cycle. For instance, if the [LCD] panel is left on all the time, it’s only spec’ed for about 15,000 hours, or about two years. For this reason, it’s good to let the panel time-out and turn off when not being used,"

 

HP’s Ajay Gupta, Director of Notebook Product Management and Commercial PCs, told Digital Trends.

"The battery and hard drive also have a limited life cycle. Allowing them to turn off (or sleep) and spin down when not being used will extend the life of these components."

 

 

But even this isn’t the whole story, as Hill explains:

"There’s still debate about the impact of shutting down and starting up modern components. To many, the very concept that shut-downs and start-ups create extra stress is dated, based on old components and mechanical parts we no longer have in modern systems. Leaving that argument to one side, there are some solid reasons for leaving it on or turning it off that aren’t up for debate."

 

 

These reasons are mostly no-brainers - leave it on if you want to use your PC as a server or run updates in the background, turn it off if you want to save electricity. The occasional reboot is important though, he says, as this generally improves the performance of your machine. And Leslie says using the ‘sleep’ option is much better than letting the machine ‘hibernate’, as the latter causes similar levels of wear and tear as turning it on and off does.
 

Head to Simon Hill’s article at Digital Trends to get more great advice, including why you absolutely need a surge protector in your life. 
 

TL:DR
 

The real reasons to leave it on or turn it off

There’s still debate about the impact of shutting down and starting up modern components. To many, the very concept that shut-downs and start-ups create extra stress is dated, based on old components and mechanical parts we no longer have in modern systems. Leaving that argument to one side, there are some solid reasons for leaving it on or turning it off that aren’t up for debate.

Reasons to leave it on

• You’re using the PC as a server or you want to be able to remotely access it.
• There are background updates, virus scans, or other activities you’d like to occur while you’re away.
• You never want to wait for it to start up.

Reasons to turn it off

• Leaving it on wastes electricity and can slightly increase your power bill.
• You don’t want to be disturbed by notifications or fan noise.
• Computer performance generally benefits from an occasional reboot.

Sleep or hibernate?

“Sleep is fine because it puts the computer into a low power state without turning it completely off,” says Steven, “In hibernate, your computer stops using power and resumes where it was when you put it in that mode. Hibernate is a less desirable option because it produces wear and tear that is similar to start and stop.”
 

The final word

“If you use your computer more than once a day, leave it on at least all day,” says Steven, “If you use it in the morning and at night, you can leave it on overnight as well. If you use your computer for only a few hours once a day, or less often, turn it off when you are done.”

 

Source : http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-why-you-need-to-stop-turning-your-computer-off-at-night

My thoughts : 



I use sleep , and use sleep if not active for 30 mins and use turn off display at 5 mins. best config i can think of using a PC for over 7 years 

 

[Toddwjp]

no it actually makes sense, stress cycles break things not constant stress

[-TesseracT-]

No, I'm not wasting electricity.

[minibois]

Welp, I will have my PC turned on always?
Guess so..

 

(Actually no, I have to sleep man..)

[wyattzx]

My PC is on for 16 hours a day. I will shut it off at night and that's that. 

[QueenDemetria]

If I turn my rig off it doesn't turn back on, so no need to tell me lol. Also with my recent build(Hewlett Crapard), my storage only lasts for 4 hours without power, so it spends most of its life on.

[Misanthrope]

No, I'm not wasting electricity.

 

An idle system with modern processors and gpus actually volts down quite a bit and uses dramatically less power, specially if you close programs and turn off the monitor but leave the system on. Seriously it's like maybe 30 watts from the wall or less while on idle.

And yes this is particularly good for power supplies. I thought my current PSU was dying but it turns out that while building and switching it just was too many boot up/down cycles, after I went back to my regular usage (several weeks of up-time and only power down to clean it once per month or less) the PSU has been chumming along happily.

[blackadder]

If I turn my rig off it doesn't turn back on, so no need to tell me lol. Also with my recent build(Hewlett Crapard), my storage only lasts for 4 hours without power, so it spends most of its life on.

wtf 4 hours.

[Scouten]

considering my rig pulls from the wall 200-250 watts idle i like to turn it off

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

My system has been on as long as 12 days without even sleep , i never really turn off , unless i really need the feel to turn it off once in a while , i've been using my PC for about 7 years, always keeping it on doesn't hurt the pc as much.
i prefer sleep over hibernate in Win 7 or later, coz sleep in WIn XP is useless as shit  

[Guest]

Would not trust this really. Geek Squad operate here in Australia too and yesterday were onsite to repair damage done by a virus for a PC we'd build. The 'technician' proceeded to tell me that the user needed to have the data backed up on the infected PC, re install and then copy it back. Anyone see an issue with that concept seeing as the customer had a backup of their data on their old PC?

[-TesseracT-]

An idle system with modern processors and gpus actually volts down quite a bit and uses dramatically less power, specially if you close programs and turn off the monitor but leave the system on. Seriously it's like maybe 30 watts from the wall or less while on idle.

And yes this is particularly good for power supplies. I thought my current PSU was dying but it turns out that while building and switching it just was too many boot up/down cycles, after I went back to my regular usage (several weeks of up-time and only power down to clean it once per month or less) the PSU has been chumming along happily.

It just seems like a waste.

[Albatross]

In all my years of using computers I have never encountered a computer breaking from turning it off. My computer is on for hours and hours and I will always turn it off when I am done with it. End of.

[Guest]

My mom's wallet doesn't agree.

[KenJimmY]

say that to the old PC's .. the ones with Single cores in them .. yep .. they're still running even after countless off/on cycles

[Misanthrope]

It just seems like a waste.

 

It is a tiny bit yes, but I'll take that over prolonged lifespan on my hardware and yes my boot times are reasonable (20 seconds or so) but nothing beats 0 boot as it is always on (Yes I use my PC that much)

[QueenDemetria]

wtf 4 hours.

Yep. #justramdriveproblems

I got a few retired servers that had these, so I built a crappy computer too mess around with these things. ACard had a great idea with the ANS-9010, just that it makes no sense for a consumer grade computer.

[GlassBomb]

This is why I Fold 24/7. Last time I rebooted was when I had a weird driver crash. It had been on Folding for almost two months straight at that point.

No, but really. Earlier I used to always turn off my computer while I was at work/sleeping. Because I felt that it didn't have to stay on during those 15 or so hours.

[Tim Drake]

I turn it off so temps can cool down and the electric bill is minimal.

 

Most people upgrade after a while anyway so this is a seriously pointless argument.

[Vitalius]

No, I'm not wasting electricity.

It just seems like a waste.

The electricity will be made anyway regardless of whether you use it or not. And if you don't, someone else probably will (some countries sell electricity to other regions). 

Unless you are on personal solar (being in Sweden, you probably are), in which case you might make money off of the electricity you don't use. 

Also realize that manufacturing computer components is not environment friendly. I'm pretty sure any electricity you'd save through shutting your machine down would be far outweighed by the cost of life the components lose.

The biggest reason not to shut down your computer is if it has a Hard Drive. When the head on a mechanical disk parks (gets in it's "sleep position"), it generally causes the most wear the drive will ever see (unless it's a laptop drive and is dropped while running). 

In Enterprise environments, it's found that HDDs that are left running live longer than ones that are shut down regularly and this is what is believed to be the cause.

If you want to be environmentally friendly and not wasteful, you need to balance everything out to find out what is truly most efficient. I highly doubt turning your PC off is best myself. 

To each his own though.

[Lord Baal]

If I turn my rig off it doesn't turn back on, so no need to tell me lol. Also with my recent build(Hewlett Crapard), my storage only lasts for 4 hours without power, so it spends most of its life on.

I'm not sure how you can even call a "Hewlett Crapard" a build and what the hell kind of storage are you using that only lasts 4 hours without power?

My main machine listed in my sig is usually shut down overnight not every night but most when ever it's not uploading a video overnight(screen sleeps and pc locks after 2 mins). Mainly because it's in my bedroom and it's hot enough in here with the LCD TV and surround sound amps no need to add extra heat and noise to what's already feels like sleeping in an inferno during the summer. My HTPC is very rarely shutdown and my other machines are rarely used so they just stay off for the most part.

[WolfDeville]

[Ethnod]

In all my years of using computers I have never encountered a computer breaking from turning it off. My computer is on for hours and hours and I will always turn it off when I am done with it. End of.

 

Actually its quite common tbh, older computers and older parts. Defiantly used to be an issue. From my days running internet cafes we had some shops that needed an upgrade where we used to leave the PC's on because turning them off normally meant something would break on boot up

 

In fact with some server grade Hardware there is (I'm sure someone will know the actual name of this) voltage buffers to reduce spikes and reduce wear and tear

[Liam-McShane]

People, do what ever the hell you wan't with your PC, the effects of leaving it on or turning it off are minimal compared to each other.

[PhantomChevron]

I don't turn my PC off at all, so that is great news