Does leaving your PC on at night a big deal?

[ripper101]

So I left my PC on all night because I run a TS server off of it when we play and they wanted it to stay up so is it bad when I leave my PC on all night idling? My CPU temps after all night are 30°C and my GPU at 25°C so I guess those temps aren't too bad.

[TheRandomness]

No, it's completely fine.

[KieranFretwell]

Leaving your PC turned on for weeks at a time will not harm it as long as it is at safe temps. 

[Misanthrope]

I am actually an advocate of never turning a PC off unless is needed for cleaning or updates: Modern systems use quite a bit less power when idle and the initial boot up process, even if pretty fast today, still puts a lot more stress on the system that you'd think. 

[Octavialicious]

No, but a restart every every week-two weeks or so might be a good idea

[manikyath]

as long as your pc doesnt run at a bajillion degrees, and if you dont mind the power bill.. (which is pretty intense in my area, probably not that bad where you are)

 

its just fine, just give it a reboot every week or so. its not required to do so, but its a good practisce.

[kondziowy]

PCs are designed to work 24/7, if a PC or notebook can't do 24/7 at full load than that is a design flaw. 

[Security]

The power bill is the only thing to consider really.

[ATrollAaaNnnnn]

As long as your hard drive and ssd dont have loads running when you have them on 24/7. It could end up killing them faster.

[ripper101]

as long as your pc doesnt run at a bajillion degrees, and if you dont mind the power bill.. (which is pretty intense in my area, probably not that bad where you are)

 

its just fine, just give it a reboot every week or so. its not required to do so, but its a good practisce.

I think I might be fine it's only a i5 and 750ti at idle

[iAmLuke]

Not really, although if you're processing a workload or folding@home, boinc, etc. and want to turn off your computer when it's done I'd recommend closing all demanding programs (open games, folding) and leaving it on for a few minutes so it cools down a bit, even though it may sound strange it's not a good idea to just unplug your PC when it's components are still hotter than idle temps.       

 

Also (this happened to me, at least) if you've ever modified or even if you didn't even touch your PC's pagefile, after having your computer on for a few days and (e.g. folding through the night and normal usage - chrome, games during the day) without restarting could give you some pagefile related problems since the pagefile could clog up.    

Well, until you have issues with that, I'd recommend you to never touch it. It's a pain.

EDIT: I'm a pretty heavy Chrome user (~100 tabs at once, I don't like closing them), so that might be the reason..

[Samfisher]

I am actually an advocate of never turning a PC off unless is needed for cleaning or updates: Modern systems use quite a bit less power when idle and the initial boot up process, even if pretty fast today, still puts a lot more stress on the system that you'd think. 

Even a modern system will use more power idling for 8 hours than a full boot cycle.

[Applesean]

EDIT: I'm a pretty heavy Chrome user (~100 tabs at once, I don't like closing them), so that might be the reason..

How can you even find what you want with that many tabs? I never even had that many tabs when I was using farming scripts with Opera on tribalwars.net

[Misanthrope]

Even a modern system will use more power idling for 8 hours than a full boot cycle.

 

That's not what I mean by stressing the system: fans having to kick in from 0, all capacitors have to be loaded from 0, have you noticed that BIOS runs at significantly higher clocks than the OS? Also because of the start up process. All of this can shorten the lifespan of hardware so for me yes I use more power but I make my hardware last a longer time.

[BuckGup]

It is completely fine. I wouldn't leave it on in storms or when you go on vacation, and a restart every few weeks is good to flush everything out.

[Samfisher]

That's not what I mean by stressing the system: fans having to kick in from 0, all capacitors have to be loaded from 0, have you noticed that BIOS runs at significantly higher clocks than the OS? Also because of the start up process. All of this can shorten the lifespan of hardware so for me yes I use more power but I make my hardware last a longer time.

Of course it will shorten the lifespan of the components, but not by any measurable amount of time that would make any difference to anyone.

[Misanthrope]

Of course it will shorten the lifespan of the components, but not by any measurable amount of time that would make any difference to anyone.

 

Not necessarily: most modern cases have vents on the op and an off system will loose positive air pressure. So I might save a bit of power but in the long run I don't have to get a dust cover for the system and such. There's many factors here so I'd argue that for heavy users (i.e. I use my rig at least 6 if not 8 continuous hours per day anyway) the power saving difference is also not any measurable amount that would make a difference to anyway.

 

Might as well keep the system on.

[Samfisher]

Not necessarily: most modern cases have vents on the op and an off system will loose positive air pressure. So I might save a bit of power but in the long run I don't have to get a dust cover for the system and such. There's many factors here so I'd argue that for heavy users (i.e. I use my rig at least 6 if not 8 continuous hours per day anyway) the power saving difference is also not any measurable amount that would make a difference to anyway.

 

Might as well keep the system on.

It will lose positive air pressure, but that doesn't mean it goes into negative air pressure state.  There is no air moving and therefore it's neutral air pressure.  Power savings are a much higher percentage of the average monthly power bill compared to how much life is lost on a system that survives 5-10 years.

[Misanthrope]

It will lose positive air pressure, but that doesn't mean it goes into negative air pressure state.  There is no air moving and therefore it's neutral air pressure.  Power savings are a much higher percentage of the average monthly power bill compared to how much life is lost on a system that survives 5-10 years.

 

1) That's why I specifically said systems with open tops as that will let dust naturally settle. Many modern cases do have

 

2) Again you seem to critize my longevity argument when your power saving argument suffers from the same exact fucking flaw: it's irrelevant, it's like 2 or 4 USD per year. Sure the difference between 0.001 to 1 and 0.0000001 to 1 is significantly larger but in practical terms who fucking cares: it all rounds to 0 anyway. Find something else to point out or stop shooting down your own argument while trying to shoot down mine.

[Samfisher]

1) That's why I specifically said systems with open tops as that will let dust naturally settle. Many modern cases do have

 

2) Again you seem to critize my longevity argument when your power saving argument suffers from the same exact fucking flaw: it's irrelevant, it's like 2 or 4 USD per year. Sure the difference between 0.001 to 1 and 0.0000001 to 1 is significantly larger but in practical terms who fucking cares: it all rounds to 0 anyway. Find something else to point out or stop shooting down your own argument while trying to shoot down mine.

Except it isn't 2-4 USD per year.  NY average power price is 17 cents per kwH, a desktop that idles at 30-40w (basically almost everything) for 16 hours a day will cost an additional $40 per year.

 

In my country the above calculation will cost me RM78 extra per year, that's almost a third of my monthly power bill right there.  Stop downplaying how much it will cost if you don't even do the calculations to back it up.  The 2-4 USD figure is for PSU efficiency that's been thrown around.

[Misanthrope]

Except it isn't 2-4 USD per year.  NY average power price is 17 cents per kwH, a desktop that idles at 30-40w (basically almost everything) for 16 hours a day will cost an additional $40 per year.

 

Fine I'll write you a fucking check for it, move on

 

*writes check for 40.00 USD*

[iAmLuke]

How can you even find what you want with that many tabs? I never even had that many tabs when I was using farming scripts with Opera on tribalwars.net

Pretty easily to be honest - different projects, entertainment stuff, etc. Windows 10 has the whole multi-desktop function which is absolutely amazing imo. Every desktop has its own stuff/projects + chrome - max. 3-4 windows with 10+ tabs in one, keeps it pretty organized