Leave computer on or shut it down?

[lexidobe]

I normally leave my computer on all the time and just shut the monitor off when I am not using it, but I recently wondered if I am putting unnecessary wear on the system by leaving it on all the time. I think that the mechanical parts, like the fans and water pump, would probably wear out faster, but the electronics may last longer due to less heat cycles. Does that sound right? Thanks. 

[Guest]

I would recommend shutting down your computer after use because it will increase the lifespan of your components and puts less stress on the computer.

[Rekcut722]

If you are only using the system in 2 - 3 day intervals, it would probably help to turn it off, especially if you are running an overclock on your cpu or gpu. But if you use it every day, you might want to experiment putting the system into sleep mode to see if that turns off the fans and pump. That way the system wouldn't shut down, and the fans and pump could still be off when your not using it. Also, if your computer has it, a hibernation is another form of sleep that is closer to fully turning off the system, but still doesn't completely turn it off and might be better for your use case. 

[themctipers]

2 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

The forum is divided on this.

 

I argue to leave ones computer on all the time as the parts will not go through as much thermal expansion/contraction. The fans and pumps are mechanical ports however and are prone to failure. 

 

Others argue just to turn ones computer off to save on the electric bill and this is a valid point. But electricity where I live is cheap so I don't care. 

 

Seems to be just personal preference. I leave my computer on all the time except if I am going on vacation.

agree

 

i leave my computer on because i am lazy, and i have a bunch of chrome tabs that don't need to be reloaded every day. unless i wont be using the computer for a couple of days, i won't close it

 

but then i started mining, and now my pc is always on mining. gotta get that $2.50 a day lol 

[flibberdipper]

Technically speaking leaving it on causes less wear. Ideally it'd put less wear on the HDD (less spinning up from a dead stop), and less wear on everything else from the slight power surge of turning on. That and less thermal wear and tear (expanding and contracting all the time).

[AshleyAshes]

Excluding my server, every PC of mine is set to sleep after 30mins.  I don't need them sucking down power and putting out heat while accomplishing nothing.

[brighttail]

Yeah the forum will always be divided on this.    There are pros / cons on both sides. I personally leave my computer on 24/7 as most of the components I use are higher end and are designed for higher demand usage.  I help the cause I suppose by using adaptive mode to lessen the heat and voltage to the CPU when it isn't being pushed.

 

I have changed this up a bit being summer.  If I'm going to be gone all day, I'll shut down the computer mainly because my computer pumps out a lot of heat.  My bedroom faces the sun in the afternoon so it can get pretty toasty in my room even with the AC on.  Turning off the computer during these times, just keeps the room cooler.   During the winter tho 24/7 all the time.   I listen to audio books and such at night so it is always in use.

 

Turning it off also saves on electricity.  Bottom line if you consider that you'll be upgrading every 3-5 years, having it run/not run really isn't going to make as much of a difference.  Over 7-10 years yeah maybe.  IMHO.

[Arika]

I turn mine off when i go to bed and turn it on as needed. I don't shut it down during the day unless I'm not going to be using it for the rest of the day

 

[Guest]

I put mine on sleep for power usage and the fact that unless ac is on my room becomes a furnace. Maybe in the winter it'll be good to leave it on. Run a benchmark or two as well :b

[Mooshi]

Let's be real. The difference in practice is about as major as the difference between something advertised as 19.99 vs 20. The slight difference has no real impact to care. My PC is on all the time and is in sleep mode at work.

[You_are_a_cunt]

If I'm at home, it's probably going to be on (except when I'm sleeping because shutdown -s -t 3600)

If I'm not at home and I know I might need to remote into it, it's on. (I should probably set up WoL, but with the restricted router access, I might not be able to pull it off)

If I'm not at home and I know I don't need to remote into it, it's off.

[Praesi]

When im sure i dont use it the next 2-3 hours. I shut it down.

[H0R53]

6 hours ago, lexidobe said:

I normally leave my computer on all the time and just shut the monitor off when I am not using it, but I recently wondered if I am putting unnecessary wear on the system by leaving it on all the time. I think that the mechanical parts, like the fans and water pump, would probably wear out faster, but the electronics may last longer due to less heat cycles. Does that sound right? Thanks. 

Just like everyone else who's posted, I'll post what I do and why.

 

I leave mine on because I use it consistently throughout the day. When I go to bed, I leave it on, and I can hear Windows defragmenting the hard disks, managing restore points, and doing general Windows file system maintenance.

 

I have several scheduled tasks that I've set up to run, for example:

-Creating a system image onto NAS (takes up about 1TB)

-Creating a system restore point

-Defragmenting the hard drive

-Wiping MFT free space (space marked as free, not actually deleted)

-Empty folder deletion

-Duplicate file deletion

-sfc /scannow

 

All of these are set to run in a specific order, and only after the PC has been idle for 2 hours (I go out shopping, and come back, don't want to wait for tasks to finish so I can use it, etc).

After all tasks are done, the PC restarts itself. Then, when I wake up, I restart it anyway because some tasks can be run under the system account.

 

Generally, what my PC does when left alone is anything but idling. I'm a clean freak, so my system is as organized and clutter free as possible (every picture out of several thousand is in a labelled folder, for example).

Some of these can be tasking on the CPU, but not by much.

 

These scheduled tasks keep my computer clean, organized, and free of clutter, and keeps system integrity as solid as a fresh install. I think of it as housekeeping for my PC.

 

My motherboard is coming up on 6 years old and probably won't ever fail due to solid capacitor design, among other things.

 

 

So if you want to leave it on, it's really up to what the computer does when idle.

 

If it just sits there eating power, shut it down or send it to sleep/hibernate.

If you have it do things while idle like I do, leave it on.

[Misanthrope]

12 hours ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Technically speaking leaving it on causes less wear. Ideally it'd put less wear on the HDD (less spinning up from a dead stop), and less wear on everything else from the slight power surge of turning on. That and less thermal wear and tear (expanding and contracting all the time).

^This pretty much.

 

To clarify the difference should be fairly tiny and on some systems fairly irrelevant: Most of my GPUs had issues with the thermal paste way before they had issues with the fans (We're talking way past their useful lifetime, 6 or 7 years) and the same goes for case and CPU fans. 

 

So I usually do not turn off (but also because I have the bad habit of sleeping with youtube or music on) and I have never seen it impact my systems health any more than regular time wear and tear: usually fan bearings failing is the most common issue by far and constant on doesn't seems to affect much is mostly dust and lubricants inside the bearings getting gunked up over time.

[Zandvliet]

Linus actually did a video on this about 2 years ago:

 

Personally I only shut it down when I go to bed.

 

Cheers

[BuckGup]

I haven't shut mine down in months. It idles low enough and all my fans are pwm so I don't even notice.

[MEC-777]

My PC is mining when not in use, so it stays on. However, when or if it's not mining I shut it off when not in use. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Thermal expansion due to playing games and quitting them is a lot worse on wear than turning the computer off after it's been idling for say half an hour.

 

I put my computers to sleep if I'm not using them. There's no point in keeping them on if they're not doing anything. And any amount of life I may gain from avoiding excessive thermal cycling I feel is a moot point.

 

Besides, leaving them on all the time may introduce another failure case to happen earlier: electromigration.

[WMGroomAK]

My main system turns off the monitor after about 30 minutes and then goes to sleep after about an hour or so... As for the server, I let that run 24/7 so I can access the videos and other stuff off of it remotely.  

[GreenZombie]

My computer is on 24/7. Then when the computer "breaks down" is of course the time to buy new parts / a whole computer. This will at least come from a regularly updated computer.