Should computers be left on or turned off?

[walpurgis]

I know people who never turn their computer off and I've worked for companies where the same happens. I always turn mine off each day, but which is best? (I'm aware that there is similar ongoing debate about Hi-Fi systems being on or off, on AOS at present)

[synsei]

I turn mine off especially in weather like todays as it can be a bit of a space heater... :lol:

[DSJR]

I've seen standard PC's used as 24/7 servers, and as long as they're cleaned out (when switched off) every few months and kept defragmented etc., they seem to last a good while - a few years can be an eternety in computer terms, depending how hot they get in use and so on.

My PC's have been tried just hibernating, or in and out of standby, and I don't find they stay stable for more than a few cycles - maybe user malfunction here though :lol:

Since our energy bills are so important right now, my advice is to properly switch off regularly and maybe hibernate when not in use for a good few hours...

[Reid Malenfant]

Switch it off :) The only time I haven't with my laptop is when I had a problem with booting, before I changed the HDD & re-installed the operating system :scratch:

Still fine & it must be six years old now :eyebrows:

Though it does appear to have delevoped an intermittent fault giving nasty pops & crackles when streaming audio from the net :rolleyes:

So employ lappy No2 for Album Club innit :D

[Puffin]

I leave my laptop on all the time, just close the lid to "hibernate" it.

[NRG]

Standalone PCs I turn off, laptops I hibernate as above....My MacBook Air never gets turned off :eyebrows:

[walpurgis]

Strange isn't it, neither option seems to provoke really negative views, apart from the power consumption business,

Just a thought, if you're streaming audio, does a warm up help the sound?

[NRG]

PC warm up for streaming? No. Do you warm your PC up before accessing the Internet or printing a document or saving a file to disk?

[DSJR]

Only if you're taking an analogue, rather than a digital output. maybe it's best for the whole boot cycle to pass before doing any streaming and on some older Windows XP systems, I think it can take several minutes to fully boot unless I'm very much mistaken..

[walpurgis]

My XP Acer L100 mini desktop boots in about 30 seconds, but I do keep it free of clutter and unnecessary applications starting up. (I'll correct that. Just timed it: 48 seconds!)

Why should a warm-up not apply to digital? My CD transports and DACs sound better after warming up (yes I know there are analogue stages in a DAC). Surely there are factors that can influence this. After all if nothing influences digital, why do digital interconnects sound so different? (and they definitely do)

[StanleyB]

Yeah, but no matter how much you warm up your laptop, you won't get a better result from it. Quite the opposite. They tend to slow down when hot.

[Alex_UK]

My music server and our laptops are never turned off - maybe go into standby if we're out for the day - usually only rebooted if there's a problem with something or a Windows update. Not really noticed any issues.

[Beechwoods]

Unix machines tend to get on with housekeeping and maintenance in the middle of the night, so Mac machines (built on Unix) tend to work best when left on all the time. My MacMini is still as sprightly as the day it was bought and it's been restarted maybe 5 or 6 times in the couple few years. For major OS updates really.

[Mike]

I only switch my PC on when I want to use it. I have one of those plug in things that tells me how much money/KWh/CO2 it's all costing me. My PC uses 5p per hour, add it all up and it comes to £436.80/year if left on 24/7!

Mind you... it does have a pretty hefty PSU! ;)

[slate]

My music server hibernates when it is not being used.

My private laptop is often left running for the weekends. But since it is fast to boot it is normally turned of when not in use.

My stationary is only on when in use; playing a game, ripping/tagging new CDs, programming, ...
It use to much power leaving it running; in idle 85 watt... eventhough I did bring Down the idle from 140 watt when I bought a new and more powerfull graphics Card.

BTW Windows 8 is per default hibernating when you shut it down.

[Joe]

I leave my computers switched off the whole time.

[walpurgis]

How did you manage to make this post then Joe?

[Beechwoods]

Telegram. We have a proxy service that converts Telegram's to forum posts, but not many people use it these days.

[WAD62]

All my windows machines, laptops & PCs are powered off when not in use, windows is notorious for degradation of performance over time, and a scheduled reboot always helps them keep up to speed.

My music server is a QNAP TS-119 (linux kernel), running 'SqueezeCenter', and is 12W on, 5W sleeping, and has a rather nice 'Power Schedule' capability, so each night between 4am an 6am it has a scheduled shut down and re-boot. This also keeps things nice and responsive, unfortunately this sort of functionality is not available on a standard windows platform.

Mind you this can be a little confusing when I have a late night out, as this Saturday (DJ Derk in Leamington), and after a few beers one forgets that there's a reason why my SB's won't work...it's after 4am you idiot, turn the server on!!! :doh:

If I disable the the daily recycle, after a few days SqueezeCenter becomes a little less responsive, and I can see it utilising more CPU and RAM, so the re-boot cures any sloppyness in the SB app. ;)

[MikeMusic]

I know people who never turn their computer off and I've worked for companies where the same happens. I always turn mine off each day, but which is best? (I'm aware that there is similar ongoing debate about Hi-Fi systems being on or off, on AOS at present)
Ii I leave my work pc on for around a week it slows down to a crawl.
Likely the software I use
I have some weird problems which have pushed me into buying another pc.
This one will get wiped and reformatted so I'll have 2 to choose from
Might try leaving one of them on and see what happens.
Home pc I use and turn off as I only use it for about half an hour a day

[Gmanuk101]

it makes no difference other than awaiting for whichever operating system of choice you are running to boot up or not.

if you leave it on, it sucks power (even in minimal power mode), however what the CPU will do is perform a question to all of the resource threads running...kinda like "are you ready yet, are you ready yet are you ready yet" constantly.

if you leave it off, saves power, that's about it.

I turn mine off after use, what's the point in leaving it on when not using it (I see not using it as having the computer no performing a task that I wish, automated or not), it's not logical to leave it on really.

[Tim]

I switch everything off (at the wall too) when not in use. You would be surprised how much power some PSU's use, even when the PC is switched off.

The trade off is that PC's statistically suffer most hardware failures at power up, leaving them on 24/7 is often the best for the components, but not for the electric bill! Also, buying an efficient and rock steady PSU is one of the best things you can do for a PC. The number of issues some people get by using a cheap PSU is not worth the money you save, for the hassle they can cause and a PSU failure can take other hardware with it and corrupt an operating system as well.

[AlexM]

Sadly, Any schip with a reasonable level of power dissipation doesn't live for ever. I have had several graphics cards fail due to BGA packaging failure. More run time = higher probability of failure.

The power savings are significant if you can use wake on lan or something similar to wake up a box when it is needed. My Nas server draws about 80w peak, but it does have five drives and these will spin down after 20 minutes. The server is scheduled to shut down overnight automatically.