Legit Reviews

does it matter whether you leave your computer on all the time
would it reduce the lifetime of your machine more than if you turn it on every morning and off at night

i've left my computer on day/night for the past 8 years and its still chuggin.. (dell pentium 3, worth $2500 at the time.. dont know whether this matters much though)

however, im thinking that a more recent computers might be different.. they have higher temps and are much more powerful
im getting a new comp in december, so this is somewhat impt

If your cooling is adequate, then it shouldn't be a problem.

I would have thought that computer wear and tear was caused mostly by the components heating up and cooling down expanding and contracting etc from being turned on and off.

There is someone on these forums that says "when does a lightbulb blow? when you turn it on" so leaving it on is less likely to wear it out any quicker. The only other side is that you might see an increase in electric use with the new computer,

Dan

If you leave your machine on 24/7, you might have a faster rate of dust build-up inside. But if you routinely clean it out, it won't really affect anything.

I usually turn my main computer on and off twice a day, once in the morning and another in the evening and I have had no problems. I have a 4 year old PC powered by an Intel PERLK motherboard which I have been turning on and off with no problems. Newer motherboards (including the PERLK) actually maintain some current so they could easily be programmed to turn on by a WOL signal unlike, say, a light bulb which goes from 0 to 120 volts at the flick of a switch.

With Vista on a newer motherboard, using the new hybrid sleep mode is even better. It's almost like leaving the PC on as the wake up time is almost instantaneous. This new hybrid sleep means less reboots for me.

One reason I turn the PCs off (or in the case of Vista, put them to hybrid sleep) is because of the higher idling power requirements of modern video cards. I would not want an 8800 GTX or HD 2900 powered PC on 24/7.

System Up Time: 26 Days, 2 Hours, 37 Minutes, 59 Seconds

I shut my computers down roughly once a month to clean the insides and do any system upgrades that are necessary.

I used to run my computers 24/7, but in the last year or so, I have begun shutting them down while I sleep to conserve energy. I think its more of a personal preference than anything else. Like was mentioned before, just keep them clean.

my HTPC is on 24/7 365... my office and gaming PC's are on nearly 24/7

My PC's at work are never off except for update reboots (once a month) and power outages. So 24/7 for about 3 years now for my current hardware.

Now My home PCs I shutdown nightly to save power, and with the tiny cases I use they tend to clog up quick with dust.

Every computer I have up and running stays on 24/7 even my laptop.

I usually let windows update reboot the machine when needed, so I am even to lazy to do that manually anymore

Mike

alright, so it appears it is more of a personal opinion.. the problems with turning it off is hot/cold destruction, and problems with leaving it on is dust accumulation. some mentioned the electricity bill.. is it actually that much of a deal? electricity is so cheap lol
sleep mode is pretty much the same as turning it off since it still cools down the parts, so I guess i'll leave it on 24/7

alright thx for the help ^^

one more thing.. i havent cleaned out my comp in about 5 years, but id assume newer comps are much different since they need much more cooling.. so you suggest cleaning my comp out about once a month?

You haven't cleaned your computer in 5 years? If that is true, then you don't even deserve to own a computer. You could be brought up on charges of neglect or abuse.

Seriously though, once a month is good.

Once a month is more than enough unless you have alot of dust in your environment (or cats). you might want to stand back when you open the case this time though, something might have mutated in there after 5 years....

Darkstar wrote:Once a month is more than enough unless you have alot of dust in your environment (or cats). you might want to stand back when you open the case this time though, something might have mutated in there after 5 years....

Stand back... with a tranquilizer gun. Something might WALK out of there after 5 years. ;)

WOW LOL !!5years...damn thats long i remember my celeron havnt opened it for 4 years and i found 4dead spiders in it and possibly something that i cant tell lol...but my celeron the dust isnt that bad prolly 3mm thick of dust and thats it barely any ventellation holes cept the bac lol which fits a 80mm fan run by a molex cable

I opened a computer from a personal care home (They take care of like 8 elderly) a while back, they were complaining of strange noises from the machine, the seal on the back of the puter was dated Jan 2001 and had never been opened. They had been running it continuously for over 6 years (barring power outages). It was still chugging fine except for the mouse nest with 5 baby mice in it (IE the strange noises), it didn't have dust bunnies, it had dust dragons.

They adopted the mice, I declined payment on the condition they spent the money on the day room. (Yet another moment of weakness lol)

My rig stays on 24/7 and dust ain't a big deal since I use air filters and check for dust evey 2 weeks.

Leaving your computer on 24/7 rather than turning it on and off in the morning and night is less wear on a HD but even when a HD dies it proabably time for a new one anyways.

In the past I used to leave my computers on 24/7, or close to it. The cost of the electricity wasn't a factor, and I believed this would be less stressful on the components. In fact this might be true, but I don't keep most components (or systems for that matter) more than maybe 2.5-3 years. The one thing I do know for sure is that "heat" kills electronic components. So if your case is properly ventilated, and you keep it clean, then leaving it on shouldn't shorten the lifespan of the components.

Personally, I'm finding it necessary to be as frugal as I can be. Now I have 2 computers atm, on runs Vista and the other runs XP MCE 2005. I want to upgrade the XP system to use a low power processor so I can leave it on. And I've started using Vista's hybrid sleep mode, because I hate the time it takes to be really usable when I start it up from a shut down. Still running both will use a surprising amount of electricity. I'll see how it works out.

My laptop and desktop have no issues with 24/7 running. To be honest, most "stock" computers (Dell etc) are probably not designed with that in mind (i.e. my uncle had to reboot his Dell once a week because it got horribly slow) but my Dell laptop hasn't had a problem yet...

Just make sure the intakes are clear and cooling is good.

I turn mine off at night while I'm sleeping.

Temps definitely won't be a problem, the PC will be idle, after all (unless it runs maintenance or virus scans after being idle for a period of time), just keep the fan cleared out. Only thing you may want to consider is lowering the price of your electric bill and the environment, other than that, keep it runnin as long as you want.