Leaving PC on 24/7(healthy or not)

[Evil Marge]

Used to, even used to change hardware with it on.

Not anymore, worried about risks of a malfunction and fire or something like that.

 

[Kush]

and so we know why lee has been gone for a while, changed his gfc card without turning it off, and fried his brains, went to the hospital for a few months and now hes back

 

[bikemanAMD]

Well I did leave it on overnight, so far no ill effects at all, I think with my gift card I got for my birthday, I'll buy one game, and some compressed air to clean out the dust, which is on the front intake fan.

Thank you all for the replies

 

[Tittles]

hehehe :lick:

Anyways, yeah TB you are wrong, it is just you and many youngsters with enough cash or generosity that dump old hardware, often the old stuff has proved it can run and run.

As to the topic - I would add that I think thread so far has only touched on desktops and (maybe) racked. For a laptop I would say it is a no no to run 24/7 permanently (although I know some will disagree and it does depend if you fold or load your machine). But for Desktop I come down on the side of 24/7 is good - esp. if you run a client app like folding or seti@home where you see added value. One rider is that you need a machine that is stable with reasonable temps - I left mine on and was away weekend and even learnt something because I got a 3oC drop in CPU temp - which I attribute to the HD contribution withing the case!

Also for any racked system I would DEFINITELY say 24/7 is the designed mode of operation. At the end of the day though, it is user choice - Hardware has moved on (so TB had a point in his usual style he maybe fluffed it up though!)

I havent dumped any of my old hardware. I have either sold it to get better or gave it away. I had a gateway from 95 that ran like a champ but got rid of it cause it wasnt upgradeable and it would take way to long to boot,open any programs, or view a website cause a 56k modem wouldnt work in it. I do plan on keeping my 64bit rig for awhile as a backup once i get a job. I plan i getting a way faster pc .

 

[Mastershakes]

They're machines, they're designed to run.

Couldn't say it better myself. My work PC is silent - and hasn't rebooted since MS had a patch that needed the restart... (second week of Jan?) Home... well it's on all the time, rebooted occasionally when something asks politely to restart so settings take effect.

When sluggish, stop, restart explorer.exe. Works wonders.

As many people in this thread have already intoned, it's down to personal choice.

 

[Son Goku]

It's actually a bit more stressful on the hardware to boot up, then to just run as I remember. The hard drive of course has more loading (as was mentioned) but that initial spin up to get it from 0 rpm to it's full operating speed. I seem to remember, it initially takes a bit more juice from the PSU to boot the thing, then to run it... Worst thing on hard drives, they used to tell people though would be to turn it off, and back on again before it has a chance to fully spin down...

If it's any indication, some of my hardware in here, I got my current system drive in December 2000, and my other hard drive in June 1998, both still running without a prob. Other hardware is newer (except for the floppy drive). My CD changer I got in Oct 1998 or so, and still runs, the CD changer always had problems (cycling CDs when it shouldn't) and has become all but unuseable now... Other stuff is newer because I needed upgrades, not failure. My father told me that the old Voodoo 3 3k I gave to him (he used to have an S3 Virge video decelerator) is not always comming up on a cold boot anymore, but runs otherwise...though he sometimes has to boot it several times... That card would be almost 6 years old now.

Personally, I don't like waiting for it to boot. Going through the BIOS isn't quick on my comp (as I run with SCSI drives), and then there's the OS load. I'm not the world's most patient person...when I want to use it, I want to use it, not watch it boot

I've run 24/7 since 1996 (when I got winNT 4.0), never really did try it with win95/98 (if win95 would have run 24/7 for any length of time :lol: ). I've never run into a problem with it. Starting in 2000, I put SETI on there, and have been running a distributed science program (currently 3 of them through BOINC) ever since.

BTW, it's the monitor that uses most of the power, rather then the comp. If power is a question, one can just turn the monitor off, but leave the comp running, if one so choses. Doing that, my electric bill went down from about $43 a month to $32 a month on just the monitor. It's also a 19" CRT...

 

[VenomXt]

i let my lil p2 server run now for p2p 24/7 and recently made this thing shut down for the 16 hours a day i dont use it. My electric bill droped by about 60 bucks. but it is a 550 watt PSU heeh.

 

[harrisburgdavid]

Don't you realize that it DOES matter if you leave it on? What does the computer run on? Where does that energy come from? The "health" of the PC is not the only part of that choice.

Most of the energy comes from coal burned in power plants cheaply at about 10 cents per 1000 watts. Your computer consumes about 300 watts per hour, so how many hours per day is it idling? Probably about 20, so that would be 6000 wasted watts per day and 2,190,000 per year. That's $219 you could save yourself (or your parents) and since a ton of coal makes 2,460,000 watts, almost a ton of coal that your computer consumes per year, just during the time it's not in use.

Since there are ~100 million households in the US, just think how many tons of coal we could be saving for your children, and their children. Computers are designed to be powered down just like TVs, which contain many similar components. At the cost of $219 a year, it's actually cheaper to allay your fears by buying the extended warranty which costs about $150 for 3 years. Much more, it's the more responsible choice for all humanity. Think about your grandchildren. Will they all be 24/7ing their computers off of nuclear reactors?

Global warming is a reality and polar ice is melting. Just look at all the natural disasters lately. Coincidence? The choice is yours, but now you know the real consequences.

 

[SPeedY_B]

Hate to tell you, but we ruined the earth many decades ago, there's no saving it now.

That aside, being a completely different topic altogether, that's not what the question that was asked.

 

[vivid_vibe]

I agree with SonGoku. The monitor is the power hog (CRTs anyway, don't know about LCDs). I always turn mine off when not in use.

@harrisburgdavid: you forgot your [rant], [/rant] tags.


vivid

 

[LordOfLA]

computers were built to be turned on and left on. If anything is going to fail its mroe likely to do so at power on than at any other time. You have more to worry about from your electricity bill than leaving your pc on 24/7. I mean if it was bad there'd be no internet would there?

 

[Tittles]

I agree with SonGoku. The monitor is the power hog (CRTs anyway, don't know about LCDs). I always turn mine off when not in use.

@harrisburgdavid: you forgot your [rant], [/rant] tags.


vivid

I also turn my off if i am plan on being away for more than 5-10min.

 

[sean.ferguson]

...

Ok, this is going off-topic for a sec, but i will get right back on it after my small rant. harrisburgdavid, i currently have 2 servers running at home, one is a old P3 with a 200W PSU (no monitor) and the second is an AMD XP with a 400W PSU (no monitor). They run 24/7, the AMD has been rebooted a few times and the older P3 has been running for almost 250 days. Now going by your figures, does that mean that i am using 600W per hour, therefore doubling the figure you have shown? Does this mean that i have contributed to the Tsunami disaster because i used electricity, that is provided for me? Running both those servers 24/7 costs approximately £5 (GBP) per week, so surely that isnt that much?

To get on-topic and link to my previous paragraph, the pentium 3 machine is not the newest of machines by far. Its a 800MHz P3, using the older SDRAM. Having it run for almost 250 days with no hardware issues whatsoever, i would have to concur that leaving you computer system on constantly will generally not effect the computer, thus being healthy in answer to your question. However, leaving a LCD/TFT/CRT Monitor running 24/7 will shorten the lifespan of that particular piece of hardware. If you are going to be leaving a computer on i would suggest buying a small UPS, so if you have a power-out, the hardware can be effectivly stopped and the system shutdown. At least that way, any damage that could in theory be done to the system is decreased.

 

[dreamliner77]

I vote for leaving it running... ANd there's a reason why, and I haven't heard this mentioned before.

Heat is the most usual reason for failure. When do cpu's get a nice heat boost? Right after you turn the machine off and the HSF stops spinning.

 

[FishBoy]

do you think it's safe to leave my computer on for a whole week unattended, or would that be like a fire hazard or something, i know it can't be coz if my cpu goes over 75 then the computer shuts off. but next week im going on a trip to montreal and im thinking of leaving my computer running and folding@home the whole time, so do you think it's a good idea or it's better that i turn it off before i leave?

 

[vivid_vibe]

FishBoy, you should be perfectly fine leaving it running. I've left mine powered up unattended for longer than a week. No problems.

vivid

 

[Adamas]

To me it seems is better to leave it on 24/7, (not laptops) a few reason is that everytime you pust any power switch, you get a slight surge in power, although not enough to start frying everything in sight, but in time you might get the classic avalanch effect - starts small & builds. The second reason is your boards heat up when to their optimum temp, then cools when you stwitch off - by continually doing this the solder on the board can break away from the board (Different substances expand & contract at different rates) Again, this is not something that happens quickly. By leaving it on the components heat up to the designed optimum temperature. The last reason that I have come accross is board creap, by the constant temp changes, your PCI/ISA cards tend to creap out of their slots, after a while the card needs to be re-seated. The downside is the power consumption, but a PC on standby uses very little. If I am talking the biggest load of crap, please someone correct me!

By the way, any ideas about my other post.....unable to allocate memory size two, this problem is starting to make me loose it - both mentaly & sociably

 

[FishBoy]

Most of the energy comes from coal burned in power plants cheaply at about 10 cents per 1000 watts. Your computer consumes about 300 watts per hour

actually mine is 550w
well i dont really think where my energy comes from i only know i have it and i use it wisely

 

[Tittles]

The class i am helping in the teacher was looking at this email he got from his boss.

At one time not long ago, there was a strong belief that computer shut-down/restart cycles were harmful to the computer. With recent improvements in hardware and electronics, it is no longer necessary to avoid shutting down. In fact, software is now so sophisticated that it repairs itself during the shut-down/restart process!

Furthermore, recent estimates indicate that the district could save as much as $8050 per month* in electrical costs. Additional cost savings could occur in the labor and time of the technology department, who must resolve problems resulting from computers being left on constantly. Computers that are left on constantly not only waste electricity, they also do not receive critical updates.

With these things in mind the following policy is effective immediately: all staff are expected to shut down all computers at the end of every work day. To clarify, you must be sure to shut down the computer. It is not sufficient to just turn off the monitor.

Please email or call if there are any questions!




* The R-P district owns approximately 1150 computers. “Shutting down and/or unplugging equipment at the end of each day and on weekends can save 70% or more on plug load energy costs. By following this practice with your school’s desktop computers you can save an average of $7.00 per month per machine. There is great energy saving potential...” MSBO Newsletter, January 2005.

 

[damaged_goods]

I am for leaving it on 24/7 as well. A reason not mentioned is the effect heat has on some of your components. Heat makes someof the components in your machine expand while cold makes them contract again. Expanding and contracting, over time, can cause tiny cracks in your equipment and may cause said equipment to stop functioning. My PC has been on for over a year now, except for the odd power failure or upgrade.