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Thread ID: 116775 2011-03-19 18:10:00 Ok Seriously how harmful is it to leave your PC mark1978 (13845) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1187551 2011-03-21 01:09:00 The only thing I almost never turn off is my cellphone. pctek (84)
1187552 2011-03-21 01:25:00 higher current is a bit irrelevant if the circuitry is well designed & made.
& cooled

you have the choice of
allways on
heat stress - this may cause some parts to fail prematurely: caps are a good eg
wear & tear - ie bearings in fans & HD's getting noisey & failing

or
turned off each day
constant expansion/contraction from off/on causing failures. eg solder joints ?
daily spinup on start causing failures HD & fan motors
1101 (13337)
1187553 2011-03-21 01:32:00 It doesn't matter if it's well made, the point is that the initial surge is higher and has more potential to cause failure.

What you say may be true for older devices, where things were built tough to last, nowadays things are built to work long enough to become obsolete, often not even that long.

As for capacitors, doesn't help that all the cheap electrolytic ones in most devices are useless, like the lovely Fuhjyyu junk in the horrible Hyena PSUs.
Agent_24 (57)
1187554 2011-03-21 01:44:00 The main reason I don't turn my machine off is I run BOINC software 24/7 and am donating CPU time to grid computing.

It's not because I know or care about the risks or otherwise to my hardware.

And I can afford to pay the power bills.
Snorkbox (15764)
1187555 2011-03-21 01:50:00 SAME!! But... uhmm the reason I asked this question is that my PC makes a HELL of a noise when it first starts up in the morning! Especially when its cold in the house... It was fine over summer..

This is the worst time for PC's.....boot up!....Just let the PC go to sleep after an hour idle....honestly, it might use 50w an hour max!
SolMiester (139)
1187556 2011-03-21 02:12:00 I once had a computer (with the same components in it) for 8 years.
I turned it off at least once a day, sometimes more. After 8 years I sold it - it never had any hardware problems.

Choise is on or off, whatever you feel like.
pctek (84)
1187557 2011-03-21 02:53:00 I put my computer to sleep at night before I go to bed. I do have it set up to do tasks in the early hours, things like backup, defrag, record late night TV, windows update, etc. I Quite often find in the morning that it has been woken to do these tasks. Bobh (5192)
1187558 2011-03-21 03:09:00 I have my server set to turn off by itself, usually sometime around midnight. Depending on the day it will wake itself up again in the wee hours, do some stuff, and then go back to sleep. It then turns itself on at 6.30 before I get up so all my emails etc are arriving for when I wake up.

My main desktop pc only ever gets put into sleep mode, either when Ive finished using it or last thing before I go to bed.

My laptops are always put to sleep after using them
Barnabas (4562)
1187559 2011-03-21 03:17:00 You'll drain the battery less if you shut them down properly. Agent_24 (57)
1187560 2011-03-21 03:44:00 I know, I just prefer the faster startup time. Barnabas (4562)
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