Leave PC on or not?
 

OK, a quick poll...

Do you leave your PC on all the time or do you turn it off at night or when you're not using it?

And why?

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I never turn it off.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

What with the electricity meter I've got here, mine HAS to stay off when I don't need it!

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I would like to leave it onovernight downloading and suchlike, but I'm not allowed and I'm sure it would lead to a shorter lifespan for the pc.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Oh, I leave mine on, so overnight I can run maintenance tasks etc, and I can share files over the lan :cool: and other people can use it.

Unless I'm not going to be around for a few days, or I'm fiddling with its insides...

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I turn mine off if not in use.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

mines always on less heating up cooling down which stresses parts more for one, plus its used alot during early hours for chatting and work :)

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I always leave mine on, heard somewhere it was better to

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I have a fileserver which is on all the time - the rest I only have on when I need them.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I tend to leave it on during the day when I am in as I'm nearly always on it so it saves having to wait for it to start up every time. I switch it off when I am out or at night though unless I am downloading something. Since I've left Uni and started working it's been off most days instead of the 16+ hours it used to be on and I have noticed that the electricity bill is significantly reduced.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Mine is on 24/7, no reason really other than its meant to be better for them rather than heating up and cooling down all the time.....

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Mine is on most of the day, but switched off at night.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I leave mine on most of the time only switching off if I am not at home for more than a couple of days.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

8 out of 10 times I leave it on - Usually cos it's monitoring something on the net such as a domain name expiry or downloading.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I always turn it off overnight and sometimes during the day when not using it. This is possibly due to my rampant paranoia.

PS And in the named of the blessÃÃâ€*’¨d Rod Hull, what is Emu in Other/abstain/Emu?

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I used to leave a few of my computers up 24/7 downloading, running SETI etc.
I even got an uptime of about 3 months with one box.
Until...I saw this:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...eadid=17262841 :eek:

Not really worth losing my flat, computers and thousands worth of stuff for the sake of getting downloads a bit quicker, now I just leave them on when I'm there.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Always leave mine on, because I want to do the best in CPDN :)

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I voted 'other'

I usually shut down at night - although when 'night' comes, can be variable ;)

During the week I start up to check mail & BBC news in the morning, then shut down when I go to work - and start back up, when I get home.

At weekends if I start up during the day, I will usually leave it going, even if I go down town, or anything - but that is more laziness, than anything else ;)

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I think that's more a testimony to the dangers of overclocking and obsessive PC tinkering than it is to the dangers of leaving a PC on :) Nasty though :shocked:

Mine stays on 24/7. I turn the monitor off when I go out or to bed - saves energy.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Something random from another forum, supposed to be light humour :D

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Looks like a possible short on the usb. I have seen a pc do this when a customer tryed to link 2 pc's with an a to a cable direct...

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Actually, constantly switching it off/on will shorten it's lifespan, it will live much longer if left on.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I think someone worked out in another thread that it costs about £50 per year to keep your computer running everynight. Quite a lot when you think about it, plus, I don't see any reason to keep it on overnight for me.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

But how much of an issue is that considering it is considered antiquated after three years?

Like all other electrical equipment (barring the fridge/freezer/alarm clock), I switch mine off when I leave the house (for more than half an hour), or go to bed.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I keep mine on 24/7 but switch off the monitor and speakers when I go to bed. The screen saver kicks in after 10 minutes when I'm not in or at the PC.

I leave it on 24/7 because I have a webserver running on it and also can't be bothered with the process of switching on and off as it takes too 'effing long (god 4/5 minutes from switching on to getting to the desktop) :erm:

Those pictures on the other forum are truly shocking! :shocked:

Makes me a little bit worried now of leaving anything on ...

Anyone good with electronics and the like know what could have happened with it? Also, was it overclocked? :confused:

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

emule machine on 24/7 sharing

main pc on when i need and off when i sleep

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Only left on if downloading something, otherwise it goes off. If I left it on permanently 24/7, then none of my neighbours would get any sleep cause of the fans I have which sound like a 747 flying overhead :eek:

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

The fileserver is left on 24/7, thats a Celeron 333 which is passivly cooled (well the fan from the transformer is the only one in the machine, so it runs silently. The AMD2400 is left on most nights but turned off in hot weather or if I remember. The laptop hibernates when I shut the lid. Router and Printers on 24/7 (printers hibernate), CRT screen powersaves after 20 mins.
Room still gets hot though.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Mine gets switched off whenever it's not in use, I've always switched my PC's off when not in use.

It's only left on all night/day on the very few times I'm trying to download something. Altho last time I did we had a power cut while I was at work, blummin typical!!

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

On 24/7 unless someone is using the sofabed downstairs at which point the helicopter turbines keep them awake ;) Must buy some nice big, quiet case fans sometime this year lol

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Always off if not in use, the 2 fires we have had in offices at work in the last 10 years have both been PC's that caught fire, 1 being a monitor the other a laptop docking station.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Did you know that monitors tend to catch fire most often at the time they are switched on. The magnetic fields in the coils can keep dust and rubbish away, but when its switched off this all settles and can cause problems.

I used to work for a company that had monitors on the factory floor and they used to get full of cast iron dust. If you switched them off they would always go bang when you switched them on again. We had a power cut once and 100's of the things when bang when the power came back on.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

I tend to leave mine on all the time. I have a good firewall, good virus protection and know exactly what data goes out and comes in while I am not using my pc.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

It's sort-of off when not in use, but Mac OSX has a very effective sleep mode, so I can crank it up again in about 5 seconds.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

It is very good, though the pulsing on/off light is really annoying if you are trying to sleep in the same room.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Since my PC is in my bedroom I only ever leave it on overnight if I'm downloading a large file.

Pretty hard to sleep since it's quite noisy. Might have to invest in liquid cooling kit in the near future.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

lol, the ghostly blue light in the bass box of my Harmon Kardon sound sticks annoys our family and friends even more (it's all in the spare room). :D
We stayed in our own spare room while we decorated ours, I just propped a CD case in front of the pulsing Mac light.

Re: Leave PC on or not?
 

Threw a spare pillow over it, unplugged the AirportExpress and pressed the standby button on the SACM when I stayed at my Mother In Laws.