I'm looking for actual help in decidcing whether or not to shut down my computer every night when i'm not using it. are there any benefits in doing so (other than saving energy, lifespan of hardware)
I leave my laptop running all night as it's my main download machine (and with my ISP, I get unlimited off-peak use). I imagine this does mean my hardware will die quicker (HDD's in particular) - I think my HDD is rated @ 30,000 hours, so leaving it on 24/7 will mean it'll die with/in about 3.5 years: not bad imo. The only other thing I can think of is dust build up. Obviously, the longer the PC is in use, the more dust will get sucked inside. Saying that though, if your machine just sits there not doing anything, I can't see the advantage of leaving it turned on other than not having to sit through the start-up routine. If this is the only reason you're doing it, have you thought about using some sort of hibernation option as that greatly reduces the startup time?
I leave my PC on as much as I can, I'm not sure if leaving it on, or turning it off have any adverse effects on hardware, so I leave it on.
I simply put my laptop into hibernation. Only cause it takes so long to start up after being shutdown. So technically I do turn it off. As for my main PC, it stays on 24/7. Only restart it when there is a problem with the network or new hardware/software is installed. I have heard people say that turning a PC on and off causes strain to the PSU. I suppose this would be a problem only if you had many hard drives that sucked a lot of power upon spinning up. I'm not sure about hard drives. I guess the stopping and spinning could possibly cause problems with the head that then rests on the platters when it has stopped and then when it starts up again. But HDDs are designed for that I imagine. I'm not 100% sure (and don't rip me if I'm wrong), Sputnik
Turned off, I have a seperate download machine for leaving on at night if downloading. Just seems a waste of electricity if your not using it to leave it on.
I turn my main one off at night, but if downloading I leave it on. I sleep badly enough as it is without having the noise and distraction next to my bed. Probably going to have a 24/7 server in my room once I get a quiet PSU though.
I turn it off unless I'm downloading something big, which is rare. For some reason i just like turning on my computer and all the programs being 'fresh', stops all the crap that'll eventually accumulate. Don't ask me why I think that...
I tend to turn one of 'em off. Right now neither of them is particularly quiet, they're both above 20dB so together they're pretty annoying at night. One is bearable. Roll on totaly silent everything though. I leave 'em on so downloads can continue, I don't have to open up lots of proggies or connect to specific IRC rooms when I re-open IRC the next day, and so I can have music on.
Mine's on a lot of the time, occasionally it gets left on for longer than I mean to. When turning it off I tend to hibernate rather than do a straight shutdown, as waiting for a machine to start up really gets on my nerves. (despite what people say, Windows is still running fine after three weeks of uptime...)
leave it on... well laptop anyway... as it doesn't draw much power, but then again its a mac, so its not really adversely affected by running constantly... desktops tend to only be on when in use... which lately isn't very often
I just hibernate my laptop (girlfriends), but my main PC i used to forget to turn it off because i got drunk at night. I need it on as its my server. Because i've been forgetting to turn it off though, ive since setup a scheduled task to shut it down for me at night. TBH its a waste of energy and my eardrums if its left on for the sake of it. Regarding killing hardware though by powering up/down too much i doubt that would be in issue. At work PCs are on all day long then power cycled all the time, and we dont get many dead PSUs. The only dead PSU i got at work was because of lightning of all things!
I shut down my laptop as the fan is rattly and all my AV stuff (power amp has two huge fans in and it gets on my tits). Our server handles downloading anyway and that's out in the hall and we just VNC to it to download things on bittorrent so that's not an issue.
I turn them all down as i basicly sleep right next to them. They are not that loud but i like silence.....absolute silence!
Oh and the mac doesn't always get turned off but that's right in the corner so we don't notice it, it's practically silent apart from the hard drive. The GF is a light sleeper so I always make a point of turning the noisy stuff off...
I allways turn my desktop pc/lappy of at night, unless I'm compiling something like OpenOffice That I save for the night (Yes, I compile OpenOffice from source)
