Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

I leave my PC running most of the week continiously. But after A year i do feel on my bankaccount that I did.

My computer does stay on pretty much 24/7. As long as you have proper cooling and power surge protection you aren't really putting any wear on your equipment. Iv done this for years and never had a computer die because of it.

As to wearing it out turning it on and off:

I read in APC magazine that the computer is made to be turned on & off 44,000 times.

I usually do turn mine off at nite.
Heat is harmful to electronics.

I also have a fan that blows under my stereo receiver.
Keeps it cool, else it gets stinging hot.

Originally posted by mOjOm

Originally posted by OzChris
my god man..your just realising this now??

A lot of people still don't realize they can leave their PC's on all the time. Why, I'm not sure.

EliteXizer, you are correct in your discovery. Computers themselves use very little power at all. Most power usage will actually come from the monitor rather than the PC itself and even that isn't much. The power saving features found in today's computers are very advanced and will not amount to much in terms of an Electricity Bill. Even without using 'standby, suspend, etc.' or even monitor sleep modes, the power usage is minimal compared to any other appliance in your house. The only exception of course would be a laptop which is using battery power only, but that should be obvious to anyone who has used a laptop for a while.

I am afraid you are totally wrong.Leaving a computer on will use electricity of at least 30 watts.

also it is a health and safety risk.

unattended computers are known to cause fires or even explode if the hard drive jams sending shrapnel from the platters.

the psu can overheat and start fire. insects can crawl into and cause short circuits.

the fans can jam and burn causing a fire.

electrolytic capacitors can short circuit and explode causing fires and toxic fumes.

they also give off toxic gas which causes cancer from the computer plastics and formaldhyde/biphenol fumes.

The monitor gives of harmful radiation as well 50 hertz hum em field

Also the EM radiation will cause an increase in carcinogenic tendencies in your body

Also computers cause fatness/stroke due to sedentary lifestyle addictiveness.

I try to leave my computer on 24/7. I am running SETI@home on my linux PC.

Anyone who runs seti 24/7 needs to have a temperature monitor for your cpu..

I remember about 3-4 years ago the first time I ran seti .. it uses 100% of your processor core(s), and it shot my temp up to rediculous temperatures (80*c). If you are running seti, use this program first to see how hot it makes your comp:

www.alcpu.com...

You don't want it past .. lets say... 65-70. This will just cause wear on your cpu and make it die faster if it's always at high temperatures. Also if it's wayyy beyond normal temps (like 80-90*c), you could do serious damage or even fry your chip.
I myself have water cooling (corsair, it only cost $80) and my cpu NEVER goes over 40*c no matter how hard I try.

There are even some programs you can get that will automatically shut down your pc if it becomes too hot (laptops usually have this built-in).

Cheers

Edit: Like somebody else suggested about the monitor burn-in.. yea. If you aren't at your comp, always turn your monitor off. Always. Always always always. You'll get a few more years of life out of it and you wont have an image burnt into it.

What are WU's?
And why would leaving our computers on be beneficial to SETI?

My computer is never turned off, though i have a LED monitor it generates no heat and uses little power, My Computer itself has a massive power supply and eats more than the monitor saves.

I don't donate my CPU time to SETI though. Because I have NO clue what the data really is.. If i could inspect it, I'd be all for it.

I have 21 massive multiprocessor servers of my own in colo that sit idle most of the time. I've always wanted to install something that used their free cycles. But none of them are windos machines.

All LINUX all the time.



-C

24/7 here. i have a high end gaming computer with good cooling system, not liquid as I would like to have, but it is efficient enough.

sorry, but I dont .... it costs too much in electricity. i7 running @ 4.6Ghz and 4xNvidia 480's (all watercooled of course)

I wonder if the OP's computer has been on since 2004.

I would, but I can't even get WU recently. Not using the GPU and in the version I have, I only get requests of WU for GPU 90% of the time (even tho settings are set for NO GPU--it still always requests them, no way to change that so far). Guess my next computer will have to have the upgraded NVIDIA cards--don't even have one now, and mine doesn't fit the bill.

Originally posted by Hellhound604
sorry, but I dont .... it costs too much in electricity. i7 running @ 4.6Ghz and 4xNvidia 480's (all watercooled of course)

Need I even mention when I run SETI@Home, or other projects (Folding@home), etc, my little computer draws about 1100W from the mains!!!!!, rofl ..... but that is what you get if you have a really high-powered system running

Originally posted by Hellhound604

Originally posted by Hellhound604
sorry, but I dont .... it costs too much in electricity. i7 running @ 4.6Ghz and 4xNvidia 480's (all watercooled of course)

Need I even mention when I run SETI@Home, or other projects (Folding@home), etc, my little computer draws about 1100W from the mains!!!!!, rofl ..... but that is what you get if you have a really high-powered system running

Must be nice. That's a huge contribution to the program, though. I've noticed that NTPCkr has been offline the past couple of times I've tried to get units. I like seeing where the candidates are.

The arguments for and against leaving your computer on all the time or not are many and varied - but I tend to turn off my desktop machines for the energy savings alone. It's like leaving a 300-watt bulb burning otherwise - I can't do it.

And no, I've never suffered any ill effects from doing so. Got three desktops that get shut down each night and started up again the next morning. No problems.

I do keep two laptops running all the time, however, both with SETI on them. Power consumption is minimal (as is the processing power), but that's the habit I'm in and I'm sticking with it.

Works for me...

~

Turning off the power-bars before I get my shut-eye
works for me.
Turning off the main power-switch for the house is
heavenly bliss. ,
you people need to stop relying on the grid.

reply to post by EliteXizer


I leave it on but put it on standby when I'm going to be away from it for awhile. I feel like she deserves a break now and again.

Mine gets shut down every night,.
leave it running all the time? why?
waste of electricity
and as for being bad for the computer,. rubbish

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy



.... but I guess you all know that if you shut down your computer every night, you are actually not really switching it off right????? Some power lines remain active, giving voltage to your RAM (that is why you can suspend). The onliest way of actually switching it off is to physically switch off the circuit-breaker on the back of the PC (if your PSU has even one), which is NOT the same as the front-panel power switch, or by unplugging it.....

I turn mine off in the evening, and on in the day when I'm ready to use it.
It is made to turn on and off 144,000 times.....per APC.
And it did last 10 years, and would still be running, but I scavenged it for the power pack and motherboard for my pc with the 180 GB hard drive.