Desktops, leave them on or off

well they still take a ton of energy .. I leave mine off at night and usually off during the day unless I'm using it or downloading something in the background

 

I leave all my comps on. There are tons of features to help reduce power consumption.

 

The computer security folks where I work say it's good to reboot computers at least every couple days.

 

I turn it off at night. Why leave it on ? Its not the 2 mns that it takes to get windows going that will make a difference..Plus , the computer gets slower if you dont reboot it every now and then..

 

Backups, scheduled maintenance, and a large amount of data you don't want to relocate every morning. Turn on your power save options and do a restart when you leave work. The PC gets both the reboot and allows your IT staff to push software if your environment requires it.

If I'm coming in early and staying late every day, the sonofa***** better be ready to go when I sit down in the chair.

 

There is a 'debate' about whether or not leaving the machines on is good or bad for the machine. The side supporting leaving it on cites the fact that you are damaging the hardware every time you turn it off and let it cool down. Their point is that over many heat cycles, the boards will begin to break down because of expansion/compression issues. They also cite the many cases where programs can be run in the background, such as Stanford's Folding@Home, using just under a certain percentage of the processing power of the computer with virtually no increase in power consumption.

On the other hand, does leaving it on to save heat cycles warrant the extra cost of the electricity that is used to run it? Powersave features have reduced the amount used when idle drastically up to this point, but it still may add up to more over time. Plus there is the problem that anytime the machine is on, it can be attacked. If it isn't on, it can't be used by others for nefarious activities.

I say just do whichever you prefer... although as has been said, just make sure to reboot every couple of days.

 

I turn off at night. Never had a failure of any kind until this week when a 12 year old monitor refused to turn on. I retire computers before they fail.

Why waste the power?

 

I've had mine on for the most part of the 4 or so years I've owned it. I'll shut it down for a couple of days every once in a while just to let it rest, but for the most part it stays on. It also draws very little power when I'm away from it.

 

They should be turned off. Even with power saving features you are wasting electricity. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands computers, printers, fax machines, copiers, et al that are left powered on in this country. Plus the a/c bill for cooling a room full of electronics in offices during the summer.

I think any 'wear' from on/off heat cycles is overstated. Most electrical failures occur within the first few weeks of use. After that they can last for years before a failure, by which time you probably have to upgrade anyways. Not counting mechanical failures for items like HD's, DVD & CD drives. And these drives have become very reliable compared to the earlier days of computing. (Still.....backup, backup, backup!)

 

All of my backup functions and updates are performed in the middle of the night when I am not using my computer. It would be a pain to have the backups and updates done during the day because they take like over an hour.