Leave running or turn off?

[Scorpion]

Hi, my name is Ashton and i'm new to the forums (as if you didn't guess that) Lol.

Now to my query:

I was wondering whether you guys think it is better to leave your system running 24/7 rather than turning it on and off, in terms of hardware stress?

At the moment I'm about 50/50, i turn my machine off during the week but I leave it up on the weekends. However, I would prefer just to leave it up 24/7 so I don't have to keep opening stuff that I want open all the time (like Firefox, Windows Media Player). Btw, I have a brand new Dell system so thats why I'm a bit concerned as to whether I'm doing the right thing by my system.

Thanks.

 

[Raze664]

Dell...thats a problem whatever you do. Obviously if you turn it off, less stress. But It wont cause that much damage leaving it on..as long as you have good cooling, usually dells don't unless they're XPS.

 

[Scorpion]

Well yeah, it's not an XPS, it's a Dimenson, but meh, it does its job quite well actually.
I just cracked the case open, its feels nice and cool in there. the video card is a little warm, but thats only coz I've been playing BF2. The whole case is cooled by, i think its a 20cm fan at the front of the case.

 

[b1gapl]

As long as it keeps cool, it's ok to leave the computer on 24/7. Why don't you check it's temperature? Use Speedfan or Everest to monitor it.

 

[Scorpion]

Kool, I just used Speedfan to check the temp, here is a screenshot:

The system has been up for a little over 7 hours.

I would have done this earlier however I was unaware that this system has a temp probe that is actually accessible from Windows, I have never actually had a program which has been able to access them before, i've tried motherboard monitor and heaps of other ones, but speedfan is the only one that works - bloody Dell and their drivers.

 

[b1gapl]

Those are actually very good temperatures.

 

[RGELLIS]

Most of mine stay on 24/7 as they are Folding - but for the least hardware stress - leaving them on is the best way as for the least hard drive spin ups, components heating up/cooling down.

 

[Phantom118]

Dell's have come way up with their cooling... my fathers dimension runs cooler then my computer.

 

[b1gapl]

I also heard that hard drives run better when they're warm. So leaving it on 24/7 is no problem, if the electricity bill is not a problem.

 

[joshd]

Dells generally have adequate cooling to keep the CPU stable under load. (remember the CPUs will always be at stock unless you have some models of XPS) My Dell Dimension P4 3GHZ runs at 100% load 24/7 and has no instablility problems, as does my C2D.