Better to leave pc on continuously?

[Sevenor]

Is it true that it's better to leave the pc on than to have it switched on and off several times a day.

Wouldn't the hard disk drives wear out faster (Assuming I do not enable, in the BIOS, the HDD Power Down feature which shuts down the HDD after a period of inactivity. Or my BIOS does not have such a feature).

 

[diabloII]

it is better, but it doesn't matter at all

also, your hdd has a life of hundreds of millions of hours

and when it's idle it doesn't even work, so i don't think that matters

 

[Him]

You dont have to worry about you hard drive dying due to overuse. Like diable said, milliions of hours those are marked for.

The reason it is said that computers should not be turned on and off is because of heat. When things heat up, they expand. When they cool down, they shrink. Turning a computer on and off all day causes the components to shrink and expand, which will slightly lower the life of them. My computer is left on all day, every day, but that is me. When I used to turn my computer off, it was only once a day. I would turn it on when I wake up, and off right before I go to bed.

 

[Joeisalsocool]

Its a catch-22, and also user preference.
The biggest problem with leaving it on at night is your power bill.
Leaving it on will leave you more vulnerable to viruses, and wear out the bearings in the fans quicker.
Turning it on and off doesn't help because all the parts expand and contract, and will degrade just as much as leaving it on.

They both equally degrade the comptuer itself. I turn mine off at night and put it in standby when not using it.
Completley user preference.

 

[horndude]

Its a catch-22, and also user preference.
The biggest problem with leaving it on at night is your power bill.
Leaving it on will leave you more vulnerable to viruses, and wear out the bearings in the fans quicker.
Turning it on and off doesn't help because all the parts expand and contract, and will degrade just as much as leaving it on.

They both equally degrade the comptuer itself. I turn mine off at night and put it in standby when not using it.
Completley user preference.

Dunno about the viruses mate, since when are these things able to attack on their own?I get about 2 or 3 ftp access attempts per day, and thats about it, they get logged, no big deal, isnt like someone will actually get in without wasting a zero day exploit LOL, and that isnt likely for an end user machine.

 

[Joeisalsocool]

On the contrary horndude, If one has a computer loaded with ad and spy ware running all night, you never know what'll happen.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Leave it on all day if you plan to use it at random times. Turn it off at night if you're not downloading anything. If your PC is a fresh build, leave it on for three straight days or a whole week if you want for burn in process.

 

[Sevenor]

it is better, but it doesn't matter at all

also, your hdd has a life of hundreds of millions of hours

and when it's idle it doesn't even work, so i don't think that matters

Not so sure about hdd lasting hundreds of millions of hours cos my first Maxtor hdd went kaput after only one and half years of light use. And I didn't even drop it. May be it was an isolated case.

One more thing, when it's idle, doesn't it continue to spin? (Unless of course you set it to the HDD Power Down mode I mentioned earlier.)

 

[Simon]

I say on 24/7 is good, reset wen slows down or crashes

 

[waynejkruse10]

i leave my computer on all day usually. A friend of mine told me that the psu wears out quicker when your computer is turned on and off many times but im not sure if thats true. Imagine, servers run 24/7 for years on end, if your components are kept cool, and the fans keeping them cool dont fail, im sure my computer or any of your computers could stand running for months on end.