Do you turn your computer off at night?

[Paul]

Hi,

I am running a poll to see the % of people that leave there computer on over night.

This is either valid to your personal computer or your work computer.

[Dean]

No. Torrents/Encoding TV for my iPod

[kjavia795]

i havent shut down my desktop for 2 months.... startup is too slow and i just need immediate access to the comp when i need it.... so shutting it down makes no sense :) i only turn the monitor off

[utcrazy]

Never, hardly ever restart.

[notnamed]

I turn my desktop off when I leave for extended periods of time that I won't be using it (24 hours or more), but I don't turn off my home server.

[Ben]

Negative shauté.

My laptop and server are both on 24/7. I haven't shut down my server in over a month, and even then it was because of a thunderstorm (good thing, too, the power cut out).

[stuffradio]

Turning the computer on and off all the time is bad. Hence I don't do it.

[Wojtek]

Always on here. Just turn off the screen.
I'd use the sleep mode but for some reason it doesn't work :p

[Johnson]

You should never ever shut down your computer if you want to prolong its life.

[Cam.]

I turn mine on and off all the time. It's probably because the electricity over here costs so much :p

[sep]

I only turn it off when I have hangovers after a big night and the fan noise is making it worse.

[Jan]

I leave mine on all the time.

[krakjoe]

never turn the laptop off, sometimes I'll pull the power out before I go upstairs so the battery flattens itself, but never the power button ...

[themoose]

This is pretty shocking..

I always turn mine off at night, unless I'm downloading a slow torrent or something similar.

Computers use serious power people... it's an easy way to save energy.

[Keagle]

I always turn mine off, if I'm not going to use it again in the next hour or so. Overnight, yup, it's off. Unless I was doing a big download, though that's rare.

[iBrightDev]

Turning the computer on and off all the time is bad. Hence I don't do it.

exactly why i dont turn mine off. i am on it so much that it would be shut down numerous times a day, so, i just leave it on and reboot here and there to help free system resources. i do however turn it off if i leave for a day or more. then i have my laptop. :D

and computers dont use that much electricity where it will make much of a difference in my bills. shoot, i leave fans on 24/7 too. lol

[themoose]

How is it bad? Who said?

And MCT, it's not just about $, it's about contributing to global warming.

Imagine how much would be reduced if everybody turned their computers off overnight (servers ommited of course :p)

[Bruce]

I leave mine on... restart it every few months.

[krakjoe]

This is pretty shocking..

I always turn mine off at night, unless I'm downloading a slow torrent or something similar.

Computers use serious power people... it's an easy way to save energy.

booting a computer in some environments will cause it to use more power in that 30-120 seconds than leaving it on for 6-8 hours idle ... computers use energy very efficiently ..

[Dan]

Hmmm. I do turn mine off every night. But reading some of your posts I am thinking of not turning it off.
If you could explain why it is bad to switch it off then I may be more determined to leave it running and just switch the monitor off.

Come to think of it, the last PC I had used to be left on and it seemed to run faster. :D

[iBrightDev]

@Colin

It used to be where when you start your computer, the hardware goes through a little more mechanical effort than usual. The theory was that this extra wear was bad for the equipment. But hardware is more durable now, and this isn't really an issue, so, i guess i still leave mine on from old habits.

I do however hibernate the system often since i dont like leaving it on, but, it doesnt take as long to boot up, and it is different than sleep mode. sleep mode still uses energy, and hibernate actually shuts the system down and turns it off but saves where you were when you shut down, and reboots very fast.

as for global warming, i had no idea that it effected that. so, i will try to hibernate more often than i do already.

[[JSH]John]

I used to leave all my PCs and home server on 24/7, but since I'm moving home I only leave this PC on during the day and shut it down before going to bed. :) I'll probably leave it on 24/7 once I've moved and have them in their own room. :P

[krakjoe]

...the hardware goes through a little more mechanical effort than usual...

actually, power will surge at full flow to every chip and component on the pcb, everyone has probably noticed their fan working hard when a computer first boots, it actually works about 20 times harder than idle ( using a current 20x the power of idle ), most graphic adapters put themselves through some pretty strenuos, if you have a liquid cooled environment that'll suck up the power for a few seconds too, if you're in a physically cold environment; the computer will have to bring the chip up to working temperature before booting fully, during boot, every single piece of hardware on the computer has more or less every function tested, that's 1000's of connected circuits that are not live while the computer is idling, it doesn't make sense to turn a computer off if you plan to use it anytime in the next day ....

[Dan]

Good point Joe.
Yeah I think I will resort to just switching the screen off at night.
But in saying that, you would want to make sure you have your Antivirus up to date and in perfect working order eh? lol

[[JSH]John]

If you're behind a router (as most people are these days) or have your firewall setup properly, you don't really need to worry about your Antivirus, just worry about that while you're on your PC. :)

[themoose]

Well, seeing as I don't turn it back on till I get back from school, leaving it off for ~16 hours I believe is more efficient.

[[JSH]John]

yea thats true :) i dont use mine as much now so its off most of the day.

[Dan]

I use mine from when I wake until I am ready to sleep.

[Darknight]

Iv always left PC's on untill they blow up. lol
Had one go the other day stank like hell the Power Supply went.. computers use power very well in our days.. You wouldnt save much by turing it off.. Its no worse for your computer to be left on.. Mabye the powersupply might blow up quicker but the hardware wont...
And at cloins global warming crap.. It has nothing to do with if we leave our computers on or not.. We dont create much green house gas compared to the companys making millions a year. people seem to forget this, all the blame has been put on to homes and not busniess's.
Im not saving 2c of enegy a day to live unconfortable, Not untill the companys in this world start saving 1000$/day to work unconfortable.

[iBrightDev]

you have a point there.

[themoose]

Sure, one computer off doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of global warming, but if we all turned it off then it would mean a lot.

It's taking little steps like these (like closing your curtains at night to save heat, recycling etc) that all contribute towards the effort.

[iBrightDev]

i hate curtains open anyways. my wife open during the day, and i go behind her and close them. :P at least she lets me keep the shut at night. i just dont like the idea of people looking in my place and seeing what i have.

[themoose]

Well yeah, but you're sorta missing the point :p.

[iBrightDev]

even so, at least they are close at night. :P

[Robert]

Nope, I leave my computer on. When I go away on vacation, I shut it down, and then use WOL to turn it back on if I need to, and then shut it down.

I leave it on mainly because I have my data backed up every night from 2AM-4AM.

[Host Factory]

if it was up to me it would be on all the time, but my dad turns it off "saves money"

[Snat]

I leave my laptop on all the time but I tend to close down things like MSN

[Darknight]

I too hate mine being open.. I never used to open any of them
My GF used to hate it

[Dean]

I think my iMac uses the same, if not less amount of energy than laptops too!

[Decker]

Desktop systems never unless I'm leaving them for some time and laptops unplug the PSU and leave them on a long hibernate setting to cycle the batteries.

[Kwek]

I turn it off whenever I'm not using it for extended periods of time... mainly to save electricity.

[Tatzel]

I do. Used not to and let it run torrents and folding@home, but right now and for the next months the thing is like 2 meters away from my head when I sleep, so I more or less have to shut it off.

Not because of noise but because of assorted useless blinky lights all over the case (power on/off, HD activity, power on check, ethernet port...).

[selmore]

No, i don't turn off mine (I might be the cause of all global warming, lol).

[DavidsAwesome]

I have an AMD system, it can run 24/7 with no problems. Thank god im not running Intel.

jk... It is AMD, but I really have no preference.

[[DWH]Yuxuan]

Hm.. Leaving it on for long periods of time is seriously not good for the computer. I used to leave it on, my computer became progressively slower, now I turn it off every night, it's running much smoother.

[Schmarvin]

Neg, runs more smoothly under overnight usage. Dunno why, but I'll be replacing most of the hardware on it soon, needs to be upgraded.

I may get a small server soon, or build one, and that'll definitely be on 24/7. xD

[Stanley08]

its a fact that i leave my 2 home rack servers on 24/7 and never seem to turn my desktop of neather , because then i have quick access

[Nug]

I by mistake voted no, I meant yes..

[J J]

I leave mine on all the time :D

[playmate]

I don't turn off my home server

[Matt8]

I have had my computer off once in the last few months. I do not like turning it off, I like all the pretty lights in my room at night. Like little virtual stars.

[serverorigin]

I have always went by the fact that every day on/off is actually much more wear on the chipsets and the processor. Keeping the box at a constant temperature usually prolongs the life. You may replace a fan quicker but otherwise, the overall health of the machine is better.

As Joe pointed out as well... I have a little different configuration as I don't really have desktops -- I have 3 racked servers which I use terminal services for desktops to a couple dumb terminals in the house. If I were to power down and bring those back up everyday -- besides the roar of what sounds like LearJet engines spooling, the amount of power being used during the boot up phase from the 6 fans is incredible..The power savings during idle times definitely outweigh the stop/start. That doesn't even consider the heat being put out during those times, if those are under a load you could cook an egg on the DL580 power supplies. During idle, I can actually just use the rack for cooling and the temperature in the house never changes. Whether it would be more efficient cooling the house with them off and turning them back on....I'm not really sure.

My laptop I turn off just because it stays on the go with me all the time...