Until I came across this article, I thoroughly believed turning our PCs on and off wears it out - but it is not anymore. :huh:

Turning your PC off uses more energy than leaving it on. Not true. The small surge of power you use when turning it on ? which varies per PC make and model ? is still much smaller than the amount you use in keeping it on for lengthy periods.

Turning your PC on and off wears it out. Five or more years ago, there was something to this, but not today, say Hershberg and others. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. Today's PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that's a number you likely won't reach during the computer's five-to-seven-year life span.

Screen savers save energy. Not true. Screen savers, at a minimum, can use 42 watts; those with 3D graphics can use as much as 114.5 watts, according to Don McCall, a Dell product marketing manager who does power measurement studies for the PC manufacturer. "It's absolutely wrong thinking that a screen saver will save energy," he says.

Your computer uses zero energy when "off." That's true only if it is unplugged. Otherwise, the PC utilizes "flea power," or about 2.3 watts, to maintain local-area network connectivity, among other things, McCall says. In "hibernate" mode, your PC uses the same 2.3 watts; in "sleep" mode, your PC uses about 3.1 watts. Monitors do use zero energy when turned off.

http://www.bcentral.com/articles/enbysk/158.asp


P.S: But I won't start using the PC like a TV after reading this. The longer I keep the PC up, the more I feel my OS is stable. And is "cool".  B)

2 Users already said Thank You!

TheMysterio, Geoff,

I keep mine running most of the time.  I am more concerned about the affects of the expansion and contraction of the hardware components if turning on and off too much.  I shut it off if I'm not going to be using it for a day or more.  ...griz   ;)

The only time i ever turn mine off is when i replace hardware. My moto is "If you turn it off it may never start again!"

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (griz @ Aug 11 2003, 07:36 AM)
I keep mine running most of the time.* I am more concerned about the affects of the expansion and contraction of the hardware components if turning on and off too much.* I shut it off if I'm not going to be using it for a day or more.* ...griz** ;) <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
same here

I shut mine off everyday, because it's in my room, and it's really loud!!!

I shut mine off every night and if I am not going&nbsp; to use it for more than 6 hours or so.&nbsp; It is too loud to keep on with al my case fans.

I usually leave mine running.. not so long ago I woke up one morning and smelt this electrical burn.. come to find out it was the power supply on my server going south. I started to shutdown my computers everyday after i fixed it but now i'm back to normal.. runnin 24/7. I just hope it dont burn up again anytime soon. B)

I try to stay always ON .. but .. prob with my vidz crad theses day's , i cannot stay on...

I shut my computer off at night if I'm not downloading/uploading.

I've heard the #1 part of your computer to go bad is the power supply. I have had one go bad and my APC power supply kicked out the power because the current draw way too high. I'd like to think it saved me from having the problem BC had about a year ago.

@BearCat - Did you have your system connected to APC backup or something like it or rather just plugged in the wall? My power supply failure didn't happen at startup, it happened in the night while I slept while the computer was on.

I found this interesting:

Turning your PC on and off wears it out. Five or more years ago, there was something to this, but not today, say Hershberg and others. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. Today's PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that's a number you likely won't reach during the computer's five-to-seven-year life span.


five-to-seven-year life span don't seem long enough for me. I have a 7 year old HD (10GB Quantum) in my system right now.

I wish Windows would allow me to select different power setting for each of my HD's. I'd like to leave my C: run all the time and my other HD's shut off after 30 minutes.* :angry:

Good thread* B)

KC, find what IDE chip set you are using and check the manufacturers website. Sometimes they provide tools to "Spin Down" the HDD. This increases access times but has been claimed to increase the life of the drive.

Thanks DoG!&nbsp; B)