Leaving your computer on 24/7

redrabbit29

redrabbit29

redrabbit29

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I've researched this briefly, and found that the opinions are quite varied. Some suggest that leaving the computer in "sleep mode" is OK, but with monitor and "awake" it uses lots of electricity.

Let's say, I have a standard desktop computer, would it cost much to leave that on 24/7. Monitor on, maybe downloading something, or maybe just sitting idle.

Let's say a 700w psu, not serving anyone but it'self, standalone home PC.

Is it going to cost loads per month, or maybe just £1, 2 or £3?
 
not much but more than turning it off, if its totally unused.

Im into my pc stuff but i've never left it on 24/7 i just find it a waste of money + CO2

Someone will blind you with wattage + power draw etc etc but even if its 50p a day why waste that cash ?

/ecofreindly efour
 
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My server at home gets left on, although thats a low powered VM host running on a dell small form factor PC with 8GB RAM, few HDD's, E6750 processor.

I dont expect it will cost more than 12p a day- I cant see it costing more than a few quid a month, unless its seriously high powered kit CPU maxing all the time.

Its not that power hungry, although there are rigs that are power hungry.

I am trying to get Wake on LAN running through ESXi though

As I dont live there I cant really turn it on manually so have to get someone to turn it on, pain if they are out. If WOL works that means I can turn it off during the periods where I know I wont need it for a while.
 
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What is the point leaving it on if it is not in use? It isn't hard to click a couple of times to turn it off.

If it's running something you need to run overnight then fair enough, but I just don't see the point in running a PC which is doing nothing?
 
The only thing in the house I don't leave on 24/7 are the lights and heating. I'm enthusiastically doing my bit to melt the ice caps and bring on the waterworld apocalypse. I saw a documentary on it once and want gills.
 
With SSDs I don't see the point unless it's a server. Very quick boot times negate any need to keep them on all the time.
 
I was going to use an old core2duo based system for a plex media server, accessible 24/7. (no peripherals)

Worked out costs using one of those plug monitors, idle was about £95 a year but when transcoding the power usage doubled so would be a bit more on top.

Decided its not worth the cost at the min and using a low powered revo pc instead as the server and main player (only uses 20w) but may change my mind if I add more players that require transcoding.
 
I tend to leave my PC on through the day if I'm home, and put to to sleep if I'm out/at work/overnight. Rarely ever gets shut down entirely.
 
I'm using an E6750 rig as an esx host, one of the VMs is running Plex.

I don't understand how you get those costs? How much streaming where you doing? I only stream off it probably once maybe twice a day and that's not everyday. Maybe 1-2 times a week if that, even through a stream the CPU doesn't go 100%. Half of the time I'm streaming a film CPU is probably 60-70, the other half its about 10% as it fluctuates.

I wouldn't say its any more power hungry than gaming

The dell small form factor I'm running it is quite low powered
 
3 kids, misses runs her own cleaning company from home, I've 3x i5 servers running 24/7, BB via 2 modems, house phone, Sky, all the normal household stuff, heating has been used loads and I've joint gas and electric and my usage is £60 PCM.

It'll drop now the summer is on it's way and i had words with them all.
 
I've never found sleep/suspend modes to work that great - invariably something will keep waking it up or fail to wake up properly requiring a full reboot, etc. etc.

Actual power use when idle if left overnight, etc. can vary hugely depending on the sleep states/power saving options supported and actually in use by your CPU, whether your GPU is correctly doing power saving and/or even supports it, etc. so you could be looking at anything from about 6p from leaving it overnight to 50p or so - or even £1-2 if you leave it doing some number crunching type stuff.
 
I have an AIO touchscreen PC running off an external laptop-style "brick" @ 200W. Windows 8 with desktop and tablet OSes. No extra wattage for a monitor, being an AIO, the monitor and the PC is the same device. No need to turn it off. Power saving kicks in after 20 minutes inactivity.

Sticking to the subject of power, the above computer controls all of my downstairs lights as well and they're all LED. If anyone here is aware of the DMX protocol (used in theatres and nightclubs), then that's what these lights are. They can be addressed by RGB (like colour picker in Photoshop) and by brightness. Leccy bill has dropped as a result, despite more lux output than domestic bulbs.
 
DJMK4 said:
I'm using an E6750 rig as an esx host, one of the VMs is running Plex.

I don't understand how you get those costs? How much streaming where you doing? I only stream off it probably once maybe twice a day and that's not everyday. Maybe 1-2 times a week if that, even through a stream the CPU doesn't go 100%. Half of the time I'm streaming a film CPU is probably 60-70, the other half its about 10% as it fluctuates.

I wouldn't say its any more power hungry than gaming

The dell small form factor I'm running it is quite low powered
Click to expand...

Those were the costs given by the power monitor.

Idle it was using 66w, under stress 122w.
 
MonkeyMan said:
Those were the costs given by the power monitor.

Idle it was using 66w, under stress 122w.
Click to expand...

How often were you using it though ? Most of the time my box is idle, it will burst for an hour or two that's it.

Plex is probably the most intensive thing that runs (when in use it)

Just a tower no peripherals, 65w Max TDP processor
 
Even my home server has a turn off script at midnight every night - zero point in it being on.
and the same should apply with your normal pc too.

Maybe slightly valid in the old days where you were leaving downloads on, but with modern net speeds really no point in wasting electricity.
 
DJMK4 said:
How often were you using it though ? Most of the time my box is idle, it will burst for an hour or two that's it.

Plex is probably the most intensive thing that runs (when in use it)

Just a tower no peripherals, 65w Max TDP processor
Click to expand...

For the period it was monitored I would say it was idle for about 60% of the time.

It was an old E8600 so not the most power efficient chip with an old psu, cost per day was 26p.

In comparison the new 4th gen celeron based revo costs 4p per day. (It was just going to be the player but unless heavy transcoding is required its fine running the server too)
 
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Mine is always in sleep mode, smash keyboard and it turns on, if I need something from it from out of the house then I use teamviewer on my microserver to Wake on lan my PC up.
 
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