Leaving your computer on 24/7

Freefaller · 21 Apr 2014 at 00:01

BDEE said:
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?

Agreed.

The only thing that stays on is my home server. Everything else turns off or goes into standby.

arknor · 21 Apr 2014 at 00:04

V F said:
Thats like the usage of a fat PS3. Mine only uses just over 100watt. Totally different ballgame when gaming but I hardly do that these days.

guesstimate

most peoples comps won't even use 500 watt gaming so 200-300watt idle is probably over by a lot.

wnb · 21 Apr 2014 at 01:00

I used to leave my pc on 24\7 now I turn it off most most nights now that I have an SSD. My pc starts in about 6 seconds or so.

Antony101 · 21 Apr 2014 at 02:28

I turn mine off unless something is downloading or I fall asleep watching a film.

I wake up, press the power button, go to the toilet and make a coffee and some cereal and it's on. (I have an SSD so it's on before I leave the room but still)

mrk · 21 Apr 2014 at 02:38

Tonester0011 said:
Mine uses between 50-70w when idle/films/web. Hell, i barley break 300w when gaming, overclocked 3770k and a 670, so nothing fancy. Even those with dual cards and a X79 chip wouldn't see 200w idle thanks to zero core on the cards etc.

Exactly. With speedstep (3770k too, drops to 1.6GHz when just idle or surfing the web/watching videos), with modern monitor power saving we save even more energy. You'd also be surprised just how much is saved by simply turning the brightness down, my Dells report less than a quarter of the full energy consumed with the brightness set to 30 which is my desired brightness level. I know many people turn the brightness up on their screens because it's seemingly better for them which I always found a bit strange but that's their choice.

Murray · 21 Apr 2014 at 02:57

I leave mine on 24/7 since I use it to watch sports/films in bed. Only turn it off if I'm not gonna be in the house for a while.

~Dockie · 21 Apr 2014 at 03:06

I use sleep on mine, don't remember the last time i did a full shutdown, but only because i use WMC to record tv on it.

V F · 21 Apr 2014 at 04:10

mrk said:
I know many people turn the brightness up on their screens because it's seemingly better for them which I always found a bit strange but that's their choice.

Education and offices are the worst for this. I never understood it and it was tiring on the eyes leading to bloodshot. It's what they did and you couldn't explain it to them. It's what they do.

120cd^m2 during the day, 100 at night. Though again, depends on the setup where 120 works. I was never near windows or direct light. 120 works in reasonable daylight.

memyselfandi · 21 Apr 2014 at 07:18

I used to have several big, power hungry, servers running 24/7 back in the day but now the only stuff running like that are several low power NASes (which spin down the disks on idle to draw very little). Even my Plex server, running on a Mac Mini turns itself off normally for 8hrs over night when I probably will have no need for it (unless I'm away as I use it for remote access then).

Only time I leave a PC on overnight is if I have a long running encoding job to do or a long running backup job (rare)

MrKnifey · 21 Apr 2014 at 09:27

I leave my PC and my Server on 24/7... I don't really use a mass amount of electric, so at the moment its not worth me turning them off.

Cosimo · 21 Apr 2014 at 09:29

Mine get turned off at night.

IronWarrior · 21 Apr 2014 at 12:21

Always leave mine running, it's more of a hassle to turn it on and off each morning and I found that computers can be weird and decide not to work the next day if you turn it off.

arknor · 21 Apr 2014 at 12:34

IronWarrior said:
Always leave mine running, it's more of a hassle to turn it on and off each morning and I found that computers can be weird and decide not to work the next day if you turn it off.

tru the most likely time of fail is during a bootup.

but that would usually be a hdd anyway 90% of times in my experience, same with light bulbs they last forever turned on.

it's the heating and cooling of the element that causes them to fail

Kris_90 · 21 Apr 2014 at 12:36

I used to leave it on 24/7, since I've got an SSD it takes seconds to switch on so it's pointless leaving it on when I'm not using it.

anything I don't mind · 21 Apr 2014 at 12:36

I have been leaving my pc on for 10+ years. I rarely turn it off when i go to sleep, even when i go a way i will leave it on so i can team viewer in.

I do turn off the monitor though if i am going to sleep or out the house.

Actually i have two computers that i have running for 10 years. I have pfsense which is a mini atx 400w psu and my main desktop with 650watt psu.