We just bought our daughter a desktop PC for her room (without internet access).
We had an IT guy from my wife's work (major state university) build it for us. We trust that he knows what he's doing. Here is the problem, he said we should always leave it on. Don't turn it off and on as it wears out some of the components. Only problem with this is it makes some noise and she is not use to it yet and has problems getting to sleep.

Question is: Leaving it on ya or na? Does it make a differance to the machine???

Thanks

Paul

Same thing with all electronic components......the surge voltage on startup can blow chips tho the power supply is supposed to regulate this. Also, the constant cycling of heat could feasibly cause problems (just like a teener engine).

I don't think it will lessen the life of the 'puter to turn it on and off....done it both ways for many years.....they all die sooner or later.

And since most of the crap is from China and the consumer does the QC, if it doesn't blow in the first few weeks, it'll last quite a while.

My 10 Yen worth.

Doesn't really matter. I leave mine on all the time except when I'm on vacation or something.

But I don't sleep with it either.

In your case, she'll probably *not* be using it more than she is using it. Go ahead and turn it off.

Its not just the startup surge, its also the heat cycling of the components. Most notably the harddrive which is the most important component. When harddrives fail, its usually at boot time.

I leave mine on 24/7(except for vacations), but its also a matter of convenience. If she isn't using it everyday, I would probably shut it down.

You could put the worlds 10 best computer support specialists in a room and ask the exact same question and get 10 DIFFERENT answers!

When a computer is ready to go, it will do it no matter what, so just do what you feel is best. No harm no foul! I have had computers on 24/7 that lasted 10 years. and right next to them the exact same type of computer on 24/7 broke with in 2 years. Same goes with turning them on and off. My home computer gets turned off and on and it always works fine. My computer at work gets turned of at night and it breaks a lot. Usually by the time a computer breaks, your ready for a new and better model anyways. And if not, the parts are super cheap to get.

You can't win... so just do what you feel...



P.S. A computer support person you should ignor is one from BEST BUY! (no furthur coment!)

it's whatever you like... either way won't hurt the PC..

Here at work I've made a policy that staff should turn PCs on when they need them and then leave them on all day, but turn them off when they go home in the evening.

The reasoning is that the heating and cooling of components as they are powered on/off is what deteriorates them (think light bulb filaments) so you don't want to do it more often than needed. The other side is that leaving it on wears out mechanical parts like hard drives and fans faster than if they have a rest. Balancing these two factors, together with unecessary electricity use while it sits there overnight, is what led me to make this policy as the appropriate compromise.

I never turn my large computers off. For one I have information that I may need to retreive at any given time and I can't turn my home computer on from thousands of miles away. But I beleive that constant on and off wears out the circut boards faster.

When not in use I turn it off.
500 watt power supply, would you leave a 500 watt light bulb on if not needed?

Well that was helpful, so what you all are saying is to leave it on 24/7 as long

as you turn it off at the end of the day. That turning it on and off will save and kill

the harddrive. Well Iam glad we got that straight.

Mine is always on, I don't have the patience to boot up etc. , in addition, it's also my answering machine. I did the same with my last one too, never had any problems with leaving it on, even on vacation.


I had a good friend of mine's house burn down, the fire department said that it was caused from dust build-up etc. on his surge protector, used for his computer. I attached mine to the back of my desk as oppose to laying on the floor, and once a year I take the covers off my computer and vacuum it out along with using my compresor to blow the dust out. I don't know if this is overkill, but I figured it can't hurt.


I alway's turn my Laptop's off if I'm not using them.

I never reboot my work PC either... I leave stuff running all night... and then it's ready when I am in the morning, and I remember where I was when I left... my work computer is a POS that I push to it's limits... the CPU and RAM are always pegged... running Xoftware to connect to UNIX, a C code generator, JAVA apps and ECLIPSE, outlook, and of course internet browser...

If the noise is bothering your daughter, feel free to turn it off. It's not likely to kill the computer. Your daughter's sleep and your sanity are far more important than a computer power supply, motherboard, monitor or other component can or should ever be.

Other considerations:

- Is it hooked to UPS? Dirty power, surges and loss of power w/o proper shut down are very hard on the power supply and other components.

- What are the power settings? My monitor is set to shut down after 20 mins. And the HD hibernates after 6 hrs (you can set it for much less). My APC UPS requires hibernation to save data before shutting down computer during power loss of more than 5 minutes. Computer is otherwise generally left on.

- Did builder use primo components? Many do and have improved cooling systems that protect the internals better than off-the-shelf versions.

Don't lose sleep over it - literally!

Like any appliance that's not being constantly used, turn it off; the boot-up wear-n-tear isn't that bad. Are your video game consoles on all the time? Forget that Tampa is the lightning capital of the US?

I recommend a surge protector and a UPS on it, and that she get into the habit of turning off the UPS on bootdown. Haven't blown a PC yet.

Don't all modern computers have a 'sleep' mode that brings everything to minimal power, and usually shuts the cooling fans off?

I think , turn it off.

My 2 rupi

Turn it off

In the old days yes leave it on, but now hard drives are designed to park their heads when shut down so hard drive failure is not related to power state anymore. Also It is not just the PC that draws power, but unless you got an LCD panel the monitors draw a huge amount of power as well. Also another concideration that many people don't think of is heat. It is amazing how many BTU's one of these things puts out.

IMHO shut it down doesn't harm the computer and saves you money.

But get the surge protector and a small UPS if possible

Turn them off. Spinning components; hard drives, fans, etc.. wear more and are more lileky to fail than chips and such. Regardless, the mean time between failure (MTBF) on PCs is several years. Once you get past the initial burn in, it should last a long time. Or at least until your kid spills soda on it.

Either way is OK...each individual parts should have a manufacturer´s warranty for a period of time, some as long as three years. If you opt for leaving it on, but the noises bother your kid...you can always turn your speakers off ot urn the volume completely down.

Thank you all for your input. It's going to be turned off at night. If she doesn't sleep good, we don't sleep good. Enough said.

Next question:

The hard drive is installed with screw in studs. Should I change them to grade 8 bolts?








Paul

Are you going to use round or cone shaped nuts?

I used to have my computers run full time without hassles, and still do for the most part. Weekends my work computer is shut down. I think the fan noise will be the primary concern in this situation.

I don't run any computer without a firewall and virus protection. Still, be sure the internet connection is dead when not in use. Cable is usually not dead unless you power down the modem, and this leaves you too vulnerable to attack even with a firewall. Plus I have about four favorite programs that I use to scan my computers regularly. About the only safe computing nowadays is not to be connected to the web. Many people I know have one computer for the web and another for work.

Only if she plans to play "Grand Theft Auto" ...

I'm guessing you daughter is pretty young for something like a computer to affect her sleep, so do what makes it easier for her to sleep. If she's young, the chances of her having important term papers and such on the computer are pretty slim. And if she does have important items on it, back 'em up. Computers, and their components, are too cheap nowadays to let it affect your sleep.