CPU : On or Off

How do you do?

[madcat]

Is it best to leave your cpu running like a server?

How long would you recommend leaving it on for?

I mean, do you turn if off when you go on vacation for a couple weeks;). I've always turned it on and off-- but was told that it actually has a negative effect on the cpu.

Just need some insight-

Thanks,
M

[Axacta]

With high end stereo equipment it is a good idea to keep everything on. It keeps the electronics at a constant temperature, avoiding the heating/cooling of turning it on and off, which degrades the circuits and chips, and eventually the sound also. I doubt that it is that critical with computer electronics, because it is not about the quality of the processing, but whether it works or not.

There is one consideration apart from the electronics. The operating system and most programs benefit from being rebooted occasionally, and I've read that Windows should be rebooted at least once per day to avoid little nasties accumulating.

[serpent star]

I agree, but I think perhaps with windows nt, or 2000 or xp it is not as much of an issue.

Otherwise, your right, shutting down and restarting is hard on electronics. I am unsure why you want to leave it on all the time but hibernation and standby type modes are helpful and power saving.

[Lisa]

I leave everything on all the time. I have never had a hard drive problem or any disk problem. This is after years and years behind some of my equipment. The only time you will catch my home computer off is if the power is out.

[Axacta]

I only just got my first computer two years ago, and I also got ADSL with it. The hype back then was that you could leave your computer on and connected all the time. So I left mine on, but soon I was having problems with the OS and other programs, and the only solution was to reboot, so I did that every morning and it cleared up the problems. But leaving it on all the time seemed like a waste of energy, and dual monitors heated up the computer room too much in the summer. (I had the sleep-death problem so I could not put it to sleep.)

Another consideration is hackers. Unless you are well protected I would not suggest leaving a computer on all the time.

[Brett_Tabke]

>The only time you will catch my
>home computer off is if the power is out.

Ditto. I do spin down the hard drives after a few minutes of inactivity though. Not to protect them, just to cut down on the heat sources in the cases. I also power down the monitor in 5 mins of inactivity. Monitors (tube based) are of course the big juice suckers on any system.

[pageoneresults]

I think it is a good practice to shut down a Windows machine at least once daily if there is heavy usage. Since Windows programs rob system resources and never give back what they take, you've got to reboot to get them back in order.

I have a little toolbar that monitors my system resources. I can tell you after years of watching the toolbar, opening and closing various programs in Windows will eventually drag your systems resources down. So much so, that certain things will not function correctly. Also, crashes become more frequent as the system does not have enough available resources to perform the function you requested.

Our UNIX servers here at Corporate have been running non-stop for over 60 days now I believe. The Windows server usually gets rebooted once a day!

P.S. I turn all of my systems off when they are not in use. When I do leave them on, I utilize the Windows power management to power them down along with putting the monitor to sleep after five minutes.

[martinibuster]

Regarding system resources, I've got 512 mb ram but only 2.5 gb extra space on my hard drive. I eventually notice a slowdown and then a crash after running out of system resources. Rebooting allows the pc to release and refresh its memory resources. I also defrag a couple times a week. Of course, I'm upgrading my Hard Drive this week so things should get a little better.

[scotty]

I don't turn off my server boxes for, err, obviours reasons. My current desktop box, a notebook computer, is left-on all the time as well unless I am traveling. I don't spin down my drives because I thought it's usually the source of hard drive failures. And sometimes when I spin down the drives on my Linux boxes, they don't spin up unless I do a hard-reset :(

And I run distributed.net on all my boxes :)

[madcat]

Thanks for your replies, I was sort of expecting two schools of thought on this one.

M

[madcat]

Added: Is there any need to defrag with Windows 2K? I was under the impression it wasn't necessary.

[tigger]

brett how do you ever have 5 mins of inactivity on your monitor :). I Never turn my PC's off

[brotherhood of LAN]

I switch things off purely to save energy and money that is wasted ;) However, I am not running a server and my online escapades are from a Desktop PC at home ;)

If its not being used, why should it be left on? :)

[Macguru]

My machines are set to turn themselves off at a given time. Just as a reminder to get a life! ;)

[caine]

I would leave my computers on all the time, but my case and psu, make one hell of a noise, so i switch them off, when i go to bed, which after all isn't that bad an idea, i believe one of our ancestors called it sleep!

[DaveN]

At home it's on when I am at the desk and off the rest of the time

At work on all the time (last time I turned one of the servers off the PSU blow couldn't afford new PSU's every day ;) )

DaveN

if using win 98 it crashes after 49.7 days if not patched.