Power down or leave running?

[bullhlms]

I want expert opinions. Is it better to power down or leave on a PC if it won't be used for 1 hour, two hours, four etc. Where is the consensus crossover point? Assume the electric bill is not as important as the PC. Has anyone seen a manufacturer's recommendation? BTW I'm referring to large (80G) ATA, not older drives.
TIA for all suggestions.

 

[seanform]

In my opinion keeping the computer on does little if any wear and tear to computer electronics. However there are two weak points to wear and tear:

1. Hard Disk
Of course the hard disk spins on a bearing which has a lifetime. You can tell windows to switch off the hard disk when computer is not in use however.

2. The monitor
I suggest switching off the monitor and leaving the computer on. The monitor has high power transistors on a heatsink that get really hot, besides the tube and the need for a screensaver etc.

Be careful if you have a Slot 1 CPU as these can be permanently damaged if your cooling fan (also runs on a bearing) detoriorates.

 

[Grenage]

There was a post about this a fair while ago to which a lot of people replied.

I believe the general optinion was that it really didn't make much difference, since turning the machine on and off a few times a day would not cause enough wear and tear to justify leaving it on. In other words by the time the wear and tear became a problem the machine would be so obselete modern calculators would be faster.

A machine going down is generally down to fluke hardware failure over which unfortunately, we have little control.

 

[BigusMikus]

I have a computer that I use for my FTP server, a game server and my SMTP server. It’s on 24/7/365. Earlier this year I had to replace the fans other than that no problems. My main computer I’m on now is on for days at a time then I’ll get a hair and turn it off each night. So far no problems with it but it’s only six months old. The den computer is off/on constantly and I have recently had to replace the HD (was 3 year old WD), a memory card failed in December and the video card (ATI S3 Virge PCI) flaked out last weekend. So from my home experience, let em run with a break every now and then… Of course the big servers etc run 24/7 but they are designed for it. Set monitors to turn off after say 45 min to and hour. I don’t run screen savers either but I’m a power user and want that last little 2/4% of CPU for whatever. Biggest thing I can think of is constantly blow them out, couple times a month even if you’re in a clean environment. Keep em cool, my main box has six fans with an external power supply. Sounds like an airplane warming up in here with everything on. Heat is an enemy of everything so fans in everything, even my twin KDS XFlats. Dust is electrostaticly drawn to computers; TV’s, monitors etc. run an air cleaner with a negative ionizer. I bought a little 2HP/4 Gallon air compressor from Harbor Freight for $89. Cute little thing and stuck a small drier on it. Sets under my bench here, flip a switch and get a blo… never mind… It won’t run an air tool but will keep computer nice and clean! Peace Long winded SOB aint’ I?

 

[bullhlms]

Thanks to all of you. I appreciate the input, and hope to see more. BTW; I searched for info to no avail, before posting.