Power on 24/7

[sbalun]

I've got a question for some of you hardware guru's.

I prefer to leave my computer on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I have it set to go into a sleep mode (monitor included) if not used for an hour. The only thing that seems to be running are the case and CPU fans.

What are the long term repercussions of this practice? Should I not leave it on continuously? Is there any real advantage to turning it off periodically? Does it affect my O/S (Win2000) performance? Servers are left on 365/24/7, so why not a desktop machine?

I look forward to your comments.

 

[RKinsey]

I work in the offshore oil/gas production field which operates 24/7. Our PCs are never shut down. The only effect that I have seen is a loss of resources over time. Some apps fail to release all of the memory required for operation when closed. Once in a while, a machine will lose the sound card. A reboot once a day seems to do the trick.

 

[Joelee]

I have been in this discussion before . There does not seem to be any longterm problems with leaving the system on 24/7, in fact some would argue that turning it on and off is more damaging to the system because of the power surge. This is provided that the system unit is well ventilated and the fans are working properly. I leave my unit on 24/7 .As far as Win2k performance I can not say, however there is performance degradation in NT4 when left on 24/7. We had to reboot servers to bring the performance back up to speed.

This merely my opionion and not a recommendation.
Joelee :-{}

 

[sbalun]

Thanks for the comments thus far. Keep 'em coming. It would be nice to hear from a technician that works on hardware.

Thanks!

 

[butchrecon]

I have always lived by a rule of thumb when I have computers on 24/7. It has been that if you are going to leave a system on constantly then you should reboot it at least 1 time a week. This can help with loss of resources and general instability issues. This has worked for me for years and I like it. Generaly shutting computers down on a daily basis can be hard on power supplies and hard drives.

Hope this helps. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[edfair]

I do hardware work. Unix systems I service stay on 24/7 and the record is 1 downtime in 10 years.
My personal machines are turned off when I am going to be away from them for over an hour and some of them are off and on 5 or 6 times a day.
I normally suggest that machines that are going to be unused for 4 hours or more be turned off. Used to be 2 hours but since it takes longer to boot now, I have increased it.
There is a trade off of wearout/trace migration/spike versus electrical/thermal shock and thermal expansion. You do what is comfortable to you. I haven't noticed much difference is the down times. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Guest_imported]

Assuming a machine is being used for reasonable time periods throughout the working day, I would leave it running. I do not, however, like leaving a monitor switched on for lengthy unattended periods in the building, as I believe there is a very tiny risk of fire from one of these devices.

From a hardware point of view, it is important to ensure that cooling fans are of a high quality, and that regular attention is paid to clearing dust and dirt from fan ducts, filters, etc. Also check from time to time that bolts have not come loose through vibration etc.

It is also a good idea to ensure you have adequate surge protection for the PC, and maybe a surge-protected UPS.

As regards regularly rebooting, I agree this is probably a good thing, and I would suggest you monitor any reductions in system resources - this will give you an idea as to how often you need to do this. Try once a week as a start point maybe...

ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[sbalun]

As mentioned earlier I have configured my system using the power schemes settings in Windows to have my monitor turn off after 30 minutes of non use and my HDD off after an hour of non use. I've also set the stand-by mode to come on after 2 hours of non use.

My Asus MB came with a sw utilities disc that includes a temperature and fan monitor with alarms which I check regularly. The temperature doesn't seem to fluctuate more than a degree or two.

In addition to the power supply fan my ATX case also has another place for an additional fan. Does any one recommend installing yet another fan in the case? The additional fan would bring the total number of fans up to three with the power supply fan and the CPU fan mounted over the CPU. To me that seems a little like overkill.

I appreciate all the information people. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Guest_imported]

I'd say there's little to be gained by putting in an additional fan, unless you feel that airflow within the case is rather restricted. You don't say what CPU you're using, but assuming that temperatures inside the case are all well within spec, why add to the ambient noise level...

ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[sbalun]

System Specs:

PIII-866
512 RAM
40GB Samsung HDD
Asus TSUL2-C MB
52X CD-ROM
Ricoh 7080 CD-RW
N'vidia TNT 2 M64 Graphics Card
Avance ALS4000 Sound Card
ModemBlaster PCI 56k Modem

 

[osuman]

If you leave your puter on all the time then it tends to wear out the bearings in the fans and other things that spin, such as hard drives. However, turning it off and on all the time causes temperature changes inside the case which can tend to cause fractures in the circuitry due to thermal expansion. In practice, though, I don't think it really matters all that much. The hardware will be out of date and either replaced or need to be replaced by the time one of these effects takes it's toll. Personally, I leave mine on all the time and shut it down if I'm gonna be gone for a couple days, like over the weekend. But I really only do that to save power, not the bearings.

As far as the fan. I have an extra case fan in mine but only because it was free. I agree GOAOZ, it just adds extra noise if the temps are within specs.

Hope this helps.

 

[sbalun]

Thanks for your input everyone. I appreciate all the comments and information.

--Scott

 

[Guest_imported]

butchrecon said, "Generaly shutting computers down on a daily basis can be hard on power supplies and hard drives."

How does that effect the hardrive? does the hardrive not shut down also when left on standby?

 

[edfair]

Some do, some don't. And there are still computers that the standby mode is crippled or non-existant. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.