When to turn your PC and other equipment off 3

[stduc]

This thread has prompted me to ask this question.

When should you turn off your PC and other PC related devices in order to optimise both power saving and the life of the device? I am strictly thinking of home equipment here because offices have policies and I don't want to muddy the waters by going there!

I have long come to the conclusion that although a tricky equation, there is a simple 'rule of thumb' and my rule, for what it is worth (and this is what want opinions on) is this.

If I'm going to use my home PC again early the next day I leave it on overnight. I have no power saving enabled as it caused too many issues when I tried enabling either sleep or hibernate. Probably because I have a RAID array. I do turn the monitor off however - even if I decide to watch TV for half an hour. The key phrase here is 'early the next day'. My reasoning is, that every power up shortens component life but so does leaving it on unnecessarily. My policy means that it tends to get left on from Friday night to Sunday evening. Money to Friday it gets powered up when used and turned off at bed time. I turn off the whole power strip after shutting down, so the sound amp and switch also power down.

The printer, scanner, webcam etc are off and unplugged except when needed.

My router is left on 24/7 (a netgear DG834) except during vacations. This is because it is simply too painful if I boot up and forget to turn it on. Also as it has no switch there is simply too much groveling to do to turn it off (it's under the stairs!)

OK - enough of my set up. What do people think? Turn it off? Leave it on? What does a power up cost you PC life and power wise?

 

[Grenage]

Power usage isn't really a concern to me, but I turn off my machine if I'm not going to be using it for a few hours or more. The router however is always left on.

To be honest I doubt turning a machine on or off is going to make much difference either way, I just don't see the point leaving it running when it only takes 10 seconds to go from pressing the power button to the desktop loaded.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[stduc]

10 seconds! I wish mine was that quick - 2 minutes is more like it for me.

 

[Grenage]

Mileage may vary, as they say.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[edfair]

My guidelines for computers are to shut them off if they will be unused for 4 hours or more. Dial up modems are shut down when I am finished with them.
All the internet connectivity stuff is on 24/7 as are the printers.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[PGoRule]

When talking about the PC at office, the policy says, keep the machines running 24*7*365. Just log-off at the end of the day and switch-off the monitor, so that sys-admin can work on configuration and updates overnight. So there are not other choices left.

When talking about the PC at home, it’s better to switch-off all the devices, which are not under use or if you don’t want them for next 2 hours. Frequent switching causes some problems with devices if you have some irregularities with the supply.
If you have database running on your machine, then shutting down and starting of machine takes ample amount of time to load the database. At the same time you loose the previous environment of database, the preloaded stuffs. So if you are working on such conditions, it’s better to keep the system running to save up your and processor time. For all other devices (Printers, scanners, USB devices) connected to the system and going to be passive for 2 hours, it’s better to switch them off.

Keep safe amount of time gap (15 to 30 Secs) in ON-OFF states to prevent the damage to that device. The spikes generated at instant OFF and ON, causes failure of that device.


Sharing the best from my side...

--Prashant--

 

[attrofy]

I have to weigh in - I too am a fan of turning things off. Despite the progress made by modern OS's, we are still using a hardware technology that contains of RAM and ROM. The one sure fire way to clear these caches and buffers is a power off. I find things consistently run smoother on PC's that I regulary shut off. The ones that are left on, whenever there are problems, the first step is to always reboot, this resolves about 90% of the issues....

BTW, two minutes is only a long time when you are watching the boot screens - go pee, get a new cup of coffee, watch the birds at the feeder - it goes by much quicker....

 

[golf212]

Another opinion:

At work we have no set policy. In our dept we turn off the CPU's in the evenings, monitors got into power save. The last day of the month we leave the CPU's on so a full NAV scan will run in the early AM when the date flips to the 1st.

At home (3 pc's in net) we turn off eveything except DSL modem, router, and Wireless access point when not using the equipment. I have had only one hardware failure, a PSU went out (several years old) and it could have blown just because it was a cheap one ($35 case/PSU combo).

One of my work client's had a server system that ran 24/7 and they decided to turn it off and test the UPS. Guess what, when they tried to power up, the UPS had a dead battery, then they found the server HD would not spin up because the HD bearings had froze when the case had cooled down.

You just never know for sure....

john

 

[edfair]

Had a customer running Unix on Acer. Moved it one year, had to shut it down about 5 years later to replace a blown port from nearby lightning strike and shut it down again 5 years later to move it again. From the beginning of the 10 year building lease to the end the system was shut down once.

There are tradeoffs all along the way. From power usage to additional heat load to system shock from powering up.

What seems right to me fits my way of working. others have different ways and as long as they are happy I am happy for them.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[SkipCox]

My three desktops at home are folding machines that run 24/7 @ 100% cpu load. I did shut them down for a few days two weeks ago when my air conditioning died in 115 heat and cpu temps rose to 80°C...too far to push AMD machines.
Other than that, I just let 'em work all day every day.

Skip

http://skipcox.net

 

[kiddpete]

Once the computer is turned on for the day, it stays on. It gets turned off at night. The inkjet printer is turned off fairly quickly when not in use to prevent ink evaporation (the cartridges are capped when the printer powers down).

 

[Ed2020]

For my home equipment PC, modem and router are left on 24/7.

Monitor, printer, scanner etc. are turned on and off as and when required.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[ttterk]

I like attrofy's thinking--I almost never watch the damn thing boot up myself.

One suggestion for tree-huggers (I'm one, so don't hate the name): Try a printer that has an auto-power setting like my Canon Pixma. It turns itself off 'til you send it a print job!

Sloth is the mother of invention. Necessity is just a mother...

 

[Gavona]

I have no power saving enabled ". Your hard drive has a limited life. Personally I set my display and my hard drives to power down after an hour of being idle. Most of you seem to be leaving it a lot longer?


Gavin

 

[Ed2020]

My hard drive almost never gets a rest.

In my experience equipment like this either packs up relatively quickly or keeps working away for years. If it pakcs in quickly I'd rather it happened in the warranty period, so I work it hard when I first by something. After this if there have been no problems then I usually just continue working it like a dog.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[Aussie2]

I have three home pcs only used for gaming ie a lot of fans etc I dont believe its wise to shut down directly after use I always wait till they reach normal idle temps then shut down so as not to cool a hot cpu to fast this is only my opinion and I welcome any advise to the contary

 

[attrofy]

Aussie2,

I can't say it is a bad practice, but I am not sure it much matters. There is no fear of "shock cooling" as the components are all air cooled, and the only heat souce comes from being powered up. As soon as the power is turned off, the heat production stops. In short, this is actually making the system fight itself to cool down to normal idle - which is still producing heat - before it is allowed to cool down naturally with the heater turned off.

Kind of like running around on a winter day, then coming in and sitting by the fire with your parka on and waiting to stop sweating before taking off your jacket. Not really gonna hurt anything, but not really necassary either (IMO).

But hey, some people wipe with their right hand, others with their left - all personal preference.

 

[Grenage]

Not to mention the fact that the heatsink pressed firmly against it would be more than enough to allow gradual cooling.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[jurgen36]

My bigger system is powered down wheever I am away from the computer. However the power supply keeps on working for about 10 minutes before it shuts down, this is to cool the system down. This time delay is build into the supply, it can be disconnected from the mains but still continues. They use very large super capacitors > more then 5 farad to supply the power in case of disconnection. This is actually very handy in case of a short power outage. The machine just continues apart from the monitor and the adsl modem. it does work like a ups. So thats my two bits to the issue.
Regards

Jurgen

 

[Nelviticus]

More than 5 farads, are you sure?!? Capacitors are usually measured in micro- or pico-farads, which is one-millionth and one-thousand-millionth. A 5-farad capacitor would be bigger than your house!

Nelviticus