Running 24/7?

That is the ONLY rationale I can see for running 24/7, but ONLY IF it is true (there seems to some conflicting debate on the negative effects of HD booting).
Otherwise, I feel it is a waste of energy.

Not to mention that the fan is running 24/7, which sucks in dust 24/7, which exacerbates the heat issue.

I must agree.

 

I do not like leaving my computers on when I am not home (like when I am at work) in case a storm comes up and I cannot shut my system down. I do leave them on during the weekends mainly because I have my antivirus, defrag, and backup scheduled in the early morning hours.

 

my pc downstairs gets turned on in the morning and is left on till my parents go to bed now.
my pc is on when i use it and off when im not using it. never had a problem with that mostly due to windows xp sp2 being very stable.
the benefit of having quad core means i can use paragon to make an online image of C: while i use the pc.
two reasons for turning pc when im not using it.
one=heat
two=vista isnt the most stable OS atm so its best to let it start up fresh when i want to use it.

 

Switch mine off when it's not going to be used for at least a few hours. Waste of money and just shortens the life of the components. Also, having it switched off is the ultimate in security!!!

muf

 

No, it is a waste of energy and money

 

dono because i turn it off when im not using it.
all the led lights inside my case are to bright to be able to sleep.
for example cpu fan led,psu led fan etc.
lodore

 

Good point Bob D about sucking in dust. Never considered that, while I blow the dust out of my machines ever 6 months you are right. Also for the record the HD in PC one did fail on me. However, I make no representations that the 24/7 caused it...

Lodore, my spouse says the same thing.

By the way just in case some may have missed it. I have changed my ways...

I use sleep mode and if I am not going to be using a particular machine all day I do shut it down. I understand some of the reasons others do not. This poll has really generated some very interesting posts. Thanks.

 

I want somebody to show me that there electric bill went up so much by leaving there pc on. I rarely shut mine off and my eclectic bill is fine. So if I shut it off I am gonna save $20+ a month. Yeah right.

 

I agree with you 100%, Diesel. Your electric bill wouldn't go up more than 5 or 10 bucks a YEAR! I leave mine on all the time.

 

I am spending on the average about $50/week in gas. I don't think spending an extra $5-10 a year more on electricity is gonna hurt my pocket. If it does I think I need a career change.

 

it costs more than 5$ or 10$ a year,
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1364/
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000426.html

 

There is no way that my power bill has gone up from between $16.68 and $54.95 a month. That is absolutely crazy. My entire power bill is only $190.00 a month. I assure you that if people's bills increased between 10 and 25 percent because of a computer being left on you would see a dramatic drop in computer use and sales.

 

it depends on how powerful your computer is the more power the more electricity,

computers have been sucking a lot of juice for awhile now but people just don't realize it.

 

There are way to many variables for me to even estimate if and how much electric is used with or without my PC running 24/7 over a certain billing cycle. I would have to rely on lab controlled research testing to get a handle on that one.

 

You would probably just have to buy one of the testers like they used in the sites I posted to test how much electricity your computer is using and then just do the math,

you can probably save some money to buy one if you shut off your computer when you're not using it.