Quote:
Originally Posted by project15
good for you!
As to saving the life of the pc as a reason to turn it off, its actually a highly debated topic as turning the pc on for a cold boot causes stress on the hardware as well. With todays long hardware life but short shelf life, chances are your pc would be outdated long before the major components fail due to keeping it running or turning it on from a cold boot.
Ive heard that leaving it on overnight for a month costs about $2.50 per month
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In the past, turning off a computer was likened to turning off a lamp. When you powered it back on, it could burn out the switch. That's no longer the case today.
Hard Disk Drives have a MTBF (mean time between failure) that is rated in terms of the number of hours :
HDD Technology Overview Charts
This is of course barring power surges and failures. This technology has also been improving over the years, and the MTBF now is much longer than it has been say 10 years ago.
Ultimately, we do not keep the computers powered on, (not so much because of electricity costs -- we pay $40/month for both water and power), but more for the fact that someone else mentioned: the noise factor is a big one (my ears are too sensitive though DH cannot hear the computers, I certainly can).
If a computer is connected to the Internet 100% of the time (cable or DSL), then security can also be an issue with leaving the computer on. Disconnect the computer from the Internet if you're going to leave it on and set it defragging.
I always advise people to turn off their computers when they are not doing anything for 30 minutes or more. Clearing the cache (memory) is usually a good thing too.