Should I.......

bluenose1940

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leave my computer switched on all of the time or, should I turn it off at night and restart it again first thing in the morning?

I've never really known the answer to this. At the moment I leave it on constantly and if I run into problems with internet connections I just do a 'Re-start'. I never switch it off and I don't know if this is a good or bad thing to do.

Many thanks in advance of any advice.
 
I know that there is no worries either way with Windows 7 but not sure about earlier versions.

Mind you turning it off at night will cut your electricity bill.
Mossiac
 
Turning it off/on all the time causes wear to the bearings in the hard drive motor. Now, will that be a direct impact? Well, no, if you do it once a day (Night time to morning). Cuts your electricity bill.

All the other stuff is BS. Computers makes heat, but unless you have a rackmount server in your room with closed windows and door, it won't make a difference. I tried it.
 
And the debate rages on...

Intel extreme mother board DZ77GA 70K
Intel i5 3570k CPU
16gigs of ram
1> 2gig NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti (EVGA)
1> TP-Link dual band wireless card
2> 500gig HDD
2> 2TB HHD
1> 128gig SSD
3> 120mm exhaust fans running full bore
2> 120mm internal circulation fans running full bore
1> Corsair AH850 power supply

Rather than have the spike on the system at cold start I elect to leave mine running. I have the HDDs set to spin down 20 minutes after the system goes idle. But the fans stay on full bore including the CPU fan. The current draw from 5 fans is very little as I use a good brand with advanced bearings.
It's just a matter of personal choice.

If your system is drawing too much power then I believe it's time to look in to a higher efficiency power supply with a little elbow room on the watts. Older power supplies are inefficient. The newer power supplies are more cost effective as in your power bill and are smarter. And they don't cost all that much either.

Another good thing to have is a UPS. Office supply stores have better pricing than most other places. If you lose power the UPS takes over and gives you time to shut down manually. Some come with automated software to do it for you in case you're not in front of your computer when the power goes out. Another thing a UPS does is clean up the AC going in to it. Your power supply gets a voltage that is clean of transients.
 
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My PC is on all day and off all night. I have a business grade motherboard and a server grade hard drive to handle that.
 
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