Whats better for your computer? Shutting down every night or leaving on?

Question

I have an X-Blade custom gaming computer and my question is this, I shut it down every night before I head to bed, is this good for it? Or is it better to leave it on all the time? My parents leave theirs on all the time with no seemingly negative effects. However the reason they do this is, a friend of ours who works with computers doesnt seem to think its very good when you shut it down every night. I would like to get some other opinions on this matter. TIA and all the best, Jon

Answer 1

Honestly, there's no real benefit to either. I leave my computer on for long, long periods of times. (Up to 6 or so weeks, some times) It runs fine, and saves annoying boot up times.

However, there is also no reason NOT to shut down. It empties out junk in the RAM, and buffers. Not to mention, it will probably help Windows run a bit smoother.

Answer 2

Just putting it in standby is perfectly fine - all the electronic parts cool off, and it uses so little electricity it's no concern on a power bill. That a computer needs time to "relax" is an old wives' tale. Of course, you're not going to hurt it by shutting it down, either, it just takes longer to start up from scratch than to resume from Standby. It's also good to reboot at least occasionally, since sometimes programs (including Windows itself) wait 'til you reboot to update.

Answer 3

How good is the security on your computer? If your connection to the Internet is not through a router then I would definitely shut it down. The argument is that the shut down and start up impact your hard drive. Most hard drives will not suffer enough to justify leaving your computer on any more. While the longer you leave your computer on the longer you leave the same IP address for hackers to attack.

Answer 4

I shut my computer off multiple times a day, and every single night, and I have done so for years with not a single failed piece of hardware. As far as I'm concerned not turning it off is just something people think helps, but I've never read anything that proves turning it off is bad. Leaving it on constantly will certainly help slow the RAM as already mentioned, and make it necessary for disk defragments more often.

Answer 5

if you are connected directly to the internet, you should at the very least disconnect from that before leaving it on unattended. Hibernation and Sleep sometimes cause the computer to run very slow when bringing it back up... most computers will go into power save mode on their own anyway and come back up slow.

Shutting down is the best policy... less wear and tear on the parts and is green friendly

Answer 6

Back in the 90's it was not good to keep turning a computer on and off because after only a few years it would be rendered useless, but since 2000 technology developed and it doesn't make a difference anymore

Answer 7

Shutting it down does good and leaving it on does good but when you leave it on the RAM level gets higher and it ends up lagging a little bit if and restarting lets you start Fresh you know and if you have any more questions you can email me at [e-mail]

Answer 8

use stand-by, hibernate , or sleep mode during the week or a heavy period of use because it's less stress on the computer's electrical supply, and completely shut it down at least once a week, or if there are any minor issues that can be fix with a system restart

Answer 9

All of us geeks here put our pc's into standby at night. About once a week or two, it gets a full reboot. I can't remember the last time it was actually turned off.

It's the voltage spikes that usually fry the components, and that happens on power up/down.

Answer 10

well its always harder on the parts to turn on and off. but if you think of the wear and tear of a car.. you wouldnt leave your car on all night just cause its bad to start it up. in my opinion, having your hardware running 24 hours a day is much worse than having to start it up and shut it down once a day.