Is it good to shut your computer down at night? or rather just put it on standby/sleep?

Answer 1

I was reading an article on Yahoo! earlier today, and they said basically it doesn't matter either way.

Answer 2

When computers first came out to the general public it was advised to leave them on. The reason was what they called chip creep, no not a horror movie. What would happen when you turned the computer on the rush of power would actually push the cpu chip out of it's socket and over a period of time they could actually get to a point where the contacts would not connect, then the computer would not work until someone got inside the computer and reinserted the chip.

With the new computers that is no longer a factor and it really does not make any difference as long as you do a couple of things. If you have your computer set up to get updates, defrag itself and run spyware, antivirus scans it is better to do these when you are not using the computer.

Make sure if you are going to leave your computer on that you set up your hard drive so it turns off after your other functions are finished and that will save wear and tear on the drive. Another thing that is advised for ANY computer is to have a UPS uninterrupted power supply. That will take out power spikes, brownouts and allow you to save what you are working on in case the power goes out due to a power failure.
Hope this helps, Roy

Answer 3

I shutdown at night and if I am going out for a couple of hours. If I'm home, I might leave the computer on but turn the monitor off when not in use. With that said -- read:

Should I Turn My Computer Off at Night?

http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Computer_Basics/Should_I_Turn_My_Computer_Off_at_Night%3F.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/should-i-turn-my-computer-off-at-night.htm

Reasons to Turn it Off
Waste of Electricity: Leaving a computer on overnight may not use a lot of electricity, especially if your computer and monitor support the "Energy Saver" features that are standard on most new computers. But make no mistake: over the course of months and years, quite a lot of electricity is wasted. If you are a homeowner or you manage a small business on a budget, this is no small concern. Turn it off.
Security: Internet : If your computer accesses the Internet through a modem, this section does not apply. However, if you use DSL, a cable modem, or have "always-on" Internet access at work, your computer may be an open target for a hacker. If your computer is on the Internet even when you aren't sitting at it, turn it off.
Security: Network: If you work in a networked office, leaving your computer on may not be a bad thing, but leaving your computer on while you are stilled logged in to your company's network is a VERY BAD thing. Make sure you log out every night. My wife's office had an instance of one of the cleaning staff ordering merchandise online using the identities of the staff. You never know who's going to be in your office after-hours!
Windows needs a break: Microsoft Windows is a terribly-written product. The longer you keep it running, the more likely it is to crash and lose your data. If you are a Windows user, then you should periodically reboot your computer anyway, so that the internal memory (RAM) is cleared and Windows starts up with a fresh clean slate. So for stability's sake, turn it off.
Reasons to Leave it On
Running Services: Sometimes, your computer performs a function even when you are not sitting at it. Perhaps it acts as your fax machine. Maybe you use it as a web server. Maybe your company uses it as a print server or file server. In these cases, in order to keep those services running, leave your computer on.
Hardware Durability: It is a fact that turning an electrical appliance on puts more stress on that appliance than keeping it running for a long time. The reason is that the initial surge of electricity through the circuits is a traumatic event (shocking, even). Your computer is an electrical appliance, and therefore constant power ups and power downs can wear out the parts before their time. If the durability of your hardware is an issue, then leave it on.
Convenience: Starting up Windows is a hassle. Sometimes you just want to sit down at your computer and be able to work without having to boot it up and wait for a few minutes. This is a perfectly legitimate desire! If being able to use your computer instantly is important to you, leave it on.

Answer 4

The largest power consumer on a PC is the monitor. Turn your monitor off and let your PC run. Don't use standby or Hibernate either unless you know the condition and free space on your hard drive. Bad sectors or a nearly full drive is asking to lose data.

Why let your PC run? Think of your hard drive as a spinning top. The drive spins on a spindle set in a brass bushing.

When a top slows down and can't maintain it's balance any more it wobbles until it falls over. Your hard drive won't fall over but the spinning disk inside will wobble as it slows down and as it starts up until it gets dynamically balanced. It has to, there has to be a little space between the spindle and the bushing or the drive would not turn

Now, doing this over and over again when you shut down and when you start up will eventually make the clearance between the spindle and the bushing grow. When it grows to a point where the drive moves and touches a read/write head, you have a hard disk crash. If you are lucky you will be able to copy most of your data off before it becomes totaly unreadable. If you are unlucky the way to recover any data is to send the disk off to people that specilize in data recovery and pay a goodly sum of money.

Yes, I know hard drives are currently spec'd at 500,000 hours MTBF (mean time between failure) but that is best case scenario. What if yours fails early, can you afford to lose your data?

Another thought, data back up drives never turn off unless you turn the power off to them, regardless of if the computer attached to them is turned off or not, ever wonder why?

I have never shut off any computer I have ever worked on or owned except for moving or maintenance and I have never had a drive fail. The system I am using to write this has 2 storage drives that have been spinning since 2000. My backup drive has been spinning since 2003 when I bought it.

Things that make you go hhhmmmm.

Answer 5

As a tech
I find that it is better to shut it down give you system a change to restart a least once a day . Your system does a system cheak at start up and makes sure you have all the updates, system gets a rest and components cool.
some programs that run in the background are shut down.
you also have a cleaner computer as the fans suck in dirt and dust and lint all the time it is running.

Answer 6

Yes always good to shut down at night and save money..but if you are like me and have everything run at night when im asleep better to put it in standby.. because i run virus checker and defragger, and spyware programs at night and updates at night..so i put it on standby

Answer 7

It's usually better to shut it down at night. It saves power and helps it not to wear out as fast. I have a bad habit of letting it go into sleep mode at night instead of shutting it down.

Answer 8

Shut it down... having it on sleep mode still wastes electricity. Its also a sign of computer use addiction.

Answer 9

Shut it down and save power.

Answer 10

Shut it down itll save power.

Answer 11

Shut it down. If you have windows(which you probably do) it sometimes gets updates when you shut it off. If you don't, you don't get those updates. Also it saves power to not have it on all the time.