Which is better for your computer? Leaving it on all night or turning it off?

Question

I've heard pros and cons for both......

Answer 1

If you want to turn it on fast, i suggest either you use standby mode or hibernate.

For standby, you can set it to suspend to RAM which is known as S3 mode or just use regular S1 mode (suspend to CPU). Consult your mainboard's user manual on how to change this.

For hibernate, you need to turn it on first. Open Power Options in Control Panel (Start--Control Panel--Power Options). Click on hibernate tab and check the checkbox stating Enable Hibernate support. Click OK.
Now click on Start--Turn off computer. A shut down window should appear with Stand By, Shut Down and Restart. Press Shift key and Stand By will changed to Hibernate. Click on it.
Your system should enter hibernate mode and shut down in a few minutes after collecting some informations.

There are many other options that you might want to know about. Options like Wake on LAN and Wake on Call is use to wake your system remotely. Consult your mainboard's user manual for more information.

Standby S1 mode : All power off except to fan and CPU.
Standby S3 mode : All power off except to RAM (might appear like normal shut down).
Hibernate : All power off (like normal shut down but faster loading)

Good luck!

Answer 2

Turning a computer off at night saves you about $20-30 a month on your electric bill. It also reduces the change that someone can infect the computer, hack into it, or take control of it to spam or do other illegal actions. Can not do any of that if the PC is off.

If you want the faster response in the morning - not having to wait for everything to load - consider using Hibernation whenever you will be away from the computer for more than an hour or tow. You save the power and get the security of turning it off, but still have a faster response time when you want to access it.

Also, there are certain maintence things that Windows only does, such as clear memory, clean temp files, and install or start updates, when the computer is rebooted. So even if you opt for a 24/7 power on, but is strongly recommended that you reboot at least once a week to allow the maintence.

Having said all that, my favorite PC normally runs 24/7. And I have a file server that I have not turned off in about a year.

Answer 3

There's an old wife's tale that turning a computer on and off makes the solder joints on a board expand and contract as it heats up and cools down leading to the possibility of a solder joint going open but I've worked on a lot of puters and have never seen any with that problem. I just don't like sleeping with a puter running, perhaps because I had a house burn down once(not from a puter). Turn it off and save some money. Besides, haven't you heard? It's time to go green and save our planet from global warming. LOL

Answer 4

People used to believe that leaving it on was better for the hard disk drives... It turned out that this isn't true, that the constant heat is actually bad for a number of parts in the computer.
The environmental impact of using the electricity is also very bad.

Answer 5

you need to defend on the uses of your computer. if you use your computer regularly it is better to leave it on at night, so that your computer do some task while you are sleeping, like scanning, defragmanting, etc., your disk, updating software (you need to set a schedule for this) or downloading big files. this will save you time, and you can use more effiecient your computer at day without the doing some maintenance task, which somehow slows your computer.

the not good thing is your electricity bill.

Answer 6

I leave it on, but that is just due to lazyness.

Really you will save power if you shut it down. However it will be minimally harder on the computer then leaving it on (most likely on the power supply).

But still, it's miniscule and you probably could save some pocket change if you shut if off.

So it depends, one is better for lack of hassle, one is better for some change every month. I guess it's just a call of which one is worth more to ya.

Answer 7

as long as you're fans are working fine leave it on. most computer errors occur at startup anyways. plus you'd have to wait 2 or more minutes for it to start up and then another minute to find your wireless network if you have..

Answer 8

Neither, put it on 'stand by' instead.

That way you save energy because it has powered down and it reboots in a fraction of the time of a full reboot.

Answer 9

your own preference really. I leave mine on 24/7 unless I got to clean it out or updates that call for a reboot.

Answer 10

turn off the pc