Windows 7 - Computer on 24/7 or off every night?

Hey guys, I recently just put together a couple of computers (for the first time), and was wondering if any of you could enlighten me as to whether or not it's better to leave your computer on 24/7 or power down every night and on every morning.

What are your thoughts? I'm thinking in terms of energy consumption (and how this translates into my monthly electricity bill) as well as thermal/electrical stress on the hardware.

Thanks!

I suppose that is at the users discretion. I powers off every night for several reasons, (a) electric bill (b) wear and tear (c) environment and if there are going to be issues after a days play well you are more than likely going to encounter them when you shut down/start up. I suppose people do leave theirs running for weeks/months at a time but I cant see the positives from it myself, although I do leave my phone on 24/7.

About the electricity bill - I'm running a 550w 85% efficient PSU...do you have any way to possibly relate how running this 24/7 would translate into my monthly bill (like, ballpark I'd pay $10 more a month vs. turning it off every night, for example)?

Also, on the wear and tear...it seems to me that the thermal/electrical stress of turning it on every day (going from cold to warm instantly) could cause more damage than the 'wear and tear' of continual use? Am I way off base here?

i've pretty much always left mine on 24/7, dating back to the mid 90's. i prefer not having to wait for the thing to boot up to access whatever it is. and these days, i fold@home too, so it serves another purpose as well. ^_^

wear and tear? i've yet to have anything fail me due to 24/7 operation, though i have had them fail due to crappy electrical in the house ;o

my friend leaves his main on 24/7 unless he's gonna be elsewhere for the night/weekend/whatever, and only turns his secondary on when it's being used.


on a side note; after 13+ years of hearing the fan hum, i can't sleep with out it on. it's too quiet =(

Do you recommend sleep mode?

i don't use sleep mode at all, my friend used to let it drop into sleep mode. not sure what he does now. some hardware combos _do not_ like it. it's sort of a preference vs compatibility thing.


now; the antec 550 has a 9A input

9x120=1080w input

here, the cost of power is something like, 5.71 cent/kwh, which factors out to just shy of 1.50$/day or, 45.20$/month (30days)

keeping in mind this is _full_ 9A draw, which isn't always going to happen, but it's safe to use that as the baseline without hooking an inline amp/watt meter between your pc and the wall

sleep mode will certainly cut the cost down by at least 1/3, to 1/2, depending on how often it's in sleep mode and how much is 'sleeping'

in the end, it comes down to choice ^_^

I shut mine off every night.Don't see much point in it running if i'm not using it.

the only time my rig is off is during a power cut.......

its probably been running now (with a few reboots for drivers & such) for about a year......


i did have a surge a few months ago though, it buggered my BIOS completely...

it wont cause a problem as long as your temps don't start creeping up...







SK

I suggest sleep mode, it only uses around 6w for me, which is same as shutting it down unless I unplug my whole rig out of the wall, which not many do I believe.

So shutting it down wont completely stop the power drain, unless unpluggeg.

And good thing about sleep in Windows 7 is that it goes sleep in 2 seconds and wakes up in 2 seconds, which is basicly instant if you turn on monitors at same time.

I leave mine on , hardly ever not doing something on it !