Better To Leave PC In Sleep When Unused, Or Shut Down?

[mrjimphelps]

If I needed a power supply, and I didn't have one available in my "junk" pile, I would get a Corsair power supply -- https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...Supply-Units/c/Cor_Products_PowerSupply_Units

I would get it from any local vendor; but if I couldn't find it locally, I would probably get it from New Egg (Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com).

For the record, I leave my PC running 24/7, unless I am going out of town for a couple of days or more, in which case I turn it off and unplug it.

In certain cases, sleep or hibernate is not appropriate. For example, if one of my customers' computers goes into sleep or hibernate mode, I won't be able to remote into that computer. Therefore, I turn off auto-sleep / auto-hibernate on my customers' computers, unless I will never be remoting into that computer. But there is another case where it would be bad for the computer to sleep or hibernate: if you stay connected to some remote system, and your computer goes into sleep or hibernate, not only will it lose the connection during the sleep / hibernate period, but also it may not be able to reconnect when it wakes up.

If you do auto-updates during the night, then you don't want the computer to be asleep during that time, that is, unless the computer can be set to wake up before it is time to do updates.

If none of these describe your situation, then sleep or hibernate are probably a good idea for you when you have finished using the computer for the day.

 

[lehnerus2000]

All electronic systems can be subject to a high Inrush current when switched on, many tests over many years have found this to more detrimental to long term usage than leaving the device in the on state

Agreed.

I worked as a repair tech for a telecom company in the '80s.
Most devices failed at power on.

Electro-mechanical devices are especially vulnerable (e.g. hard drives & optical drives).

 

[Megahertz07]

I have an Acer Desktop PC. I remember someone once telling me on here that it was better to do smart scans on Anti Virus/Malware most of the time rather than full scans, as full scans cause a lot of wear and tear on the hard drive.

This got me thinking what other things I could do to cause less wear and tear on my hard drive or even the whole pc. Generally I start up my pc mid morning and use it on and off a few hours each day, putting it into sleep when not used during daytime. At approx. 11pm, I shut down the pc, and it stays shut down for the next 12 hours until started up again the next day.

Is it best for my pc to continue shutting it down at night, and re-starting it 12 hours later?

Or would it be better to leave the pc in sleep mode for those 12 hours?

Thanks for any advice.

If your computer turns off ALL mechanic devices (like CPU, GPU, PS and Case fans), HDD is stopped and the LCD is turned off, the energy consumption at sleep is almost nothing. That isn't the reason to shut it down.

I shut it down when not in use and turn off the switch on the surge arrest. Any high power disturbance on the line, as an opening circuit breaker, can generate high voltages that can damage the computer.