Should a Computer Be Left "On" or "Off" When Not in Use


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I leave mine on at night, that is when my anti virus scans are done and my torrents download - during offpeak 12am-12pm. If I don't have any downloads lined up then I usually shutdown for the night

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I have mine on "24/7" unless I leave town (then PC is turned off). When only going uptown to do grocies or visiting people, I just leave my PC on but monitor off.

I just checked task manager it is saying the PC's been up nearly 7 days lol. And it's summer here. Hot!

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How do you people be able to keep your computer on for so much time. I am in India and in summer time if I keep computer on for 4 hours, CPU temps reach to 55-60 degree C. :(

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How do you people be able to keep your computer on for so much time. I am in India and in summer time if I keep computer on for 4 hours, CPU temps reach to 55-60 degree C. :(

CPU temps for me isnt the problem (35c -40c idle, 60-70c load)

For me its my 3 video cards, idling they range from 50c to 65c

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Putting the computer in Sleep mood means I cannot turn off the wall socket power switch right? :o But if I Hibernate, I can turn the switch off right?

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Putting the computer in Sleep mood means I cannot turn off the wall socket power switch right? :o But if I Hibernate, I can turn the switch off right?

Yes. When you Sleep the computer, all data is still in RAM so it needs power. On Hibernating, data is written on Hard Disk so it is safe to cut off the power.

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Putting the computer in Sleep mood means I cannot turn off the wall socket power switch right? :o But if I Hibernate, I can turn the switch off right?

Yes, but if you're using Hybrid Sleep (S3+S4) w/ Windows 7 (and Vista I believe), it also does the hibernation stuff in case you lose power so it can resume when you turn the computer back on.

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mines on almost always unless I'm away from home for a lengthy period of time or need a reboot for updates etc. I have relatively low powered hardware which idle at reasonable power consumption amount and so people can always get in contact with me even while i sleep so yeah.

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How do you people be able to keep your computer on for so much time. I am in India and in summer time if I keep computer on for 4 hours, CPU temps reach to 55-60 degree C. :(

What is your CPU? 55-60 for normal use is fine with an Intel Core2 chip.

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Putting the computer in Sleep mood means I cannot turn off the wall socket power switch right? :o But if I Hibernate, I can turn the switch off right?

Yes, sleep turns everything but the RAM off basically, so yes power is needed to maintain the data in RAM.

Hibernate saves the contents of RAM to the HDD and then turns the system off, so if you hibernate you can turn off at the wall.

I hibernate my laptop and desktop (Can't use sleep on my desktop due to Water cooling - pump and cooling fan stay running). Server and Fileserver are shutdown every night and/or if I'm going to be out for more then an a couple of hours. Only overnight runs are if I have a lot of downloads queued up for my off-peak usage. Since I pay for my own power usage and don't have a lot of money need to save (considering I'm running my A/C again now)

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What is your CPU? 55-60 for normal use is fine with an Intel Core2 chip.

I have Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40 GHz

I prefer my idle temperature to be < 40 degree and in load < 60 degree. But in summer it goes upto 70 degree. Once I used computer for nearly 8 hrs. continuously and the temp went to 80 degree and a thermal trip occurred and system went off.

My current CPU temp is 30 degree C and my uptime is 1/2 hrs.

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you people are so lazy, just cos you dont want to wait 20 seconds for it to turn on, you leave it on overnight? why not just turn it off, and you save energy and your electricity bill will be cheaper.

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Mate, if we start to change our habits, mother nature wins. I wont be held over a barrel or held hostage to change with a gun to my head. Now ive enjoyed the exhiliration of 24/7 uptime for years now. Think of how much time ive saved by not waiting that 20 seconds. It all adds up for me.

That is the difference between law and ethics. Ethics are not forced. :no: I can waste as much water as I want.

I wont be held over a barrel or held hostage to change with a gun to my head.

But then also I don't waste water but I save it. That is ethics. :yes:

you people are so lazy, just cos you dont want to wait 20 seconds for it to turn on, you leave it on overnight? why not just turn it off, and you save energy and your electricity bill will be cheaper.

(Y)

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Servers - On all the time

Workstations - Off unless their doing anything important, eg downloading.

GE

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I used to keep mine on 24/7, even while sleeping at night for downloads. But I setup a WHS sometime back, so now that takes care of all my downloads. But I still don't switch off any of my machines, just put it to sleep when not in use, so that it is available instantly, but mainly so that WHS can back them up regularly. With regards to power consumption, it is hardly anything, my main desktop consumes 155W of power (with monitor on), which is hardly anything, at least for me.

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I used to leave my PC on over night to download large files, but since I upgraded to 50Mb BB I rarely have to wait. So now I just power off when I sleep and at work (where I used to leave it on even doing nothing!!). The extra cost in the BB is an extra ?14 per month (?168yr) I say that Just turning the PC off over night saves more cash than that! ..

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Yes, but if you're using Hybrid Sleep (S3+S4) w/ Windows 7 (and Vista I believe), it also does the hibernation stuff in case you lose power so it can resume when you turn the computer back on.

Hybrid sleep? Interesting. Yes I am on Windows 7.

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I don't understand why more people don't put their computer to sleep. It'll cost you, what, $5-10 in electricity for the year? Then you get the benefits of instant-on and savings on your power bill.

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Yes, sleep turns everything but the RAM off basically, so yes power is needed to maintain the data in RAM.

Hibernate saves the contents of RAM to the HDD and then turns the system off, so if you hibernate you can turn off at the wall.

So actually there's no point I hibernate since it feels like shutting down and this power consuming thing still applies. I shall try putting my computer to sleep for the next 3 hours as I am leaving my desktop.

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Hybrid sleep? Interesting. Yes I am on Windows 7.

It should already be enabled by default.

So actually there's no point I hibernate since it feels like shutting down and this power consuming thing still applies. I shall try putting my computer to sleep for the next 3 hours as I am leaving my desktop.

Hibernation consumes no power. It saves everything from RAM to an image file on the the drive first, then powers down completely. When Windows starts up, it loads the image from the HD back into RAM.

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In America, is there no power outage? Because where I live, power is not continuously available, so sleeping the computer is not an option.

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