Do you leave your PC on all the time?

Leopard

It's extraordinarily naive to pose such a ridiculously simplistic question as "Do you leave your PC on all the time?"

Just for starters, upon what basis is it assumed that the people to whom it is posed, here, have only one computer?

There will be many - given that this is, by its very name, a "Techie" forum - who have, and use, several.

Just to illustrate the point, I (currently) have eight Macs - if I may, for the sake of convenience, describe my Mac-hacked Wind as a Mac.

All of them are applied to different purposes. Some are switched on and off as and when needed, one (which is used as a server) is left running, full on, 24/7 and others are switched to "Sleep" mode when not actively in use.

I'm sure there will be many, here, who have more computers than I and that they deploy their uses of them similarly and variedly.

Others, who own offices of business, will have some computers there and some at home.

It's a dumb question to ask, particularly in this particular sub-forum.

[Deleted User]

Leopard wrote: »

It's extraordinarily naive to pose such a ridiculously simplistic question as "Do you leave your PC on all the time?"

Just for starters, upon what basis is it assumed that the people to whom it is posed, here, have only one computer?

There will be many - given that this is, by its very name, a "Techie" forum - who have, and use, several.

Just to illustrate the point, I (currently) have eight Macs - if I may, for the sake of convenience, describe my Mac-hacked Wind as a Mac.

All of them are applied to different purposes. Some are switched on and off as and when needed, one (which is used as a server) is left running, full on, 24/7 and others are switched to "Sleep" mode when not actively in use.

I'm sure there will be many, here, who have more computers than I and that they deploy their uses of them similarly and variedly.

Others, who own offices of business, will have some computers there and some at home.

It's a dumb question to ask, particularly in this particular sub-forum.

I don't think it's a dumb question and it's hardly the techest of tech forums on the Internet. :rolleyes:

Also don't assume that I only have 1 computer.

atro1

I thought I read somewhere on this site that 'no question is dumb'
I have used this thread many many times, always with me asking the question, I think if I had received that sort of reply to my first question 3/4 years ago I would never have used it again. So missing out on invaluable advice and money saving tips.
Be nice Leopard it does not hurt you!

Coveredinbees!!!!

Since I got my laptop my desk computer has hardly been on at all the laptop's normally left on sleep when were at home as there's normally something you want to know from the interweb, even if it's just the TV guide. I never turn off the router.

PROLIANT

Well I leave my PC on all the time...because I can't [EMAIL="be@rsed"]be @rsed[/EMAIL] to wait for it to boot up, I work long hours and it does not matter as my PC is set to hibernate after about 1 hour of idle time, I also have a Compaq ML370 Server running my home network, a CISCO PIX 506E Security appliance (firewall) and a couple of other things hanging around too.
My electricity bill is that expensive, about £28 per month, that is for a two bed house.

Leopard

In our household we always turn off the modem, the routers and the Ethernet switches when they're not being used.

That's as much for security as it is for energy and money saving.

John_Gray

Leaving your computer on all the time means that you can turn your central heating thermostat down about a thousandth of a degree, to compensate... :j (Or jump up and down to keep warm).

To be serious, if you want to leave your PC system unit on 'all the time' you should look into the Standby and Hibernate options which will save almost all of the electricity it consumes at the expense of a 10-30 second startup time when you want to use it. Laptops are fairly good on this, but older PCs may not implement this properly, and you may have to check for devices which bring the system unit out of standby when you didn't expect this to happen.

Maybe that kind, friendly and tolerant Leopard can be persuaded to produce a tutorial on the matter?

PROLIANT

I must say that my office at work which is also the server room now, is very warm indeed, I have shut off the central heating in the office as it would get to hot for the servers...and me too. So I can confirm that is a little energy saving on the go! :money:

cally6008

My laptop is only switched on when I'm in the house, same as OH's pc.
The router is plugged into my plug bar so at night there is only one plug bar left on with the router plugged into it as I unplug my laptop at night.
I've switched from using my desktop to using my laptop cos of the noise and to save electric.
If OH is away for the night, then when I go to bed I turn the router off as well.

aliasojo

Leopard wrote: »

Fortunately, however, there are also some highly intelligent and extremely kind members of this forum ......

Yes, I agree and I for one am thankful to them for taking time to answer my questions, whether they are regarded as dumb or not. They are clearly intelligent AND tolerant.

As for the original question.....mine are on all day as they are reguarly used throughout the day by various people, but turned off at night. With regards to the heating point, the room our main computer is in, is the warmest in the house and the heating is rarely on in there, simply because of the heat generated by the pc.

The router is never switched off.