Turn computer off or leave switched on?

Hellion

@Hellion
Light bulbs and processors turn electrical power into heat. They dissipate power rather than generate it.

ahh, but the very effect of turning electrical energy into thermal energy is heat generation, so in esence it is in fact generating thermal power

Noobie_2

Mine goes off - not for cost reasons (wow, that debate's getting, um, heated!) but for security reasons - if its switched off, no-one's remotely messing with it. (Er, right???)

Rave

My computer runs 24/7 because it's running Find A Drug, but if your computer is going to be doing nothing for a period of more than, say, an hour, I'd definately turn it off to save power. PCs do take a surge of energy when they power up, but this is merely to spin up the hard drive(s) and any optical drives, and lasts 10s at most. Bootup doesn't put a great deal of stress on any component either.

The newer your computer (in general) the more power it will dissipate, whether it's working or sitting idle. Pentium 4s are especially bad at dissipating power, the latest Prescott types are terrible .

Rich :¬)

derrick

As the originator of this thread and after reading the replies,I have come to the conclusion that if I am to leave the computer for more than an hour it is going to be £wise to switch off especially overnight.

Another question in the same subject,is it the same to go to standby,which I think on my set up then goes to hibernation within about 5 mins, where all the sounds from the computer go silent,then when I press the start button it seems to come on quicker,though I am not to sure about the time scale of this.

Gratefull thanks to all who replied with there input

lellie

I haven't read all this thread as I'm very busy..

but in terms of life expectancy of a computer.. you're more likely to do damage to a computer during boot up than at any other time.. if a computer is on and stable it is unlikely to be damaged.. the more times you shut down and boot up the more times it is likely to have hardware failure..

derrick

But as has been gleaned from the responses it can cost upwards of £90 per year in electric if left on when not in use!
I. E. if the computer is equivilant to 300 watts,(and it could be higher) and it is off overnight (12 hours) = 3.6 k.w. @ 7p per k.w.? = 25.2p per day x 365 days = £91.98 per year

derbyjo

As a related but on a different topic should a laptop be used with the power cable all the time, should it be disconnected and then the battery run down completely or what? I want my battery to last for as long as possible.

Chippy_Minton

Another question in the same subject,is it the same to go to standby,which I think on my set up then goes to hibernation within about 5 mins, where all the sounds from the computer go silent,then when I press the start button it seems to come on quicker,though I am not to sure about the time scale of this.

Standby puts your computer into a low power state (e.g. hard drives are switched off). Any applications you have open will be left running.

Hibernate saves your current environment (i.e. any applications you have running) to the hard drive and then switches off the computer. When you switch it back on again, everything is restored and the applications are back as you left them.