shutdown vs. always-on

[Pez D Spencer]

the other "shutdown or logoff" thread piqued my interest as to what the
current feeling of the (current) group is on this topic.

from my experience, when a system dies it's on startup. that seems to
be the most likely time you'll see fireworks spitting from the pack of
the power supply.

but, to me, that doesn't mean that it's best to leave it on all the
time because of wear on the mechanical parts inside the machine: fans
and hdd.

when i was in college, it seemed that the opinion was to leave it on
all the time because startup stressed the hdd more than just leaving it
on. i don't really see this as likely, because a full system scan with
an av utility seems to stress the hdd much more than a couple of
startups and shutdowns during the day.

i'm sure this question has been asked before, but i always like to read
the most current opinion on the subject.

thx.

 

[Robert Gault]

the other "shutdown or logoff" thread piqued my interest as to what the
current feeling of the (current) group is on this topic.

from my experience, when a system dies it's on startup. that seems to
be the most likely time you'll see fireworks spitting from the pack of
the power supply.

but, to me, that doesn't mean that it's best to leave it on all the
time because of wear on the mechanical parts inside the machine: fans
and hdd.

when i was in college, it seemed that the opinion was to leave it on
all the time because startup stressed the hdd more than just leaving it
on. i don't really see this as likely, because a full system scan with
an av utility seems to stress the hdd much more than a couple of
startups and shutdowns during the day.

i'm sure this question has been asked before, but i always like to read
the most current opinion on the subject.

thx.

Be prepared to get a lot of opinion worth what you paid for it and
little fact. It is very unlikely that there is good scientific test data
on this subject. There will be data on equipment lifetimes and you will
"waste" much of that for "always on" systems.

One thing you should do is determine the power consumed by your computer
while on (even in standby mode), how much that adds to your electric
bill, and decide whether you want to pay for that given that you might
actually use the computer 20% or less of the time it is always on. Keep
in mind that switching in and out of standby mode could cause the same
"stress" cause by full shutdown/turn-on cycles.