[Capt. Tom]

What do the Freepers think? -Tom

[jedi150]

400 watts an hour to run it.

[tallhappy]

Reboot AOAP - As often as possible.

[Dimensio]

You are going to run the components down faster by keeping it on eight hours than turning it off and then on again later -- not to mention that it'll help reduce your power bill. Power surges shouldn't be an issue if you use a UPS -- and you should use a UPS regardless of whether you keep your computer on or off when not in use. Of the four computers in my house only one is on all the time, and it is a firewall/IP masqurading router/server box that needs to have constant uptime.

[2witty]

turning it off or rebooting it clears up its little brain so that it is not so confused. so turn it off if you are going to be away for any length of time

[Slyfox]

If I leave the house and leave the computer on, I always turn the monitor off.
A friend of mine's monitor caught on fire and nearly burned the house down.

[aaaDOC]

To protect against a power surge, get a power surge protector.

For a firewall, get the free version of ZoneAlarm or the better (?) pay version.

One of the main reasons to shut down is to conserve energy. A sleep mode helps, but usually doesn't work with a broadband connection to the net. I can put my monitor in sleep mode without putting the computer in sleep mode.

One of the main reasons to re-boot is that a re-boot clears out your RAM from all the various junk that fills up your RAM while surfing.

I always shut down the whole system at night.

[TomGuy]

Sounds like you are doing ok.
I leave mine on all day, but turn it off at nite.
The start up (if you turn it off and on frequently) can take a toll on the drives.
The constant-on can affect your electric bill. However, the power supply doesn't consume much more than a couple of light bulbs.

Windows does require occasional reboots, though. Some Windows programs "hook" themselves in memory and won't release until reboot. So, if you open and close a lot of programs, you may find the system running slower.

You can, also, set your system (BIOS) or Windows power management to turn most of the components off or to standby mode after a selected period of keyboard/mouse inactivity.

[AzSteven]

If you have a WinDoze machine, you should Log Off your user, but leave the computer itself running. THis gives you the benefit of security, and when you log back on the OS is basically being rebooted.

[CDHart]

I've found that it's safer to turn it off when I'm not using it, and I also unplug the phone and power cords because a thunderstorm could fry the modem, regardless of what kind of surge suppressor you use. That's why I'm still using the same modem that I had in 1995. I really need to upgrade, though.

Carolyn

P.S. The ones at work stay on all the time, though, as we run a tape backup scheduled for 10:00 p.m.

[dread78645]

24/7, low power mode monitor. I shutdown when the thunderboomers come in.

A power-down (& cool-down) will prolly stress the hard drive more than running continuously.
I run FreeBSD, a re-boot to clearup memory is not a concern for me.

(15 yrs field service, 12 yrs Sysadmin, FWIW)

[green team 1999]

works great and will shut down your computer safely if power fails.

[AFreeBird]

There are many factors to consider.

Back in the days before the public became aware of the internet [i.e. before the WWW] I ran a BBS on an original IBM PC - 24/7 for two years. I shut it down after two years for some reason I don't recall anymore, and, after a couple of weeks being off, when I went to restart it; I got POST errors out the wazoo. In effect; it was dead. The reason? The curcuits cooled down too fast and probably created some hairline fractures in the pathways.

So keepiing it on and running for so long could create a similar type problem although today's computers are probably more thermally tolorant in some areas. Now both AMD and Intel HighSpeed (> 1GHz) processor's today do run hot. They all run with cooling fans attached to the heat sinks. If that fan fails, you have about 1~3 seconds before processor meltdown. That senario is offset with newer BIOS' and motherboards with thermal & fan sensors that can shutdown the system if it senses failure in those components or a rise in temperature.

If you are connected to the Net via Cable/DSL "always on" connection, then you had better be running a firewall such as ZoneAlarm. I myself run with ZoneAlarm and I also have a Firewall/Router/Hub that connects to my cable modem. LinkSys sells one for about $99.00. If you don't have such protection then you should shutdown at night.

Power: A UPS is a must. As mentioned by others there are energy considerations. Newer motherboards will allow Windoze power managment to idle the processor, harddrives and network adapters when unused for a preset length of time. It's you call on that.

As for the strain on components of starting up? Harddrives would be the most suseptable component for such trouble as it has the most moving parts and heating and cooling would take its toll. Fans will generally start to let you know of impending failure with the sound of their bearing(s) going out. I've never seen one just up and stop on its own without such warnings. Though I have seen some not want to spin up after a system was shutdown and they cooled a bit.

If you do decide to run your system 24/7, make sure it's in a cool place, out of direct sunlight and has plenty of ventilation.

[callisto]

Reboot every chance you get. A refresh is great for your computer. Get a firewall! Try Zonealarm, it's free. And if you're on DSL or cable modem definitely don't leave it open to any hacker out there running a computer program hunting for open computers to use for denial of service attacks. I try to think of my computer as needing the rest I need. If I don't get it I don't work well.

[Cicero]

My experience is that Windows energy-saving settings, such as shutting down the hard drive or going into standby or sleep mode, never work properly. So I set the monitor to go on standby after 15 minutes, but don't use any of the other energy settings. I always turn the computer off at night, except for weekly defrag and cleanup sessions.

If you have Windows 2000 or XP, you don't need to reboot nearly as often as you do with Win95/98/ME. But it still is best to shut down at night.

Also, DL and install the free version of ZoneAlarm, no matter how long you leave it on. Teenage hackers are hitting your computer all the time. Without a firewall you are asking for trouble.

[TommyDale]

Depending on the room temperature where the computer is located, you might want to shut down if you will be away for a long period of time. If the computer is in a colder area, the hard drive could actually contract in cold temperatures, and cause problems (or even failure) on reboot.

I personally like to leave my systems on, unless a thunderstorm occurs, at which time I shut down and disconnect all wires from the wall, including phone/cable connections. The only failure I have experienced is losing a hard drive when booting up while cold. Keeping a constant temperature is most important to the health of a PC.

[Frohickey]

I put mine to sleep when I'm not using it. Then to use it, I just wake it up by click on the one and only mouse button or pressing on the keyboard, and its up in like 15 seconds.

[Psycho_Bunny]

A very general rule is: if you aren't going to use a computer for more than three days, turn it off. Otherwise, leave it on, unless: you don't have a UPS, you don't have a power savings compliant system, or you have a static line to the internet without a dependable firewall.

[Redcloak]

We leave ours running 24/7. (Unless we will be away for more than a day.) Yes, that consumes energy, but we don't like the idea of thermal shocking the parts. Keeping the boxes on keeps them warm and toasty. We have them both on surge protectors and they both have Zone Alarm and Norton Anti-virus running. Another utility that keeps them happy is MaxMem from AnalogX. This little program watches memory usage and chases out the junk that doesn't belong. Stuff that's not in use gets moved out of RAM and onto the hard drive. This frees up memory without having to re-boot over and over again.

[fjsva]

I've got 7 computers on a home network here. One..an old Pentium 200 class is used as the home NT server. Its on 24/7 (w/ occasional reboots) for several years without any failures.

The kids computer...2 years old and turned off/on daily... just blew the power supply.

Generally, I leave them on unless I won't be using them for a couple of days. I always turn the monitors off when not using them. Cycling on/off frequently seems to cause problems.

[FAB]

Most of the suggestions here are very good. I would like to suggest a couple of others.
At least once a week, depending on usage, disconnect power from the computer. This is especially true for the newer machines. When you press the power button on the newer machines, it does not actually disconnect power. The machine may still supply power to the memory chips. SO, they never get cleared.
Also, there is a program called Cacheman which will recover unused memory.
I hope this helps.