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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.

I have had my computer in the trunk of my car using it as an MP3 player (12,000 songs in my car - very cool!) for about a year and a half. It has lived through countless jolts, many subfreezing days, many 90+ degree days and literally thousands of power-ons and power-offs via a power switch installed on my dash. It has had no problems whatsoever. These machines are not as fragile as people think. Turn them off and save on the electricity bill.