when to turn off ur computer?

[phatpat]

just curious as to how often you guys actually fully turn off your computer? is it even required? my dad goes weeks without shutting his down, but i believe shutting it down over night is good/also preserves energy.
does how often you shut down effect performance?

[Frozenbeef]

i turn it off every night around 10:45 pm and turn it on when i come back from college usually 4 pm..

[Thes]

When I cba to actually hit the power button..

[Willelm]

Whenever I'm not using it I shut it down. It's better for your PC.

[Enders]

It stops the components, fans, etc. from wearing out too fast, for one thing. There's really no reason not to.

[Lesath]

Only reason I ever turn my computer off is due to severe weather. That being said, it goes into sleep mode after 15 minutes of inactivity. Longest I've gone without a restart was 29 days. Usually make it a week or two before Windows has to restart due to an update.

[Deleted]

What is this "turn off computer" you're talking about?

[BicycleMafioso]

Whenever I don't need the computer for anything.
IE, downloading, alarmclock (yea, so I like waking up to music?), people needing to reach me et c are the only reason I leave the computer on, while not intending to be awake/in the room.
Current uptime: 0days 3hours 27min 10sec.

[Lethill]

I turn mine off every night. At the very least I stick it in sleep mode, but usually just shut down completely
Can't leave it running while I sleep since I had an overheating/airflow problem and decided to solve it with 2x 1900RPM 120mm case fans. Stays very cool, but its a bit too loud to sleep through.

When I plan on going out for more than 3 hours I shut down as well.

[imtehrogue]

Usually mine is on until i'm going somewhere important, and that is around 1-3 weeks

[Asera]

Mine is on 24/7 usually. Lately I've been turning it off due to a motherboard issue (sending it out for RMA today before I go to Florida).

When I leave for more than 2 days, it also gets shut down.

[Badpaladin]

I always shut mine down every night and it's also off when I'm at class. No reason not to turn it off frequently, it extends the life of the machine.

[r3nd]

Shut it down over night. I work 9-6, with an hour break from 12-1, so I'm home during lunch. I turn it on for that hour, then off again when I go back to work. Then on again when I come home, until I go to sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

[Optimoos]

There are two sides to this decision. On one hand, when you're not at the computer you can shut it off and save energy. On the other hand, parts failure is most likely to occur during or shortly after power-on, primarily because of thermal expansion. Bearings in hard drives and tiny imperfections in PCB will suffer the most as they go from a cold state to their normal operating temperature. There is also the increased likelihood of overloading a power related circuit during power-on while all devices draw more power to get initialized.

That said, this is not a FUD campaign to make you leave your computer on. Modern electronics are generally well produced and power cycling a device will not reduce its lifespan to before you'd normally toss it anyway. Knowing this, I turn my computer off every night because I'd rather save energy. I just wanted to point out that people saying "It's better for your computer to shut it off" aren't entirely correct.

[Adappy]

About 5 years ago I had a laptop that developed a motherboard problem (the keyboard controller would freak out and think the alt key was stuck) and I would occasionally get woken up by my computer's speaker going *BEEP* constantly. Ever since then I've shut down my PCs when I go to bed, just out of habit.

[Deleted]

Generally when I go to sleep or go out, or for any other reason don't need the machine. Unless theres an extended background process going on at the time like a download. But thats rather rare when downloads rarely take more than an hour, and most a matter of minutes. Its not unusual as such for me to boot up the machine anywhere between 1 to 3 times per day, since it only takes around 15-20 seconds to reach the desktop from a cold boot.

Laptop has a tendency to spend a lot more time in standby mode though, though if those are included for it then we're looking at up to 20+ 'power' cycles for it during days when its getting used.

[Saithes]

I never turn mine off. On idle my PC averages 60-80 watts from the wall so it's not that much.

[Fooliecoolie]

I power down my system every night Sunday to Thursday especially during summer months to save on electricity (I live in Austin, Tx were average temperature is 99 degrees Fahrenheit from May to October). Friday and Saturday will depend if I am staying in or going out the next day.

[Bad Management]

I've had my computer one 24/7 for some month's now, as I'm an avid torrentfreak.
Only restarted it once or twice because of updates etc.

[poldera]

i switch my pc off every night as i dont need it on when i'm not using it. + my parents are electricity saving freaks