I always turn off my computer because my dad dont alow me to keep it on the whole day long. The electric bills are gonna be higher and it can heat to much.

There is no definate answer for this as it depends on the climate condition and the rquirement of the individual
there are advantages like the time to start and shut down is saved and that the continious start pc saves the chip from going to hot temperature to directly cold temprature or vice versa as some say it might destroy your pc chips due to the magnitude change on the temperature faced by the pc chips it is also good because one can keep the antivirus on as long as possible and hence better as you dont shut down pc ,no need to keep easy accessible plug and switch
and no need to close and start the internet concection and get constant alerts of emails and friends messenger alerts
there is also a long list of disadvantage of keeping your pc on and they are like keeping it on longer may heat the pc chips too much if you live in a hot climate and this actually make the pc too hot and ultimately lead them to melt and break the circuit ,then the disadvantage also includs like screen freeze as screen cant display image fater when it starts ,then there is accumulation of a lot of temp memory ,as when a pc shut down and restarts a lot of memory of the temprory memory is removed and hence the pc starts faster and helps and as the pc is if kept on with internet then as we know the statistics say that the people who leep their internet on all tima are more prone to hacking attempts and virus and trojans ,so these list keeps on going for disadvantages too.so it actua;;y depends on what climate condition you are using the pc and what are your rewuirements and demand from the system

We should thank thousands of people for leaving their computers on 24/7. And it was so good and so beneficial for us...

Imagine youtube, google, and trap17 servers not 24/7?

My router in my internet cafe is a desktop type NEC which has a 60watt power consumption (I really love japanese equipment since they are very much power conscious).

Branded units are better for a 24/7 work time, why?

Most of the branded units were engineered upto the last specification. Heatsinks and fans are well enough for the unit, power supplies were designed to supply just the right amount of power for the unit.

I've got a MacBook Pro 17" with Core2Duo running at 2.33 Mhz and I used to leave it on over night, never letting it sleep. Then I noticed my electric bill had literally doubled! Now I close the lid at night and it sleeps when I do. I was very surprised at how much electricity this thing uses... For the work it's doing though, when it was left to its own devices at night (SETI@home), it's probably pretty efficient, but I just can't afford that kind of electric bill right now. I still never turn it off, I put it to sleep, which is very close. All it takes is a very tiny amount of electricity to keep the RAM powered up to maintain the memory and to wake it takes about a second, so no waiting for it to reboot.

I turn my computer off, mainly because it's a laptop and can't be left on else it will overheat, but I try to keep computers off if I don't use them for long periods of time (for more than 2-4 hours). I was always taught that your memory will fill up and slow down your computer if it stays on all the time and that turning it off will clear it, but I'm not sure. I just feel safer turning off my computer (hardware wise). As for viruses, I hardly get those as it is, I don't worry about them, but I believe it would be difficult to get a virus if you aren't using any programs that communicate with the internet, but I don't know the exact nature of a virus.

I've heard that it's better to leave the computer on. I've heard that it's better to turn the computer off. I've heard from both experts and non-experts.

So, I just go with whatever I feel like doing because, hey, it's nobody else's problem if my computer blows up or overheats or something

Mine stays on. I reboot every day or two so that my antivirus definitions will update, but other than that I don't care.

Due to reasons with electricity, cooling, and helping very slightly to save the environment, I do not keep my computer on 24/7. If I had a BBS, I would probably have a computer running 24/7, but there are other systems to do that.

I usually keep my PC on 24/7 to keep my Starcraft bots running. Like other users said, there's really no power disadvantage, so the only real problem I have is with memory leaks. I usually have to restart the comp once every 4-5 days, but it's fine. I sleep right next to it, but it's in a comp cabniet (for ventilation, there's no back), so it's pretty quiet. I don't even notice it since the fan I have to circulate air in my room is a bit louder.

Leaving your computer on 24/7 is NOT a problem.

You just have to be worried about 2 things.

- HEAT, make sure you have a proper cooling system, enough fans and it should be ok.

- DUST, the second and the most important, although related to the first one.

The more fans you have in your computer the cooler it will stay but it will also get fulled of dust sooner. So the better way to safely have your computer on 24/7 is with a good amount of fans to make it as cooler as possible and by cleaning its fans and grids at least 1 time per year, 1 time per 6 months would be better.

If you are lazy just buy yourself a water cooling system and close the holes of your box and maybe you won't have too much trouble about cleaning it.

So stop talking about computers that burned houses, it will only happen if there are inside the box anything inflamable that shouldn't be there, like large amounts of dust, pieces of paper or even rests of food(I'm not kidding, I saw it already).

About the electricity bill I didn't mentioned because I didn't think the amount consumed was enough to be mentioned.

This post has been edited by blackrabit: Mar 29 2007, 03:24 PM

It is hard on computers, but I have an older computer in which I leave on for days straight, just for downloading purposes.