24/7?
 

I leave my computer on 24/7 except for when it's storming really hard outside. I've always heard it's better to do that. Everyonce in a while, my computer seems to lag. I have high speed cable internet. Does leaving it on all the time have anything to do with that, or is that just the way it is?

No, leaving it on all the time should not really effect performance in that way. There is no real reason to leave it on all the time though, except that you don't want to wait for it to boot up when you sit in front of the PC. Modern power supplies and components use a lot of electricity. If you don't turn your PC off I'd reccomend making sure it's all set up to go into sleep mode when not in use - including the power supply and everything down stream from that.

Your PC could be lagging for a lot of different reasons, including spyware, malware, anti-virus or spyware protection, too much crap in your registry, etc.

Don't waste your mhz! If you're going to leave your pc running all the time you should be folding. Your spare cpu cycles can help cure cancer.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

my stats- http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/...name=AeroSquid

With Windoze, it's probably good to reboot once in a while. The OS itself produces alot of "residue".

I always shut mine down. Why leave it on when your not using it anyway?

That's actually what I'm wondering. I just heard that it was good to leave it on. I don't remember the reason why or who I heard it from, so that's why I asked.

I can't imagine why. All you are doing is wasting electricity and wearing out cooling fans. Mine is usually in Stand-by. When I'm asleep or at work, I shut it down...

The reason I have heard given on this is due to heat. Chips have teeny tiny little wires that expand and contract as they heat and cool when you turn the computer on and off. They take less of this stress if just left on all the time.

I don't know, that is just what I have heard. And yes, my computers stay on 24X7.

I have also heard from computer techs that the startup is a lot of work for the HD to get going and in fact starting the HD even once a day is harder on it than letting it run constantly.

If you're going to use the computer once a day or more then you're better off leaving it on EXCEPT for your monitor which you should let go into DPMS Sleep mode.

The reason is that start/stop is the hardest for any component in the computer. While running a solid state device (every chip in the machine) with too much electricity is bad, running it with too little is also hard on it. Turning the machine off gives it a little mini-brown out and causes wear.

As "evidence", who here has ever had a computer they were working on at the time die? I can't ever think of a single instance I've even heard about. They generally get turned off and never come back.

Now, as for Winblows and restarts. It's always a good idea to give Windows a chance to clear it's head once a week. Just do a standard reboot, you don't have to turn the computer off. Let Windows shake loose the cobwebs and it will thank you. Or at least it will be less likely to f**k you.

lot of tree huggers on this board :p

I leave all my computers on all the time :) they work great, thanks for your concern though.

Yeah.... Simplex pretty much nailed it....

And putting a regular PC (non-laptop) on Standby or Hibernation is a really bad idea. The drastic change in voltage going in and out of Standby is very hard on a PC, and isn't recommended for non-laptop PC devices. Laptops have completely different voltage levels and are designed specifically for these kinds of voltage changes.

Just turn the monitor off after a while, and reboot once a week or so......

Why leave it on? For my HDTiVO of course. :D