Is it better to leave your computer on all the time?

Posted by Joe Schmoe on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Joe Schmoe
Published on 2009-07-15T16:25:51Z Indexed on 2010/03/26 11:43 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 149

Filed under:

Hardware

|

Maintenance

|

power-management

Most of the hardware failures I've had (especially hard drive crashes) have happened when turning the machine on, so is it better to leave your computer on all the time or not?

For years, I've heard arguments for...

no power surges on start-up
steady operating temperature for components

and against...

unnecessary wear on hard drives
power wastage

and I'm still not sure.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about Hardware

Older SAS1 hardware Vs. newer SAS2 hardware

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
I got a question today from someone asking about the older SAS1 hardware from over a year ago that we had on the older 7x10 series. They didn't leave an email so I couldn't respond directly, but I said this blog would be blunt, frank, and open so I have no problem addressing it publicly. A quick… >>> More
Installer Reboots at "Detecting hardware" (disks and other hardware) on all recent Server Installs

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a very frustrating problem with my PC. I cannot install any recent version of Ubuntu Server (or even Desktop) since 9.04 even using the text-based installer. I boot from a USB stick created by Unetbootin (I also tried other methods such as startup disk creator with no difference). On the Server… >>> More
Difference between "machine hardware" and "hardware platform"

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
My Linux machine reports "uname -a" outputs as below:- [root@tom i386]# uname -a Linux tom 2.6.9-89.ELsmp #1 SMP Mon Apr 20 10:34:33 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux [root@tom i386]# As per man page of uname, the entries "i686 i686 i386" denotes:- machine hardware name (i686) processor type (i686) hardware… >>> More
Remove hardware from "safely remove hardware" list on Windows 7

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, I have a USB wifi card (D-Link DWA-125) on a Windows 7 x64 computer. The problem is that the card appears on the "safely remove hardware" list, but I don't ever want to unplug it, so I would like to remove it from the list. So far I have only found solutions that mess with the registry (and… >>> More
Windows 7 Not Recognizing Any Hardware, Linux Recognizing Hardware

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a new desktop computer with two SSDs: one running Linux Mint 15 (SSD1), the other running Windows 7 (SSD2). My mint runs perfectly - USB wireless adapter is recognized, SSD2 (connected by SATA) is recognized and accessible through the filesystem, Ethernet works, etc. However, my Windows 7… >>> More

Related posts about Maintenance

htaccess code for maintenance page redirect

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
I set up a maintenance page that I could enable through an htaccess file. The html file is located in a folder called "maintenance". The html file has some images in it. However, visitors to the page see no images, even though I added a line to allow them. If I try to visit an image in the browser… >>> More
Tools to (privately) annotate/markup a website for maintenance

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I've been tasked with updating a website. Rather than proofreading and updating each page (one at a time), I want to make a single pass over the entire website, marking graphics/images/videos that need to be rewritten, removed, or updated. I thought about taking screenshots, marking those up, and… >>> More
Activate site maintenance via RewriteCond -f check?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I thought about hitting a file via -f (i think it is) in a mod_rewrite RewriteCond, if the file exists, rewrite to maintenance page. I don't think the performance penalty should be too big, but maybe people had other experiences or objections on this idea? >>> More
Exam 70-448 - TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
The another exam I passed was 70-448 - TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. This exam covers Business Intelligence (BI) solutions development and maintenance on SQL Server 2008 platform. It was not easy exam, but if you study then you can do it. To get… >>> More
Oracle presents an upgrade tool for the E-Business Suite: Oracle Maintenance Wizard

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Vikki Pickard, Product and Development Manager for the Oracle Maintenance Wizard introduces a very useful tool that guides customers through E-Business Suite upgrades and the code line maintenance process. >>> More