Power on or off?
February 17, 2010 10:02 PM Subscribe
Should I turn my computer off or leave it on all the time?
I know turning it on and off is what wears it out, but I also like to save energy. I usually split the difference and leave it on if I'm only gone for a couple of hours, then turn it off when I'm gone longer. Just wondering what you folks think.
I know turning it on and off is what wears it out, but I also like to save energy. I usually split the difference and leave it on if I'm only gone for a couple of hours, then turn it off when I'm gone longer. Just wondering what you folks think.
At home, I leave my Mac on all the time (albeit in "sleep" mode when I'm away). At work, I shut down/start up my PC every day, partly because patches/updates/etc installed by my sysadmin leave the workstation unstable, and partly to save power.
posted by SPrintF at 10:09 PM on February 17, 2010
posted by SPrintF at 10:09 PM on February 17, 2010
I put mine into standby when I know I'm going to be gone for more than 15 minutes. I put a killawatt on the plug and tested to see how much electricity was used to bring it out of standby, and it's minimal. There's a spike of about 50% more electricity used for a couple of seconds, but after that, once the computer is fully "booted", it goes back to normal.
The time savings of 5 seconds aren't worth the extra electricity used to keep it fully active. Putting the PC into S3 uses 6w of electricity, compared to about 90w when in use.
posted by Solomon at 10:18 PM on February 17, 2010
The time savings of 5 seconds aren't worth the extra electricity used to keep it fully active. Putting the PC into S3 uses 6w of electricity, compared to about 90w when in use.
posted by Solomon at 10:18 PM on February 17, 2010
Sleep mode is good. Make sure it's set to go to sleep shortly after you stop using it. I would think the default for both Mac and PC is 20 or 30 minutes, but check it anyway. But you're not, AFAIK, doing any more damage leaving it sleeping than turning it off and on. In fact, turning it off and on would put wear on the few moving parts it does have.
I do reboot--if not completely shut down--every week or so. Sometimes programs (glares at Firefox) grind to microscopic speeds and a reboot is the only thing that frees them up.
posted by zardoz at 10:20 PM on February 17, 2010
I do reboot--if not completely shut down--every week or so. Sometimes programs (glares at Firefox) grind to microscopic speeds and a reboot is the only thing that frees them up.
posted by zardoz at 10:20 PM on February 17, 2010
I remember reading somewhere once that turning a computer on takes about as much power as leaving it in standby for 2 hours
Turning it off and on is nor more of a strain on it than leaving it running all the time, and the power usage is far greater for 2 hours of idle. These are both persistent and patently false myths.
The most likely part to die on a computer due to wear is probably the fan, and leaving it on will cause vastly more wear than the startup//shutdown process.
Now, there are some good reasons to leave your computer on - maybe you're running a server, maybe you're crunching data, or queuing up big files to download while you're asleep. If power consumption, wear, and cost of operation are your criteria, then absolutely shut it down.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:22 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]
Turning it off and on is nor more of a strain on it than leaving it running all the time, and the power usage is far greater for 2 hours of idle. These are both persistent and patently false myths.
The most likely part to die on a computer due to wear is probably the fan, and leaving it on will cause vastly more wear than the startup//shutdown process.
Now, there are some good reasons to leave your computer on - maybe you're running a server, maybe you're crunching data, or queuing up big files to download while you're asleep. If power consumption, wear, and cost of operation are your criteria, then absolutely shut it down.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:22 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]
...the power usage is far greater for 2 hours of idle.
chrisamiller, are you talking about just a screensaver mode, or sleep mode? Because I would guess the power consumption between the two is significantly different.
posted by zardoz at 10:41 PM on February 17, 2010
chrisamiller, are you talking about just a screensaver mode, or sleep mode? Because I would guess the power consumption between the two is significantly different.
posted by zardoz at 10:41 PM on February 17, 2010
I remember reading somewhere once that turning a computer on takes about as much power as leaving it in standby for 2 hours, so that's the gauge I've always gone by: If I'll be away from it for more than two hours, off it goes.This is false. Listen to chrisamiller. He is correct.
posted by kdar at 10:58 PM on February 17, 2010
Best answer: Some info at Michael Bluejay's Saving Electricity, which also addresses the "wear it out by turning it on and off" myth. "The computer will become obsolete long before you wear it out, no matter how often you cycle it."
"It also doesn't take more energy to start a computer than to keep it running. The only extra energy it takes to start a computer is the two minutes or so it takes to start up, which is barely different than any other two minutes' of use. You'll always save energy by turning your computer off when you're not using it. Of course you don't have to turn it off since you can easily use the sleep or standby mode instead."
Microsoft (Google cached version due to problems loading) says that sleep mode saves almost as much energy as turning it off, but the folks at Energy Star still prefer you turn your computer off.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:35 AM on February 18, 2010
"It also doesn't take more energy to start a computer than to keep it running. The only extra energy it takes to start a computer is the two minutes or so it takes to start up, which is barely different than any other two minutes' of use. You'll always save energy by turning your computer off when you're not using it. Of course you don't have to turn it off since you can easily use the sleep or standby mode instead."
Microsoft (Google cached version due to problems loading) says that sleep mode saves almost as much energy as turning it off, but the folks at Energy Star still prefer you turn your computer off.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:35 AM on February 18, 2010
Putting the computer into sleep mode shouldn't take much power, the computer is basically 'off' except a little bit of energy to keep the contents of main memory.
Leaving the computer running will take a lot of energy, but modern computers can be pretty efficient when it comes to not powering things that aren't in use, including reducing the idle draw of the CPU and spinning down the hard drive. But it will take more power then turning it off.
The only real part of your computer that can 'wear out' is the hard drive. It's certainly a possibility, but turning your computer on and off probably won't have much of an effect. If you want, you can get a solid state disk, which doesn't have any motors -- just chips. So it's less likely to wear down and fail (SSDs do wear out, but they don't fail all at once).
You should also do regular backups.
posted by delmoi at 12:51 AM on February 18, 2010
Leaving the computer running will take a lot of energy, but modern computers can be pretty efficient when it comes to not powering things that aren't in use, including reducing the idle draw of the CPU and spinning down the hard drive. But it will take more power then turning it off.
The only real part of your computer that can 'wear out' is the hard drive. It's certainly a possibility, but turning your computer on and off probably won't have much of an effect. If you want, you can get a solid state disk, which doesn't have any motors -- just chips. So it's less likely to wear down and fail (SSDs do wear out, but they don't fail all at once).
You should also do regular backups.
posted by delmoi at 12:51 AM on February 18, 2010
If you have Windows 7, look into "hybrid sleep". From the Microsoft website:
Hybrid sleep is designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is typically turned on by default on desktop computers.
Having said that, I use hibernate on the basis that I change my computer about once every 8 or so years and any damage I do to it constantly powering up and down hasn't started to happen before then.
posted by mr_silver at 1:23 AM on February 18, 2010
Hybrid sleep is designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is typically turned on by default on desktop computers.
Having said that, I use hibernate on the basis that I change my computer about once every 8 or so years and any damage I do to it constantly powering up and down hasn't started to happen before then.
posted by mr_silver at 1:23 AM on February 18, 2010
I also like to save energy
Then set it to go into standby/hibernation, but also invest in one of the many different 'smart' power strips or sockets which automatically switch the power on/off for your peripherals depending of whether your PC is powered up. I have my speakers, external drives, monitors, desk fan and lamp, printer/scanner etc. connected to one of these. The power used by these things combined is relatively small, but it's a nice tidy way to ensure that you're not wasting any power.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:25 AM on February 18, 2010
Then set it to go into standby/hibernation, but also invest in one of the many different 'smart' power strips or sockets which automatically switch the power on/off for your peripherals depending of whether your PC is powered up. I have my speakers, external drives, monitors, desk fan and lamp, printer/scanner etc. connected to one of these. The power used by these things combined is relatively small, but it's a nice tidy way to ensure that you're not wasting any power.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:25 AM on February 18, 2010
I'd heard that turning it on and off shortens disk life. Don't know if it's true.
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:16 AM on February 18, 2010
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:16 AM on February 18, 2010
Your computer will break of its own accord before power cycling does it. Just turn it off.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:55 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:55 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
Forget sleep mode, forget turning it off, what you're looking for is HIBERNATE, which is available on XP/Vista/7. It's easier to turn on in XP than in Vista or 7, but if you google "hibernate xp computer" or "hibernate vista computer" etc, you'll see how to do it.
Hibernation is a modern suspend-to-ram that saves the current state to memory (or disc, regardless, it's saved in a locked state) and performs a fast shutdown to 0 power. When you turn it back on, it performs a fast "resume" and drops you right back where you left off.
I've got an old p4 2.8ghz prescott running a couple servers, vmware, etc., and my resume from hibernate takes sub 10 seconds.
I set my win7 computer to hibernate after 45 mins of inactivity, I set my XP and 7 laptops to hibernate after 45 or when the lid is shut.
FWIW, I run that prescott with ancient 250gb and 180gb (like, first gen drives that big) hard drives, and I probably write/delete/rewrite about 25 gigs a week, constantly hibernating and resuming, constantly keeping the discs spinning serving media to the house, and I haven't had a drive or psu failure yet. Knock wood.
posted by TomMelee at 5:17 AM on February 18, 2010
Hibernation is a modern suspend-to-ram that saves the current state to memory (or disc, regardless, it's saved in a locked state) and performs a fast shutdown to 0 power. When you turn it back on, it performs a fast "resume" and drops you right back where you left off.
I've got an old p4 2.8ghz prescott running a couple servers, vmware, etc., and my resume from hibernate takes sub 10 seconds.
I set my win7 computer to hibernate after 45 mins of inactivity, I set my XP and 7 laptops to hibernate after 45 or when the lid is shut.
FWIW, I run that prescott with ancient 250gb and 180gb (like, first gen drives that big) hard drives, and I probably write/delete/rewrite about 25 gigs a week, constantly hibernating and resuming, constantly keeping the discs spinning serving media to the house, and I haven't had a drive or psu failure yet. Knock wood.
posted by TomMelee at 5:17 AM on February 18, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the replies. In regards to wearing out, what I heard was that the soldered connections expand and contract due to heat, and will eventually crack. That could be a wives tale, so I will defer to those who know more than me.
posted by ambulocetus at 10:20 AM on February 18, 2010
posted by ambulocetus at 10:20 AM on February 18, 2010
In regards to wearing out, what I heard was that the soldered connections expand and contract due to heat, and will eventually crack
Its funny how people believe these sorts of myths about computers, when a moments thought would tell them that the same would apply to other electronics, such as TV's and sound systems etc, which they never give a second thought to switching off.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 7:31 PM on February 18, 2010
Its funny how people believe these sorts of myths about computers, when a moments thought would tell them that the same would apply to other electronics, such as TV's and sound systems etc, which they never give a second thought to switching off.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 7:31 PM on February 18, 2010
Response by poster: Actually I heard that it was all electronics. An audiophile told me that.
posted by ambulocetus at 7:45 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by ambulocetus at 7:45 PM on April 29, 2010
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posted by ChasFile at 10:07 PM on February 17, 2010