Should You Leave Your Computer On?

This is a question that has been asked over and over since computers first became a consumer commodity. As a computer repairman and maintenance person, I seem to get this question from just about every client I see. So let's get right down to it. Should we turn our computers off when not using them or is it better to keep them running? The simple answer is yes...and no.

Let me get this out of the way first. If you have an office server or use a computer in which other computers must access it at any given time, you should never turn the server off. Ok. Now that that is out of the way, here is my opinion for the other 95% of us with home computers and laptops.

Below I will list some myths and facts.

Myth: Turning the computer off will damage your hard drive over time with each power down and thus is harmful to your computer.

Answer: False. This may have been true 10+ years ago but hard drives built after the mid 90s have at least a "60,000 Power on/off Limit". Let's figure that we hop on our computer 3 times a day. 60,000/3 = 20,000 Days which divided by 365 days (1 year) = 54.79 Years. If you own your computer that long, you deserve to lose your hard drive. Get a new computer already! Even a hardcore gamer/computer user would not cut that life down below 10-20 years.

Myth: Turning the computer on costs a lot of electricity. If you keep it on, you will not have to worry about these power spikes.

Answer: FALSE! Completely and utterly false in fact. Using this logic, I suppose we should keep our cars running so as to avoid draining the battery upon turning the key? Turning a computer on may spike up to 600 watts for 1-2 seconds (depending on your power supply). The average PC uses much less when booting but as a gamer I am quoting a bit high.

Myth: Running the computer on standby or sleep mode is just the same as turning it off and saves energy.

Answer: Actually this is somewhat true but with exceptions. In sleep mode, your computer uses as little as 4 kilowatts which isn't much at all. First let's review the average power usage of your computer.
The average computer uses about 250-350 watts when running at full speed. Even when not being used, all the fans, processor, memory, LED lights, and drives (hard drive, CD/DVD drives, and others) are online. The average running PC uses over 100 watts when it is just sitting there. That's the same as running a bright 100Watt light bulb forever.
So does putting your computer on sleep mode save power? Of course it does; however it still uses some. For the more frugal or environmentally fanatical family, that 4 watts is one less bit off pollution to stop global warming (I'll comment on that myth in another blog). If you don't mind an extra few dollars a year in costs, by all means keep your computer in sleep mode when not using it. For those still reading, you may want to read a bit further before you take this path.

This leads to the final question. Why not just put the computer on standby/sleep mode? Well, the more experienced users (and by experienced I mean those who have pulled the most hair out) will tell you that there is nothing healthier for a slow system than a good ol restart. Unlike your hardware, software is much less reliable and can often bog your computer memory down over time with useless information. The longer a computer is left running, the more stray information is stored in your memory. Turning off the computer completely wifes all that temorary memory and starts you anew when your computer boots back on.

So what is the conclusion here? Should we keep our computers on or turn them off? Well, the choice is yours but my best advice is to keep your computer off if you will be going more than 30 minutes without it. Why? It saves energy which saves you money, it keeps your computer running at optimal performance every time you are on it, and it makes all the tree hugging types happy (which is fine because if every computer was turned off completely in the US at night, that would save a grip of electricity...over 100 million watts an hour).