RE: [TCLUG:1345] Turn off my computer?

["Carl Patten" <cpatte@trimodalinc.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Luey [mailto:lueyb@carleton.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 1998 2:39 AM
> To: tclug-list@listserv.real-time.com
> Subject: [TCLUG:1345] Turn off my computer?
> >
> I'm trying to decide if I should leave my computer running all the time,
> or turn it off at night. How bad is it for the hard drive to be spinnig 24
> hours a day, 7 days a week? I typically have my computer on for 8 hours a
> day, and turn it off when I'm asleep, turn it on 16 hours a day.
>
> Any recommendations - I basically want what is best for the computer,
> although I have some concern for power consumption.

What the other people here have said about frequent on/off cycles is true.
The thermal changes and power surges shorten the life of your PC and can
cause "chip creep".
I leave my Linux box on all the time at home.  It's running the RC5 DES
client, so I get some extra computing cycles that way.  I do turn off the
monitor, though.

However, at work I tell people to turn their PCs off at night.  That gives
Windows 95 a clean start in the morning, and avoids over-exposing the PCs to
the cruddy power in our area.

Some newer PCs cycle down the hard drive if no activity has occurred for a
period of time, so it may not be constantly spinning.  In any case the wear
and tear on the drive from just spinning isn't much.  Some of our Compaq
servers at work are 5 years old, and their hard drives have been spinning
all that time.

--
Carl Patten
Systems Administrator
Trimodal Inc.