amount of time to leave cpu on

[quence]

what is too much...or too low.....
people tell me to leave it on long as possible...others say to cut if off after a certain amount of time...what do you guys reccommend...because the people that were telling me this, dont have digi 001...they just use their cpu's for internet......also, is it a good idea to un plug digi 001 from back of cpu if im not using it ?...
please advise.......thanks in advance

[IntelDoc]

They like to be left on.... Should not hurt it at all. I have the 002 and leave it plugged up all the time. When I want to use it, I turn it on. CPU time should not matter, but it is good to REBOOT from time to time.

If you are using windows, it will usually do it for ya when you least expect it!

Later

[silence_of_stone]

Reboot!! Good advice. LOL.
Seriously, though, I have heard both sides of the story and personally I turn my computer off when I am not using it. I almost never have problmes with my computers.
I started this habit because i would notice that things would happen during the night, or when I was away, and when I would return I would find my computer all screwed up.
It turns out that my area has frequent power outages, usually no more than a flicker, but several during the day or night would freak out my pc.
Since I do a cold restart once a day, I do not have any problems.
Knock on wood, of course, but its been a while since I have had a debilitating crash since I started this habit.

[IntelDoc]

If you do leave it on, I recommend the UPS for the system. Uninterrupted Power Supply. A good one goes for about 100 bucks at your local computer rip off store. Online they are a little less. Get one on your system and the power surges will not be a problem. Helps when you are recording and it is raining outside too. If the house takes an outage, you are still rolling. I leave my stuff on all the time. I actually have 4 systems running. 1 for music, one for animation and rendering, and the others are storage and backup. GEEK I know! But it works. I also have one that scans all my systems for viruses nightly. That way I do not have to put Norton on my PT system. I also use Diskkeeper to defrag nightly too. That is the main reason why I keep them on all the time. Plus, I look at it this way. Servers are setup to run all the time to get things to where they need to go. They are rarely shutdown, rather rebooted and then the cache and temp files cleaned out. I work in the IT world as a Server Administrator for my real job and just see how it works and stays stable. Are home systems servers? Not all, but they can still be run in the same manner. Just make sure that you have proper ventalation for the systems.

Hope that this helps???

Later...

[Cali Hendrixx]

The advice i took froms someone on here was to turn in on in the morning and then at night before you got to sleep......that should not bother it at all.

[kCmCg]

I would just leave it on...doesnt hurt anything. I would however set up a power saving profile that stopped your HDD from spinning after a certian idle time. The mechanical parts is what will wear.

[Lowfreq]

If you are on your machine several times a day/week, leave it and reboot now and again as mentioned. But if your not using your machine for several days, why not shut it down?

[minimoog]

local power issues aside, it is worth while checking the specs of your hard drives to see what the maximum recommended power-up hours are. this information is available from the manufacturers website. only a recommendation of course but will possibly minimise the risk of hard drive failure.

this goes for all mechanical parts. you don't want the cpu fan to seize while you're out doing the shopping, do you?

[Steve Moore]

If I am not mistaken, power surges happen at startup and shutdown on any power supply. Most power supply failures occur at startup. In other words the machine is running fine, you shut it off and then it won't power back up.

Most IC's getting good power and cooling can stay on for years before 'wearing out'.

So my recommendation is get a good active UPS (don't skimp) that regulates and cleans voltage as well as limits it (spikes, lightning strikes, etc.) and leave your system on. Reboot once in awhile before strating a new session for example.

That being said, cooling is CRITICAL. And I power everything down and unplug from the walls during electrical storms in any event. Same goes for long periods of inactivity (rare for me).

The point is power supplies are the most common form of failure in PC's. The more you turn them on and off the sooner they will fail.