To Shutdown or not to Shutdown?

[Luminescent]

What is more stressful on the hardware components of a pc (overall): maintaining them powered on constantly or powering them on/off as need be?

 

[Vadi]

Overall it would be stressfull if you switched them on and off. But only server-harddisks are supposed to run permanetly.

 

[BRiT]

Power cycles are rougher on circuits.

 

[T2k]

Spinning and working extra 8-10 hours for nothing much more painful, believe me.

PS: If you ever heard about MTBF you know why I'm saying this...

 

[Guden Oden]

Sorry T2, but harddrive bearings wear most when they're cold. Repeated startups/spindowns thus wear much more than spinning 24/7.

Check manufacturers specs if you don't believe me. Harddrives are typically rated at around 40k start/stop cycles and a quarter to half a million POH. Seems logical it is better to let the drive spin, wouldn't you say?

 

[T2k]

? Did you get what I just said about MTBF?

 

[Luminescent]

What about other hardware, like vid cards, motherboards, and cpus? How does powering on/off affect these circuits? Is on/off more stressful on them than the accumulation of heat produced by leaving them on?

 

[T2k]

What about other hardware, like vid cards, motherboards, and cpus? How does powering on/off affect these circuits? Is on/off more stressful on them than the accumulation of heat produced by leaving them on?

SOme of them like VGA - far from being stressed unless you start specific applications, so they aren't really afftected, I gues, by keep them up and running.

 

[AlphaWolf]

It's going to vary significantly depending on use. Assuming 50/50 or less use, I believe fans and powersupplies will last longer if you power down.

 

[pcchen]

? Did you get what I just said about MTBF?

MTBF without actual distribution of lifetime has little meaning. Seagate and several other hard disk vendors do not provide MTBF rating for their HD now, but they still have contact start-stops ratings. Most HD rated at 50K.

 

[T2k]

? Did you get what I just said about MTBF?

MTBF without actual distribution of lifetime has little meaning. Seagate and several other hard disk vendors do not provide MTBF rating for their HD now, but they still have contact start-stops ratings. Most HD rated at 50K.

I was just referring to the fact if you have, say 50K hours, it does matter how long you will 'use' it - keeping your drives spinning for 24 hours compared to 12 hours per day means half the lifetime in years... of course, we need to account the start/stop effect too but who knows the factor?

 

[ERP]

Adding fuel to the fire....

I've lost 2 harddrives in the last two years, both in the only machine(s) I leave permanently on.

Would it stop me leaving it on, no.

Do whatever is easier, how long do you think you'll have the PC anyway?

 

[Helevitia]

Speaking from my own personal experience, I turn ff my computer every night and I can't ever recall having a problem with a HDD. (except for the deathstar IBM drives). I still have older HDD that I have had for 4+ years that get used everyday in my wife and kids machine. None of my components have ever died either.

Dave

 

[pcchen]

I was just referring to the fact if you have, say 50K hours, it does matter how long you will 'use' it - keeping your drives spinning for 24 hours compared to 12 hours per day means half the lifetime in years... of course, we need to account the start/stop effect too but who knows the factor?

Ugh, no, 50K is start/stop cycles, not hours. In the time the HDD vendors still gives MTBF figures, many normal IDE HDDs has MTBF of about half a million hours. That's more than 50 years. However, I don't know any HDD lives even close to that.

Anyway, just as others said, these figures are pretty much meaningless. It's incorrect to say because a HDD has a MTBF, it's must be bad to left it spinning all day.