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

[Paul Kammueller <kammler@ix.netcom.com>]

Schlough, Mark wrote:

<snipped a very informative bit about wear&tear at startup>
 
> Also, with a hard drive spinning 24 x 7 instead of 8 or 10 hours a day.
> it's like comparing highway driving to city driving with your car.

A good point -- but I'm not going to drive an extra 60 miles on the
highway when all I need to do is go to the grocery store. :-) 

For me personally, on my home PC I find it excessive to leave any
machine on 24hrs when I only use it 1-3 hrs, and not necessarily each
day.  And I've never had a part wear out from this -- it's been my
experience that computer parts get obsolete years before they would
actually break down anyway.  

True, maybe I've shortened the lifespan of my hard drives (or whatever
component) to 5-6 years instead of 8-10 or whatever, but I probably
won't have the drives that long anyway.  And even if something did
break, cumulative energy savings over that many years would probably be
enough to pay for whatever part it is.  All those nickels add up.

I think it kind of depends on how much you use the thing.  If you've got
it on all day long because you're using it all day, it's a workplace
machine, etc. then it's probably better to leave it on.  If usage is
brief and intermittent, it's probably just as well to shut it off.

Just my opinion-
Paul