Off or On?
 

Real simple question to ask out.
When I retire for the day, should I shut off my computer or leave it on with nothing running? I've heard confusing things before. I have a new computer and use it every day at home. I just want it to last.
You guys are smart around here with electronics, so appreciate a little nudge.
TY

besides, obama/biden are watching you 24/7 if always on.

Turn the computer off when not using it for a significant length of time.

By always leaving your computer on, you wasting electricity and constantly generating heat inside your computer. In addition, you are continually leaving your computer open for attack if it is connected to the Internet.

Turn off your computer when not using it, and also turn off your modem/router (which can also be compromised).

This has been a debate in IT for a long time. Is 24/7 heat worse than the initial surge of electricity when cold booting a PC? There is no clear answer because it depends on a lot of factors like quality of electronic components, how often the dust is cleaned from the internal components including case/cpu fans, etc. FWIW I've been shutting down all my computers at night since I have owned one. And I agree 100% with @tupper.

I'm not sure it really matters anymore.

If you're going to leave it on, you best be sure to have a backup UPS running to protect it in case the power goes out...in fact...you should ALWAYS have a backup UPS running on your PC.

Power surges and fluctuations are definitely one thing that can mess up your PC.

a backup UPS would be like a generator.. when my power goes down it takes about 6 seconds for my generator to kick in. the computer and other electronic equipment still shuts off and turns back on with the switch.

a backup UPS is a battery...it's always on...so your computer wouldn't even know anything happened...it will keep humming along...and if the battery starts to run out, it will shut the computer down properly.

I have a Apple MacBook Pro laptop and when I am finished for the day I usually leave it running or "on" but make sure to close tabs and other programs running so the battery does not drain before I put the screen down. When I go back on it the next day my battery only goes down like 2-3% at the most 5% if I leave a program running in the background.

Have had it for a few years now and have had no trouble with the battery or fan which is surprising actually.

I do have Avast Antivirus but only the free one since this version is good enough to be protected on Chrome or anything that I do on my computer. It does save me from opening things that I shouldn't and warns me right away over the screen.

I am not that computer savvy but I think that is all I need to do for my computer life lol.

This is what I have heard also, that's why I asked here. I am on my desk top all hours of the day, here and there and also long periods of time. Only time I know that it would actually be idle would be when I go away for a bit, which I would shut it down. ( just more afraid of leaving anything on). I keep mine clean always of dust and such, so I guess you guys say shut er down.

If you keep it clean. Leave it on. Turn off the monitor

If your sleep mode works properly, use it.

I am of the school of “powering up” is the hardest thing you can do to a system. Especially hard drives.

But they are 100% better than they used to be……….

That is true. I think the right course of action should be determined by your local power company. If you live in an area where voltage spikes, drops and outages are common (Where I live) shut the computer down after it is done for the day, if your power is reliable leave it on.

The thing is, if your sleep mode powers down your hard drive, you are putting the same wear and tear on the drive as if you just shut down the computer. The drive still has to start up from a dead standstill, and starting up from sleep mode can actually wear the drive more than a boot if the drive is fragmented and the head has to jump around to read the fragmented sleep swap file.

Of course, if you don't use sleep mode, then your drive is wearing down from the constant spinning.

And again, by keeping the computer on, you are continually generating heat in some of the components, and, worst of all, you are leaving your computer constantly exposed to attack (even if it is in sleep mode).

Folks, turn off your computer if it will be sitting idle for a for a significant amount of time.

Also, consider using an SSD instead of a hard drive.

Most machines both mechanical and electrical that have moving parts fair better operating than constantly being turned off and on.

Turning on a PC once in the morning is NOT constantly. But there is no conclusive evidence to say that one method is better than the other so do what you want.

Anybody with actual ancient hard drives still being used as a boot drive...please investigate SSDs....especially NVME M.2 drives...they have come down in price and are infinitely FASTER than traditional hard drives (and much faster than traditional SSDs in many cases)...plus they have no moving parts...so are much less susceptible to what we are discussing here.