Turn Computer Off Or Leave It On

Thanks to everybody. I'll consider your suggestions. I'll leave the thread open a little while longer for any more responses then mark it as solved. Thanks again.

Leaving any appliance connected to the mains is a fire risk - even a PC. It's also costing you a small additional charge on your electricity bill and is unkind to planet . I turn my PCs off fully and they all do a cold boot in under 20 secs since they are SSD based.

The basic decision is do you want your PC to start 5-10 secs faster or face the small risk of your house burning down?

Thanks, Steve C, for responding.

All the computer system components are plugged into the UPS, which is, of course, plugged in all the time. Other things most people have plugged in all the time are lamps, clocks, radios, refrigerators, televisions, stereos, stoves, etc. How is a computer any more of a fire hazard than these other items?

Concerning the planet, I turn stuff (like lights) off when I'm not using them, and I recycle weekly. I don't think the fraction of a watt used by putting my computer in sleep mode, if that's what I decide to do, will have any meaningful effect in this regard, but I invite you to correct me if I'm wrong.

Concerning SSD, I probably won't get rid of a perfectly good HDD, but I'll consider SSD if and when I get a new computer.

Thanks again.

vanp said:

Thanks, Steve C, for responding.

All the computer system components are plugged into the UPS, which is, of course, plugged in all the time. Other things most people have plugged in all the time are lamps, clocks, radios, refrigerators, televisions, stereos, stoves, etc. How is a computer any more of a fire hazard than these other items?

Concerning the planet, I turn stuff (like lights) off when I'm not using them, and I recycle weekly. I don't think the fraction of a watt used by putting my computer in sleep mode, if that's what I decide to do, will have any meaningful effect in this regard, but I invite you to correct me if I'm wrong.

Concerning SSD, I probably won't get rid of a perfectly good HDD, but I'll consider SSD if and when I get a new computer.

Thanks again.

It's your choice. The fire risk is proportional to the number of appliances left connected.

We have several computers in the house. The three main ones are usually on 24/7. They do all their updates, backups and scans while we are not competing for cpu and memory. Granted, with our newest systems, this is probably less necessary. I guess it's mostly a matter of "old habits die hard."

I'm back.

Concerning Hibernate, my understanding: The computer is basically turned off, and using no electricity, but the boot-up process is faster because some state-at-hibernate file is being read to re-start the computer rather than going through the normal boot-up process (I do have to push the start button to re-activate the computer rather than pressing any key as with Sleep). Is this a correct description of Hibernate?

Also, if the computer is really turned off, it can't be hacked in Hibernate mode. Is this correct?

Thanks again.