New
#1
7/24 computer power on, is it bad for the hardware's lifespan?
regardless of the carbon production and electricity cost, is it bad for the hardware's lifespan for the PC turned on for 7/24, only the screen is switched off
7/24 computer power on, is it bad for the hardware's lifespan?
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New #2
As long as computer have good cooling system keeping computer power on will not cause any issues with hardware.
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New #3
That's age old question but opinions are still divided 50/50. My main computer is on 24/7 some times doing some heavy work and have seen no ill effects.
For keeping them on:
CPU/GPU/chipset and RAM are engaged very little while at idle and doesn't do much work staying as cool as possible.
HDDs are mostly wore down by constant starts and stops as well as changing temperatures so it's better to have them turning all the time.
Against:
There is some electron loss in electronic parts, particularly small transistors but degradation may take many, many years.
Motors, HDD, fans and pumps, also wear down although if set up properly and all is cool they will run at slowest speeds prolonging their life expectancy.
Electrolytic capacitors also have finite life expectancy and may dry out after a while but modern systems have very small number of them if any, being replaced by solid state capacitors. Only leftovers are large ones in the final stage of PSU but even those are much sturdier now in good make and model PSUs.
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New #4
My computers run 24/7 and have done so for a long time. At this time thay are quite old, obsolete by the standards of many on this forum. But they serve my purposes. Failures have been minimal, a few hard drives and DVD drives due to old age that had lived well past what may would consider the lifetime of a drive, and a few CMOS batteries. I also have a 6 GB Fujitsu drive that had it's 20th birthday last year with no SMART warnings. It has been in several different computers and contained a variety of operating systems. It isn't in regular use anymore but in it's day run mostly 24/7 and at times quite heavy use.
Unless the computer has been abused I believe the lifetime of as computer is determined more by quality of construction and luck than anything else. How long it is turned on is a relatively minor factor. At least that has been my experience, and I have been using computers for more than 40 years.
Edit: My experience is with older computers. It may be different with newer computers but I have very virtually no experience with them.
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New #5
Hi there
I run 2 X NAS systems 24/7 -- Energy costs in Iceland are essentially negligable -- we don't have the best weather but absolutely plentiful environmentally friendly Geothermal and hydro electric systems and heating (where possible). What though is the worst for wear on any moving parts is when constant start stop is done -- especially things like fans in bearings and HDD bearings- at start oil could be cold and thicker etc etc.
For electronic parts - it's less obvious but especially in typical domestic places you might find initial start up has slight surges for the electronic bits etc so leaving on minimizing start up and shutdown seems quite OK.
I doubt whether a typical computer these days consumes (in "idle mode") enough power to even make a few cents difference to your electricity bill compared with other devices used in homes -- e.g air conditioning, electric heating, power tools etc.
As far as laptops are concerned - these are built to be portable and are designed for being powered off and on regularly so I wouldn't recommend laptops being run 24/7. These aren't designed to really be run 24/7 - especially these days where more components are crammed into a smaller and smaller space.
Desktops and home servers are another matter - especially home servers / small office servers - are designed for continuous running anyway. I use HP Pro liant Gen 8 / Gen 10 microservers as my NAS boxes -- small footprint, 4 HDD bays and run without any problem whatsoever 24/7.
Cheers
jimbo
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New #6
Currently still running a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.0 motherboard I bought back in Oct 2011. Just had my i7 3770K on the board die, so I removed it and dropped in my i5 2500K that I bought with the motherboard when new. The motherboard did not give any beep code/s signifying the CPU was bad. It would beep the (1) beep during boot signifying the POST was fine. The 3770K I picked up off fleabay back in Sept 2019. I just picked up a new still sealed in box 3770K that is en-route to again replace the i5 2500K.
System specs:
Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045.3996
Core i7 3770K (now an i5 2500K)
GA-Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.0 (BIOS F-10)
32GB G-Skill Trident X DDR3 F3-1600C7-8GTX
Asus RTX 2070 OC 8GB
Crucial 1TB MX-500 SSD
PNY 2 TB CS900
(x3) 1TB Mushkin RAW SSDs
LG Blue Ray Burner DL
Corsair RM-750w PSU
Rosewill Mid Tower Challenger Black
X-56 HOTAS
TrackIR 5 Pro
Inateck KU5211 USB 3.2 adapter
Oculus Quest 2
LG 34in Ultra Wide Screen (2560x1080p)
T Mobile 5G Home internet (KDV21)
Alura-tek Powered USB Hub 2.0 AUH1207F
Steam Link (Build 861)
Steam Controller
Samsung 51in LED 3D TV (1920x1080p)
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New #7
Really the only moving parts in a computer is the cooling fans and the HDD/Hard Disk Drive/s plus the ODD/Optical Disc Drive if in use. One thing that shortens a computer life is heat, cleaning the inside periodically helps. The HDD life [MTBF/Mean Time Before Failure] is in thousands of hours. If wanting the longest life for an HDD it should work to go with the NAS drives, intended to be on constantly but a bit more expensive.
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New #8
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New #9
mine is on basically 24/7. I only restart it every so often that habit of failing asleep watching something is a habit i need to break.
Solid caps have a runtime lifespan of 20+ years and i think when a computer truly fails it will be because of these.
I try to turn the computer off at least once a month to give it a rest. That is also powering off at the switch so that there is no power going in.
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New #10
My work PC has been running continuously for nine years, with the exception of a few power failures. It's been relatively flawless in all that time, so my guess is that it doesn't hurt to run 24/7/365.
But have a good power conditioner, like a very good surge protector.
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