In terms of perfomance and improving the life of a desktop, is it better to shut the computer down at night or just put it to sleep? I don't use my computer frequently enough to keep it on all the time, and I don't mind waiting an extra 30 seconds for it to boot, but does shutting it down wear the computer down?
Going all the way back to when MS first created "Sleep", as a function in Windows, it's been buggy and has caused countless people GRIEF. For instance, the comment, "help! My PC went to sleep and now I can't wake it up!"
If your computer is not a server, and does not need to be on 24x7 (very special and expensive computers are made for that purpose)Then like any other household appliance, when not using it, turn it OFF.
Both you and your computer will be much safer when it is OFF, with all power removed from it.
I have seen a PC power supply catch fire when it was presumably turned off. As long as a PC PSU is plugged into the line power, it's technically ON and producing voltage.For maximum safety, with all my PC's, they are plugged into a switchable power strip, and after I do a full Shutdown, I turn OFF the line power at the Power Strip.That prevents a problem with, power surges, while my PC is turned OFF, that could cause components to fail and catch fire inside the PSU.
Good Luck,
TechnoMage
I agree with you - Shut down the PC when finished and switch it off at the mains. You will then have a clean restart and avoid some of the problems when recovering from sleep. My PCs start in about 20 secs from power on to the login screen using a SSD for the OS. The fire risk hazard is often overlooked - any fireman will tell you to switch off and unplug appliances when not in use. The main downside is that you might need to replace your BIOS battery a bit more often since there is no external power being supplied to the motherboard when the PC is unplugged.Going all the way back to when MS first created "Sleep", as a function in Windows, it's been buggy and has caused countless people GRIEF. For instance, the comment, "help! My PC went to sleep and now I can't wake it up!"
If your computer is not a server, and does not need to be on 24x7 (very special and expensive computers are made for that purpose)Then like any other household appliance, when not using it, turn it OFF.
Both you and your computer will be much safer when it is OFF, with all power removed from it.
I have seen a PC power supply catch fire when it was presumably turned off. As long as a PC PSU is plugged into the line power, it's technically ON and producing voltage.For maximum safety, with all my PC's, they are plugged into a switchable power strip, and after I do a full Shutdown, I turn OFF the line power at the Power Strip.That prevents a problem with, power surges, while my PC is turned OFF, that could cause components to fail and catch fire inside the PSU.
Good Luck,
TechnoMage
Hi there
Servers are fine - just consume a few watts in "Idle mode" - even if using a Server at home I would leave it on (although power here is probably amongst the cheapest on the planet - clean geothermal energy - some companies we give 35 year contracts to when they establish data centres in the country).
Re-starting Servers always takes a bit of "fuddle" and if you use things like headless servers for NAS devices etc then leaving them on usually means once it's up the IP address doesn't change very often - if at all once the server is booted up so you don't need to mess around with rubbish like TEAMVIEWER or other Dynamic IP solutions.
By a Server I mean a proper purpose built server - these are designed to run almost indefinitely and consume very little power when in "Idle mode". Starting them up takes far longer than a "typical computer" due mainly to the rigorous load of diagnostics Servers go through -- they are specifically designed to be robust and left unattended often for MONTHS at a time if not longer.
Laptops etc switch them off when not in use.
BTW if you want to access your PC / server remotely and you have a dynamic IP address (most ISP's always give dynamic IP addresses now) simply every so often say once an hour have a script that automatically gets your IP address on the server (a background script can do this - or if a Linux OS use CRONTAB) and then email it to yourself.
Then you can always access your server via IP address -- simply ensure that the LOCAL address on your LAN is fixed and port forward the appropriate ports if you are using say RDP or similar to connect.
Putty is another way - with tunnelling but that's way beyond the scope of this post.
How to Set Up an SSH Tunnel With PuTTY - SkyVerge
Cheers
jimbo
What's more appropriate to your situation - rather than 'better' perhaps- sleep has always worked for me, and I use it if I'm going to be away for a short while. Shut down otherwise.
That's despite having a SSD- and no logon on resume- resuming from sleep takes a couple of seconds.
I used to use the Intelligent mode where the system would initially go into sleep mode and then if not used for a set time would proceed into Hibernate mode - best of both worlds - the speed of start-up and the safety that a power failure should not cause any major issues. I'ts better IMO than the sleep mode as it's more secure
Now my systems are supplied from UPS I do not have the issue of a sudden loss of power ( The UPS will "parachute" the system to a safe shut-down, after a time of continuing things fully active)
I leave the system running 24/7/365 but make sure it's restarted at least once a week ( normally Before & After any system updates or software install, (the restart before the update is proof that the system was booting before the changesso any issues are due to the update not any other cause ))
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