Is it better to leave your computer on all the time or to turn it off when you're not using it?

Question

What's better for the computer and better for electricity bills and things like that?

Answer 1

You will receive a lot of conflicting answers to this question, because the real answer is it doesn't matter that much.

If you're on a network, and the administrator backs up files or does upgrades overnight, you'd want to leave it on. That's unlikely for a home computer, but you may have Windows updates or virus scans scheduled to run overnight. If that's the case, you'd want to either leave the computer on, or schedule them for a different time of day when you know the computer will be on.

The benefit to turning it off is saving electricity - depending on how much you use the computer, the savings can be significant, several hundred dollars a year.

Other than that, it doesn't make much of a difference. You wear down some components leaving it running all the time, you wear down other components turning it on and off all the time.

In the end, it's all just down to your preference.

Answer 2

turn it off!!!!!!!!!!!!

it is a waste of elec.

Answer 3

Most computers can be put on Sleep mode, which usually is the time span after the screensaver has been on for an extended period of time.  For battery/electrical saving...you can set your computer/laptop to automatically go into Sleep mode, or your laptop to be in Power Save mode.  This also helps with typical wear and tear on the computer as well as the electrical bill.

Let me know if this helps!

Answer 4

Think of your computer as a person. It needs rest also. Turn it off when its not being used, or atleast turn it off overnight. The electric bill will be less and your computer will last a lot longer.  

Answer 5

IMHO - you should turn it off when not using it.

A typical PC consumes something like 300 watts. Let's assume that you use your PC for four hours every day, so the other 20 hours it is on would be wasted energy. If electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in your area, then that 20 hours represents 60 cents a day. Sixty cents a day adds up to $219 per year.

It's possible to use the energy-saving features build into modern machines and cut that figure in half. For example, you can have the monitor and hard disk power down automatically when not in use. You'll still be wasting $100 per year.

Answer 6

turn it off of course, don't you have any common sense