Question: Leaving computer on 24/7

I just have a question, if anyone knows. Kind of dumb, maybe this has been discussed. I'm the type who does not regularly turn off my computer. I have 2 computers that are running 24/7. Is this a problem? I honestly don't know. When I sit down to work, check up on my emails, etc. I don't want to have to wait for a computer to turn on and boot up.

So here's my list of questions related to this:

How often would you recommend a computer restart? (Right now, seriously, I do a comp restart just several times a month so please don't say every day )

Does this create any problems I should be aware of?

I regularly virus scan once a week, defrag once a month, get rid of ad and spyware a couple times a week, do a complete deletion of cookies and temp internet files once a week. Anything else I should be doing?

im the same as you, the longest ive managed to leave my comp before ive been forced to restart (installing etc) is about 15 days, ive never had any problems since WinXP but on 98 it would start to get sluggish after a day or 2.

Ive also read an article (no link sorry it was agessssss ago) that with the invention of better computers leaving it on all the time should have no detrimental affects to the computer. IMO servers are on damn near all the time and they are ok and as long as everything stays within reasonable operating temepratures it shouldnt be a prob, personally my computer has been on all year without fail except when ive left for a weekend or when my hard drive failed , i have had to restart occasionally but its still been on.

i would say rebooting if the comp ever seems to not perform as fast as you think it should be other then that try to beat my longest uptime!

About all the stuff you do i cant think of anything more you could really be doing infact i should be taking notes from you i havent defragged in ages

The only thing I'd reccomend is just to keep track of your specs and if you're comp is working too hard or getting to hot, it's probably time to give it a little break. I useually restart my computer once a week, useually due to live updates and whatnot, and it's never really affected my computer in any detrimental way (that I can see). I think at most, maybe your visual memory will get low.

Something like this may help too:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4.../aibooster.jpg

Only restart when it's needed. You're actually doing your computer (and the hardware) a favor by leaving it on, as it prevents a lot of wear-and-tear as those parts don't have to warm up from being cold.

I've had my computer running 24/7 for several years, and with one exception (see below) never had any problems. Except for the increase in electricity cost, of course.

However: if you've got IBM Deskstar harddisks smaller than 120GB in your computer, you may want to replace them. They fail, spectacularly, if kept running 24/7, to the degree they've earned the nickname "IBM deathstar". This is due to the disks being designed to realign their heads only when they power up/down, so if they're kept running continuously the head gets progressively out of alignment until it finally starts physically impacting the disc... which is rotating at 7000 rpm's. And, take my word for it, you don't want that.

The only problem you'll have is electricity costs. It certainly won't be detrimental. Historically it was better for a computer to be left on, as it was the turning on/off that weared on the components. Nowadays the effect of that is less

Leaving your computing on is much less stress to your hardware, so it is better. Keeping in mind that when it goes idle, the cooling fans still work (maybe reduced RPM if you've got that feature on your motherboard).

The only problem you could suffer of leaving it on is RAM overload. The computer performances will slow down and you may get an error message when the computer will try to write your RAM.

Today, most computers have more than 1gB of RAM, so it may not happens within 24 hours. It really depends on how often you use your computer and what you do with it. Considering you almost only play GW (which is not really a high ressource leecher) you could leave it on many weeks.

My suggestion is: listen to your computer needs. As someone already mentionned, keeping track of your hardware status (mostly temperature) is the best way to keep your computer free of damage risks.

Regards,
Chaale

For stand-alone, non-networked PC's, leaving them on is fine. If your PC is connected to the internet, I recommend shutting them off or putting them into sleep/hybernate whenever possible. The reason: the longer you have your PC connected to the internet, the more exposure it has to worms, virus attacks, and hackers. Even if you have a high end hardware router/firewall, there's always the possibility of a previously unknown exploit or attack method being used to penetrate your network's defenses. Unless you maintain a corporate production system that received constant monitoring and updates, your constantly-on internet PC does run a higher risk of being recruited into a hacker's zombie network. Shutting them down occasionally lowers your system's exposure time in addition to your energy bill. You can also achieve the same results by physically disconnecting your PC's network connection during idle times.

leaving it on cost no extra energy..just like a light bulb it cost more energy to turn them on and off all the time then it does to leave them running 24/7

It does use extra energy.... Turning a light on and leaving it on 24/7 WILL use more energy then turning a light on for an hour, off for 3, on for 1, off for 3, etc. Repeated flicking on and off the lights like I've seen some families do would fit your belief, but this is not the case here.

I leave mine on 24/7. I seem to get random reboots from Windows forcibly rebooting after installing something, so I never have to do the reboots myself. I use Adobe CS and other memory intensive programs, so there are times where my computer becomes too bogged down to play GW, in which case I might reboot. Lightning storms are the only time mine goes off for a prolonged time, however.

Hmm, and to think that people say its Air Conditioners putting a strain on the Power grid . -.-
Stop wasting electricity just for your convenience.

Leave them on. Modern pc's are designed to stay on all the time. They last longer

by the way thats a myth. Computers should be turned off to conserve elctricity owever they don't consume alot. Its more the odler monitors that do. I turn mine off each night so it gets a well deserved cool down. However its not nesscerary. Theres no long term study that show that computer hardware lasts longer/doesn't lasts longer if a computers left on all the time.

I used to keep my computer on all day and night, but about 2 weeks ago, even though I have a surge protection on all components, still got a power surge on the motherboard. This made the CPU fan bugger up and made the CPU burn out. Took me 5 days to resurrect it. That's why every night I turn it off unless I'm doing a virus scan overnight, just to decrease the chances of that again.