24/7 DAWS?

[blaster78]

I'm surprised some of you people know where the shutdown option is

Your computers must either be really slow to bootup or you are extremely lazy people. When i'm not using my computer for longer than half hour I will turn it off.

it actually uses a lot more power turning it on than it does to leave it running as long as you are using it more than a few times a day. I keep all of my machines on (although they are set to hibernate after a while) all of the time. but then i work at home (on a computer), write music (on a computer), play/record audio/video in the rest of my house (on computers) and even read kvr in bed on my ipaq so unless i'm at the pub or sleeping i'm generally using them.

steve.

[kritikon]

I'm surprised at how many seem to keep their PCs on as well.....It'll be interested to see if there's any geographical determination going on here

As for the Greenie thing.....I'm sure there are bigger power and pollution users than PCs, but every little bit helps.

But do those with permanently on PCs not care about their power bills? Just for common sense and saving a few $$$ here and there, I make it a habit to turn everything off when it's not being used. Why pay for the power when you're not using something. Do you all leave on your amps and lights etc when you are out of the studio? If not, then I don't see why you leave on the computers - they do use power.
When I have the odd patch when I don't use my studio, I notice significantly less on the power bill - music gear can use up a fair bit of juice.

To me it would be similar to saying - I'll leave the car running because it saves me time warming up the engine next time I use it. Which would be a bit weirdo. I really am quite horrified that people just leave stuff switched on then leave it unused but running!

[blaster78]

But do those with permanently on PCs not care about their power bills? Just for common sense and saving a few $$$ here and there, I make it a habit to turn everything off when it's not being used

i have absoloutely no facts to hand to back it up but i i read several times that the startup/power on of the computer and monitor uses more power than it being on for several hours.

cheers,

steve.

[seamoss]

I am suprised at how many people eat meat....but that's not what the topic is about.

I wanted to know if running your pc 24/7 was healthy or not.


healthy for the computer

[dvonae]

<... climbing out of lurker mode ...>

I'm currently running three computer 24/7. Two machines are running SETI@Home while the third is my server which gets backed up semi-regularly (semi-regularly = whenever I remember to change the tape).

I have more computers, but I only turn them on when I need them for testing. Where I live (Central Florida) the power costs for one computer is about $10/month. It was cool to have 5 or 6 machines crunching SETI@Home 24/7, but the electric bill was too high.

As for whether or not to leave a machine on 24/7, the wear and tear for each on/off power cycle is pretty high -- the simple act of spinning up hard drives and cooling fans draws far more power and is a big strain of component lifetime. Also, keep in mind how HOT modern processors run -- going from cold to hot several times a day, every day, is much harder on component lifetimes than leaving the machine turned on in a warmed-up state.

These days, at least for me, I think the decision has more to do with the electricity costs than it does on system wear -- I've been doing hands-on computer support professionally for almost 15 years and still cannot tell you which way is the best... It's a matter of weighing the pros and cons and making your own choice.

<... returning to lurker mode ...>

--
-=>( D'vonae )<=-

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm surprised at how many seem to keep their PCs on as well.....It'll be interested to see if there's any geographical determination going on here

As for the Greenie thing.....I'm sure there are bigger power and pollution users than PCs, but every little bit helps.

But do those with permanently on PCs not care about their power bills? Just for common sense and saving a few $$$ here and there, I make it a habit to turn everything off when it's not being used. Why pay for the power when you're not using something. Do you all leave on your amps and lights etc when you are out of the studio? If not, then I don't see why you leave on the computers - they do use power.
When I have the odd patch when I don't use my studio, I notice significantly less on the power bill - music gear can use up a fair bit of juice.

To me it would be similar to saying - I'll leave the car running because it saves me time warming up the engine next time I use it. Which would be a bit weirdo. I really am quite horrified that people just leave stuff switched on then leave it unused but running!

I guess I'm weird huh? I do a modest amount of 3D animation as well as converting videotapes to DVD, the compression process is done offline and takes hours.. as does a decent rendering, even without radiosity or other global illumination. The box comes on, stays on, and almost always stays busy. I don't notice any insane additional cost, my electric bill goes up further when I cook at home on the stove than when I had a second dedicated rendering machine up 24/7.

The car analogy is bad too, leaving the car running will likely result in more pollution than leaving the computer running, not to mention the mechanical wear that you won't get in a computer, the greater amount of heat dissipated, exhaust gases, etc..

[DevonB]

hmm....haven't heard anything about hardrives needing to be powered off.

anybody else have any info on this

If anybody has any hard facts about component failures due to excessive running, I would love to know

Yes, this is true. Desktop drives are designed for 30% usage during a day, which is about 8 hours. If you're pounding the drive all the time for 24/7, you might want to look into a different drive. Otherwise, quit worrying. I've had so many drives that ran 24/7 and have been up for years at a time without issue.

To clarify, the 30% was for SATA drive white paper I was reading.

Devon