Do you keep your PC on 24/7 ?

[Linuxratty]

I completely shutdown the PC every night before I go to bed,but it's on all day..I have two PC's and mainly use the Revo,which uses about 12 searing watts of power.

[vexorian]

I just make it go to sleep. I cannot find any good data comparing sleeping desktop PC vs. turned off PC. But I bet it is the same mostly. Only difference is that sleeping PC needs to feed the RAM.

When I have to download things overnight, I use my netbook for that. Downloading really does not need all the power of a desktop, so a netbook really saves up money in that case.

There is no point leaving a PC turned on all time unless you are using it as a server. Waking up from a sleep takes less time than typing your password to unlock.

I wish there was a way to make ubuntu detect whether some application is downloading something or there is any app with a persistent connection and in case that condition is false, sleep automatically after 5 minutes of no use. It would save a lot of energy when I forget to sleep sometimes :/

[Paqman]

I cannot find any good data comparing sleeping desktop PC vs. turned off PC.

Here you go then, have a data point:

My PC (550W PSU) uses 8W asleep and 7W when turned off.

[Random_Dude]

If you don't use it as a server, why would you need it on 24/7?

If I'm going to be away for more than 1h, I turn it off.

[jonathonblake]

I leave my desktop on 7/24.
That is the only way that retrieving my email is "managable".

When I turn off my system, it gets unplugged.

jonathon

[vexorian]

Here you go then, have a data point:

My PC (550W PSU) uses 8W asleep and 7W when turned off.

My conclusion is then that sleep is good enough.

If the 1W was very important, then the whole 7W would be 7 times more important and thus would be better to unplug the computer.

An issue that comes when you make leaving a computer unplugged a habit is that computers have a lithium battery to keep the clock going and for it to remember the CMOS settings when power is gone. When the Lithium battery dies, you end up having to replace the battery or you will have to configure your computer every time you plug it back.

[KiwiNZ]

I have never replaced a CMOS battery.

[vexorian]

I have never replaced a CMOS battery.

Probably because you previously replied about how you leave the Mac turned on and the PC sleeping. What I mentioned is what happens when you leave it unplugged too frequently.

It is not so common anyway, around 3 years. I haven't replaced any CMOS battery in my PCs either, probably because I never unplug them intentionally... But I have caught cases of computers that needed them to be replaced, poor user is clueless as to why his PC is unable to boot suddenly sometimes and others it works.

[user1397]

I pretty much have my laptop always on, since anytime I don't plan on using it for a while I just put it on standby. I rarely do restarts, except after certain updates/maintenance.

[Paqman]

An issue that comes when you make leaving a computer unplugged a habit is that computers have a lithium battery to keep the clock going and for it to remember the CMOS settings when power is gone. When the Lithium battery dies, you end up having to replace the battery or you will have to configure your computer every time you plug it back.

Replacing a CMOS battery takes about two minutes, and they're cheap as chips