24/ 7 running.

[Defender01]

What is best to run your pc 24 / 7 or shut down.
I need to keep my pc running 24 / 7 to run my cctv cameras which go to an external hard drive.
The only time i shut down / restart is when i need to reboot for any reason after an install etc.

 

[Tim Locke]

The only thing I'd worry about in running a PC 24/7 would be the moving parts . HDDs and fans. I note that there are HDDS made specifically for always on. Western Digital 'red' is it ? or some specific 'colour' I noticed them when buying discs for a NAS box. PC fans are generally reliable for years on end in my experience.

If I was doing this tho' I'd want a computer running Linux!

 

[Norton]

I never turn my PC HD off. It runs 24/7. Daily starting and stopping causes more stress on components from current inrush and thermal stress heating and cooling of board components...

 

[Alan Sh]

I keep mine on 24/7 too.

 

[Defender01]

Thanks all for the reply's.
I took the cover off this afternoon and gave it a good blow out surprising how much dust accumulates around the fan.
Does seem a bit quieter now or could be my imagination anyhow doesn't do any harm to have a good clean.

 

[Trouble]

I took the cover off this afternoon and gave it a good blow out

Probably the most important thing you can do, if you are going to leave the computer running all the time.
To share a personal anecdote from my own experience....
A few years back, I got a call from a client, a local GM new car dealership. When I arrived I was lead to one of the workstation desks in the large floor room sales area to see what looked mostly like a tower PC but it was covered in white / grayish dust. The contents of a fire extinguisher or at least most of it had been emptied at it.
Long story short.... dust bunnies had accumulated in the power supply and had somehow ignited, resulting in a fire.
Fortunately it was during their hours of operation and someone was alert enough to notice the smoke coming from under the desk.

I don't think that a lot of quality control goes into the manufacture of most power supplies you find installed in a lot of the big box store purchases of PCs.
For some reason I imagine them being made somewhere in huge buildings, where people work for a few dollars a day, that have suicide netting around the exterior.

IF.... "made in china" hover boards and cellphone battery boosters can spontaneously burst into flames, why should your power supply which is likely made in the same building or next door, be any different.
Especially if you feed it some dandy dust bunny tinder to aid the process.

You can leave your computer on 24 / 7 if you want, but personally.....
IF I ain't home, it's off, and that includes the power strip between it and the wall.

 

[davehc]

Norton's observation is valid, but I would say that it is only applicable, in these circumstance, if you are turning on and off frequently - kind of every half hour or less. I really cannot accept that turning off and on once a day, would create any extra wear and tear.

 

[Defender01]

Probably the most important thing you can do, if you are going to leave the computer running all the time.
To share a personal anecdote from my own experience....
A few years back, I got a call from a client, a local GM new car dealership. When I arrived I was lead to one of the workstation desks in the large floor room sales area to see what looked mostly like a tower PC but it was covered in white / grayish dust. The contents of a fire extinguisher or at least most of it had been emptied at it.
Long story short.... dust bunnies had accumulated in the power supply and had somehow ignited, resulting in a fire.
Fortunately it was during their hours of operation and someone was alert enough to notice the smoke coming from under the desk.

I don't think that a lot of quality control goes into the manufacture of most power supplies you find installed in a lot of the big box store purchases of PCs.
For some reason I imagine them being made somewhere in huge buildings, where people work for a few dollars a day, that have suicide netting around the exterior.

IF.... "made in china" hover boards and cellphone battery boosters can spontaneously burst into flames, why should your power supply which is likely made in the same building or next door, be any different.
Especially if you feed it some dandy dust bunny tinder to aid the process.

You can leave your computer on 24 / 7 if you want, but personally.....
IF I ain't home, it's off, and that includes the power strip between it and the wall.

L O L i guess yes if a lot of dust accumulates it would easily become a fire hazard.
As to your last sentence unfortunately for me that is when i need it running { when i am not here }
I have had police major crime incident departments asking for footage when there has been an incident in the area as it has a wide angle lens which covers quite an area.
What they don't tell you is if there is an incident caught on camera they delete that section from your hard drive i guess its so you don't post it on you tube or the like.

 

[Trouble]

Norton's observation is valid, but I would say that it is only applicable, in these circumstance, if you are turning on and off frequently - kind of every half hour or less. I really cannot accept that turning off and on once a day, would create any extra wear and tear.

Pretty sure that, that is an "old wives tale" that continues to survive to today.
I believe that I've read that all modern computer's innards are protected by various sensors, monitors, switches and controllers against spikes from the various voltages on the DC side of the power supply.
Most of the threat would come from the AC side with high voltage spikes or brown out conditions.
I can remember that when I first got into this business, there was a general consensus that you should turn on your monitor before turning on the PC and turn of the PC before turning off the monitor to avoid potential spikes coming via the VGA connector.
Never really believe that either but always subscribed to it as a just in case type situation.
Anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of the capacitance stored by an old CRT will understand.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I would keep mine running for several months at a time, if it wasn't for MS habitual desire to stay in our business with automatic updates. I could understand forcing automatic updates once (maybe twice) a year. Monthly is way too frequently. It barely gives you time to turn around and you are having to do it all over again, and hope like hell it doesn't interrupt your work.

 

[Norton]

Just a note on 24/7 myths or not.
Did you ever see a light bulb, LED, Fluorescent or Incandescent burn out when it was in use. PC's old or modern are no different, the power supply groundwall insulation breaks down at an accelerated rate with frequent inrush and magnetizing currents.

 

[Trouble]

Just a note on 24/7 myths or not.
Did you ever see a light bulb, LED, Fluorescent or Incandescent burn out when it was in use. PC's old or modern are no different, the power supply groundwall insulation breaks down at an accelerated rate with frequent inrush and magnetizing currents.

Not sure how that would support leaving the computer on continuously.
My principal concern is for those components (power supplies) that are manufactured with less than optimal quality control, which are often present in retail models.
Like the flooring I bought from Lumber Liquidators which was manufactured in China. Turns out the formaldehyde levels are so high that it was never supposed to be imported into the United States.

 

[Norton]

Well my PS is rugged for sure and doesn't cause any internal PC heat. It's external Dell Brick. LOL

 

[davehc]

Here3 is an interesting article from the scientific pov. It seems the concern should be more with financial issues than computer wear.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-computers-sleep/

 

[Jake B]

Well if you run it 24/7 it's best to reboot once a week or so to clear the memory out. Your system will respond better over time.

 

[clifford_cooley]

And if my system will run 6 months without showing signs of sluggishness, that is when I would like to choose the time to reboot and install updates. Something is wrong if you can only get one week of run time, before a sluggish machine makes you reboot.

 

[Tim Locke]

And if my system will run 6 months without showing signs of sluggishness, that is when I would like to choose the time to reboot and install updates. Something is wrong if you can only get one week of run time, before a sluggish machine makes you reboot.

Two separate discussions here. Software reliability:
I'd run an LTS version of a reliable Linux distro if I wanted 24/7 or 24/365. Likely wouldn't get any updates in 6 months. There is a reason why serious firewalls like PFSENSE run on Linux or even BSD.

Hardware reliability.

Sooner or later a disk drive will fail. The head may only pick up a few hundred atoms from the platter every day but sooner or later it will fail. There is a disk reliability table in this article:-
http://arstechnica.com/information-...em-to-work-pretty-well-hgst-still-impressive/


SSDs will fail when the gates no longer erase reliably...seems that is a long time tho'



I have had a PC go up in smoke , 2008 actually. Something on the mobo died. And I have had compact fluorescent bulpbs smoking from their internal power supply and then dying.

 

[MrEd]

All posts above are quite valid. At the end of the day it all boils down to RISK and what level you're prepared to accept.
Trouble is on the "money" about internal power supplies. These units are under the most stress (thermal/spikes) and I would not trust leaving one on, under load, unattended. Clogged fans are also an issue.
If your PC is "mission critical" and has to stay on make sure the power supply is a high quality one. And listen to the noise the fans (bearings) make. A PC up off the floor is also good practice - to minimise fluff (horse hair) ingestion.

 

[Jake B]

And if my system will run 6 months without showing signs of sluggishness, that is when I would like to choose the time to reboot and install updates. Something is wrong if you can only get one week of run time, before a sluggish machine makes you reboot.

I didn't you get one week I said it's a good idea. Mainly because of opening and closing applications because of memory leaks. It's always better to run with a clean machine. If software was written better it would be different.

 

[Alan Sh]

I don't see a memory leak issue with my PC. It runs continuously until it needs a reboot. And yes, I do use it

Alan