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Whats its best shutdown or sleep?

FreaKk
Level 7
Hi, i recently came with a doubt, which option will be best for hardware, shutdown the PC or put to sleep, i use 3 or 4 hours a day, always shutdown and set the switch of the psu to OFF, rarely i put it to sleep. I hope someone will throw some wisdom to this worry. Best regards!!
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28 REPLIES 28

Heini
Level 11
You are doing it the best way...... carry on!

Nate152
Moderator
Hi FreaKk

It all depends how you want it, either has no effect on hardware. Using sleep will start your pc faster if that's what you're after.

I personally prefer a fresh boot rather than using sleep.

I'm a bit old school and recall when powering up a cool computer it actually applied thermal stress to the components, at times, leading to failure.
Having said that I almost never shut my workstation down unless making a HW change. I also take part in BOINC so I use that as justification for the high electricity bills. 😉 I'm on my computer between 12-16 hours a day on average.

I also have an ASUS ROG laptop, when not on AC I've set it to go to sleep upon cover close, then after 2 hours shut down.

Well i was doing the correct way(thanksfully), i dont like to put it to sleep, the best i thought (and now i am more secure) its to keep it outside the grid the maximum time possible to avoid low voltage or other problems.

So best choice when left the PC: Shutdown and put switch of PSU to OFF.:cool:

GDoC63 wrote:
I'm a bit old school and recall when powering up a cool computer it actually applied thermal stress to the components, at times, leading to failure.
Having said that I almost never shut my workstation down unless making a HW change. I also take part in BOINC so I use that as justification for the high electricity bills. 😉 I'm on my computer between 12-16 hours a day on average.

I also have an ASUS ROG laptop, when not on AC I've set it to go to sleep upon cover close, then after 2 hours shut down.



well thats its one of my thoughts for this problem, i dont know if thermal stress its an issue today, but i think that left the pc 24/7 connected to the grid its not a good idea.

I wouldn't say thermal stress during startup counts for much theese days, as long as the ambient temperature ain't unnormal. Sure, it could have an effect over long time, but I would say your computer is over and done with long before that makes a difference.
The important part is of course to keep your case/parts adequately cooled.

If what you mean with low voltage is that the psu would detoriate with time and by that give you lower voltage. I would once again say you will have a dead psu before you get lower voltage output just by having your psu connected to the wall.
It's the stress and heat that will detoriate the psu over time. So if you have an undersized psu with poor components, that's what will cost you.
Getting a good psu also usually gives you a long warranty. See the links for more info.

If you mean undervoltage as in the ac voltage dropping, I can't see how that would affect your psu while it is shut down.
Consider getting an UPS if there's voltage and frequency differention in your powernetwork and you want to stabilize it.
The UPS would also protect you from powersurge and brownouts which are harmful for a computer.

The benefit of shutdown is a clean boot and no worries about loosing anything "in progress".
The benefit of sleep is a quick wake up time.

Nate152 sums it up well.

If you want to read up on PSU's in more detail this is a good article:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,review-32338.html

I hope I got it somewhat grammatically correct as I am posting from my mobile. 🙂

Tier list of psu's (good and bad psu's, with links to examples of bad psu):
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

gustmi4 wrote:
I wouldn't say thermal stress during startup counts for much theese days, as long as the ambient temperature ain't unnormal. Sure, it could have an effect over long time, but I would say your computer is over and done with long before that makes a difference.
The important part is of course to keep your case/parts adequately cooled.

If what you mean with low voltage is that the psu would detoriate with time and by that give you lower voltage. I would once again say you will have a dead psu before you get lower voltage output just by having your psu connected to the wall.
It's the stress and heat that will detoriate the psu over time. So if you have an undersized psu with poor components, that's what will cost you.
Getting a good psu also usually gives you a long warranty. See the links for more info.

If you mean undervoltage as in the ac voltage dropping, I can't see how that would affect your psu while it is shut down.
Consider getting an UPS if there's voltage and frequency differention in your powernetwork and you want to stabilize it.
The UPS would also protect you from powersurge and brownouts which are harmful for a computer.







The benefit of shutdown is a clean boot and no worries about loosing anything "in progress".
The benefit of sleep is a quick wake up time.

Nate152 sums it up well.

If you want to read up on PSU's in more detail this is a good article:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,review-32338.html

I hope I got it somewhat grammatically correct as I am posting from my mobile. 🙂

Tier list of psu's (good and bad psu's, with links to examples of bad psu):
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html



i have a cooler master silent pro m2 1000w silver, its a good model for my build?

Code_Frenzy
Level 9
My last PC (a Dell Dimension 9150) was never switched off except for rare occasions like updates or to clean the case and fans. It's lasted me 9 years and is still working to this day, although it's no longer left on as it's not my main PC.
The reason for doing this was two-fold, first of all I like my PC to be instantly ready and so only had the screen set to auto off but the PC left idling 24/7. Secondly, I've worked with PC's for a long time and most 'hardware' faults have occurred during power up, whether that be because of thermal stressing or electrical spikes at switch on, I do not know. Older hard drives were also susceptible to failure after a high number of power-ups. Therefore I just chose to keep my PC running, and considering its a Pentium D (notoriously renowned for running hot), its lasted me very well.
My latest PC is running on a M8 Hero Alpha with i7-6700k and liquid cooled. The fact that it is liquid cooled has made me wary of leaving it switched on 24/7. Only time will tell how long this system lasts me. I'd be very happy if it lasts me another 9 years!