Last time I tried to shut down my computer it killed all of my fellow crew members so I go ahead and keep it on now.

You asshole! Here I was making a little 2001 joke and now because of you I'm actually going to hear my sims dying whenever I shut down! Jesus, I can hear them now, begging me not to terminate their little sim lives!

Oh the humanity!

I turn my machine off because my GPU's casing is broken and held up by a moronic contraption of mine that I believe may be highly flammable. Also I have a bucket full of water next to me at all times.

the simanity you mean ;p

My computer is near my bedroom and the fans would keep me up if I left it running all night, so I shut it down then. Sure I could send it into hibernation or sleep or whatever, but I have just always powered down (maybe old fashioned thinking?).

However my computer is getting on a bit and certain components are reaching the end of their life. Occasionally I find that after leaving it on for several hours without doing anything it just hangs and I cannot get it to respond. I have a major rebuild planned for later next year around its fifth anniversary of its construction.


As an aside, is there anything specifically different between hibernation and sleep? If I am correct one is deeper, in that power is turned off, but the current state is saved, or something. Correct?

leave the hard drive running.

Some people suggest sleep mode or maybe hibernate, but wouldn't they have pretty much the same effect (if any) to the "wear and tear" as properly shutting the machine down?

I've heard these rumors that e.g. keeping the HDDs running all the time is better than constantly switching them on and off (cooling down and heating up over and over again), but meh. No idea if it is obsolete information, or even an urban legend. I've heard similar claims also for capacitors (on the motherboard) and such, ie. they last longer if the system is running all the time. I'm not sure.

If I know I will return to the PC in one hour or so, I probably leave it running just so that I don't have to wait it to power up. Otherwise I shut it down, unless I am downloading something in the background etc.

I've actually switched off completely any sleep or hibernate functions. I recall sometimes having some issues with them, ie. hard drive stop spinning even though I was downloading something, or the PC going to sleep even though there was something ongoing in the background. Or maybe I was afraid some files on external USB devices might get corrupted if the sleep or hibernate mode kicked in while the files were still open.

Are the sleep and hibernate mode timers nowadays smart enough not to put it to sleep in case there is any kind of data transfer or something ongoing?

you can leave it on indefinitely, theoretically speaking.
Anyway, you'll have to restart/reboot when you install new hardware, or some software, or updates etc.
I'll leave it on most of the time, I can't hear it anyway being so quiet.
gl

^this
A hard drive is better left running if youre going to have a rather short break.

Is that in response to me? I have (at least in the past) set the HDD to stay on permanently. Maybe the power settings were changed from some update or another, but it is a good idea and I'll check that once I get home.

A response to the op. Ot is unnecessary to shut the computer down for a break. And starting the drive up wears it out more than keeping it running.

Right and following that logic, one would assume that it depends on how long the drive is running. I think I'll Google this up.

EDIT: Not sure about the source, but this guy seems knowledgeable and is calling it a myth (the wear from boot/shutdown): http://computer.howstuffworks.com/powering-down-computer.htm
Another one calling it a myth: http://lifehacker.com/5940176/is-it-bad-to-shutdown-my-computer-regularly-or-leave-it-on-all-the-time

Anyhow, I think a break is a borderline case, but I would definitely shut it down for a period longer than 2 hours:

1) It saves energy

2) A lot of hacking attempts and DOS attacks occur from zombie nets which are often compromised computers that people keep running 24/7. As far as I'm concerned, if an attack occurs, that your compromised computer is involved and that it can be shown that you keep your computer running for long periods of time while you are away, you should be fined.

Heck, even if someone just wants to screw around with my machine, if it will trigger any noticeable red flag, I want to be in front of my machine to notice it and shut it down.

Fair enough. I'll look into it with my computer anyway!

Fact : every electronic device gets 'fatigue' by being turned on and off. Commutations (edit : switchings is the right word) are kind of 'mini surges' that consume a spike of power which is quite intense for any device (much more intense than the standard operating I mean).

In the same order of idea, RAM and CPUs for example don't cionsume much power when idle, it's the switchings that bring heat and drain energy (everybody can figure that easily)