i shut down.

ive got ssd's and win 8.1 on two comps - they take you to desktop in like five seconds. It takes longer to type in passwords than wait loading.

For a laptop I would say turn it off or in Hibernation mode. For a PC, set it to sleep or hibernate after about an hour and just leave it like that.

From my experience there really is no difference on newer machines, not even on machines that are 10 years old. But... leaving them on all the time actually reduces the wear in the long run instead of constant start and stop. The oil in the gears stay a constant or fairly constant temp so that it reduces wear.

I shut my desktop off only if it is really hot in the house or I am cleaning it.

I always turn off my PC for the night, always did so. I couldn't sleep with it powered on, even if I lower fan speeds. I also turn it of when I'm leaving home for several hours or more.

If I walk away from the computer for anywhere up to a hour or so, but I'm still at home, garden or whatever, I just leave it on, with the monitor powering off after 20 minutes.

I set it to the sleep when I walk away from it for over an hour and I'm sure no one else will be using it. My Windows user account is not password protected and is the only account on this PC, every family member is pretty much free to use the PC as and when they like.

An interesting twist, I must say.

Thanks guys for all the good feedback. It's nice to be able to count on the good GoG community for advice.