Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Do you guys turn your machines on and off every day, or even several times a day? It's my contention that this causes more stress on a machine than leaving it running, as it is with light bulbs. They tend to blow when you first switch them on, rather than when they've been running a while. I doubt the electrical analogy is correct, but I seem to be able to avoid mechanical problems.
My current desktop computer is left on 24/7 and is now about eight years old. I changed the motherboard about four years ago, but that was less than $100 USD. I do have some extra fans mounted inside the cabinet to reduce heat, but other than the occasional attack from malware, I don't have problems with it. (touch wood) I've been doing this 24/7 with computers for the past two computers and only upgrade when there is some really great new hardware that I 'really must have.'
Stitchawl
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I never shut my machines down, my wife on the other hand is obsessed. I have been using the same Windows box for 6 years and it hasn't been turned off more than a handful of times for upgrades or cleaning, it's still running fine, my wife's PC, not so good, all new in the past 3 years, Motherboard, RAM, Drives..etc. She thinks it's because she uses her PC more than I do, she doesn't understand servers, but then again she doesn't want to either.
I use a Powerbook all the time and the Windows box is basically a server, my Mac has been going strong for the past 5 years, time for a new one, but only because I want it
One thing to remember though, is that its a good idea to reboot periodically, this gives your operating system a chance to stop un-needed applications running in the background, this is usually associated with Windows operating systems, but does happen with Mac OS as well. I find this works not only for my computers but for the iPhone as well.
Knocking on wood!