Is Leaving a Computer on all the time better or not?

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I've finally managed to quit smoking, but yeah. These computers basically generate piles of dust. I have no idea where the material is taken from.

I turn mine off every few days. If I don't, some of the more memory-hog programs I run will drag it down into the muck. Not a big issue, and start-up for me takes maybe a minute or two tops, so it's not annoying.

Do you keep them on the floor or on a table? I've never seen a computer kept on the floor that didn't catch large amounts of dust. Even in the best kept homes. Or is that especially in the best kept homes (more likely to sweep the floors regularly)?

I have been in the computer repair business for about 17 years now and this is what I would recommend.

First of all. It's ok to let your computer run 24/7, But if you do. Make sure that you do the fallowing.

1) Go to <Power options> and set you "display turn off" time. (I recommend about 10 minutes)
2) Set your "hard drive turn off" time. (I recommend about 30 minutes)
3) Set your system "stand by (sleep)" time. (I recommend about 60 minutes)

You might want to test these setting by using shorter times. Make sure the "display turn off" actually turn off the monitor and doesn't just make the screen go black. Also, Be sure check and make sure your systems can go into "stand by (sleep)" mode. There could be a program running that may prevent your system from going into stand by.

OMT: The Windows OS has a unfixable memory leak in it's kernel witch makes it more unstable the longer you run it. To keep you machine running its fastest and to help avoid unexpected crashes I would recommend that you reboot your machine at least once a week.

So is it OK for a PC to run 24/7? as long as it can go in to "stand by". I say Go-for it. Besides, Coming out of "stand by" is a lot faster then booting up cold.

Sure glad I don't use Windows for much of anything.

If it weren't for power outages, most of my computers would probably only be turned off when I rearrange my office. As it is, it's not unusual for them to be up and running for six months to a year between power outages.

what kinds of puter can run that long without running out of memory/resources?

OpenBSD

^^^
unix, eh? ah so no wonder hollywood used that for such a long time.

Also, the other day I turned off a Linux machine that hadn't been rebooted since September.

My main workstation runs Linux, but it sometimes acts up after two weeks to a month or so. Most things run okay but one or two applications inexplicably stop working.

i wonder if that is a specific application fault or an OS fault?

I keep the stationary ones on the floor, and have the laptops on tables (not actually laps ). Maybe I should rearrange them. Hmm...

I was about to say, With WinXP, I've had uptimes of several months before deciding to power cycle my systems. I've not used WinVista, or Win7 enough to say anything about, but I had a Linux box that ran continuously from Aug 2008 to April 2009, and the only reason why it got rebooted was because a thunderstorm knocked my power out for about a half an hour.

Generally, I prefer to keep my systems up and running, whether outright in the case of a desktop system, or putting my notebooks in Sleep/ Hibernate mode when I'm not using them.

As far as which is better outright I cannot say, and it does tend to vary with the OS that you're using. XP was fairly bulletproof as far as MS Products are concerned, Vista was totally annoying, and Win7 seemed to be annoying in much differant ways than Vista. Win8 OTOH, seems to bring the Win7 annoyance to astounding new levels of obnoxiousness, so I won't bother. --I've been using Linux since 1999, and I have been using it exclusively for the past two years.

I don't know which is better for the computer, but most people shut it down to save power. Though for me a reason I might leave it on is so I don't have to wait 5 minutes to start it up again. On my own computer I just use sleep or hibernate, probably not the best thing for the computer but it's convenient.

But sometimes when using computers in the computer lab at uni it's annoying when people shut down the computers when they're finished using it so I have start it up again. It's even more silly to shut down in the middle of the day when there's not even enough computers for everyone to use meaning people are waiting to use them, so when someone finishes on one and shuts down they're not saving any energy at all as someone is going to use it immediately after. They're just wasting the next user's time and causing unnecessary wear and tear to the computer by the process of shutting down/starting up.

That's the whole point here - there is no wear & tear on a computer starting up/down... not a perceptible amount anyway. It's running the hard drive a tiny bit... but, what? ...a minute of loading - tops - on a drive guaranteed for many thousands of running hours.

There is some. When it powers up, components do heat up... and some heat up significantly more than others. The uneven heating and cooling when powering up and powering down does cause some strain on some of the solder joints, lead connections within components (like the connections between the die and the package leads in power transistors, for example), on traces on the circuit boards, and so on. It doesn't usually strain it enough to break, but it does happen from time to time and is one of the more common causes of failure, aside from damage caused by generally overheating. It's almost as though you're wiggling the wires everytime you turn it on or off... it doesn't normally break anything, but over time there is a small chance it will eventually (especially if there was a poor connection to start with).

Of course, this also happens while it's running as changes in CPU load and such cause changes in power dissipation and distribution, especially around the CPU and GPU. But in the power supply, it's mostly when going from off or standby to on. It's generally the changes from cold to hot and back that cause the most strain, rather than just steady heat. Some parts do deteriorate gradually just from having voltage applied or from being hot, but that's less of a concern except in the very long term or when the system is severly overheated. I think it's becoming less of an issue as power supplies improve though, since they run cooler as they get more efficient. It's more of a problem around the CPU than it used to be, though... which is good reason to use a good CPU cooler and keep the fans clean, as it reduces the temperature changes between idle and full load.

Yeesh.... the only way to get around that would be to leave it not only ON, but also running at 100% load 24/7! Instead of a tiny bit of wear by the change of going from colt to hot or cold, it'll wear out by constant use. The benefit is so negligible, you're better off with the electricity savings. The money saved over 3 years would probably pay for the unlikely event of a CPU/mobo/RAM/HDD replacement, but you'd be upgrading by that time anyway...