How long is it safe for an "average" PC to keep running?

In my one computer class that I took last semester our Professor told us a story of this one computer that was used I think in the automobile industry and it was kept on 24/7 for 13 years. Now that is impressive.

 

Other than my tablet and cell phone, my media centre is the only machine that's on 24/7/365.

It doesn't have any fancy cooling like my desktop at all. Hell, I only added an intake and exhaust fan to the case to increase the airflow since it's kept in a corner of the room which makes it very hot in the summer.

http://www.kwokinator.com/page/computer-specs#htpc

deltatux

 

Nice set of gadgets there. I find the "Decommission ETA" funny :banana:

 

24/7

 

/365



lol










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on Christmas I put it in sleep mode for a rest lol

 

I know a guy who has a old water cooled P4 thats been running none stop for 5 years..Had a problem once with his video card so he took it out then reset it in its slot and off it went again...He only keeps it just to see how long it will last...

 

sleep mode when there is nothing downloading or im not using it, what makes you think your perfectly healthy rig cant be running forever?

 

I run mine 24/7, and have done so for my last couple of builds.

The first thing to go with a computer running 24/7 should be the fans, since many of them are sleeve-bearing fans and have a lifespan as short as 30,000 hours. That is 3.42 years. You have to remember that is an 'average', it could last 2.5 years or 4.

If you look at my build, considering I got the P45 motherboard and Q9400 when they first came out, its almost 4 years old. Even worse is the CPU fan (high end Zalman, at the time) which is now 6 years old! running non-stop.

Basically with a reasonable quality ball bearing fan you should never have to replace them, and you should feel pretty confident they won't stuff up on you. The odd case fan may not be a major issue, but you definitely don't want a CPU fan failing.

Go back 8 or 9 years and the biggest issue fan wise was graphics cards. Nvidia or AMD, many of them just got noisy after 6 months, its a good thing now they use a bit better quality fan.

 

Every chipset fan i have ever had on a motherboard has fully died on me and 2-3 of my Antec 1200 fans are starting to squeak. Other then that i have had all my fans last pretty decently. I have had tons of Zalman coolers and they always seem to have very good fans in them. I'm going to have to replace my Antec 1200's fans very soon tho or get a new case. :bang:

 

It's fine to keep running. If you use your pc at least every other day it is actually better for your pc to just keep it running let me explain.

When your pc is turned on it heats up and the hot parts expand. When you turn it off it cools and retracts, this is a leading cause of wear and tear on computer components. So if you use your pc a lot it's better to keep it on so it stays warm and doesn't expand and contract.

Most sleep modes also power down the processor's or put them in a very low power state which usually means cooling down, and may lead to wear if used frequently. I do not use sleep mode.

However if you use it only maybe once a week it maybe better to leave it off and just boot it up when you need it.

The occasional reboot is ok because it doesn't give the pc long enough to cool down significantly.

I keep my computer running 24/7. Only reboot it if necessary. I have been doing this for years without any problems. In fact none of my computers that I do this with have any problems with aging. I do also keep a modest overclock going. Nothing huge just 10-15%. 100% stable.

 

24/7/365

Only restarted for driver updates, or hardware changes.

-scheherazade

 

I dont understand why people leave there computers on when there not using,if your not downloading or folding etc why leave it on?

Your just consuming more power and shortening the life of your computer....also your carbon footprint increases,i dont understand the logic in why people do this.

 

People turn off their PCs?... crazy talk.

But seriously I used to have my PC running almost 24/7 because I was always uploading/downloading some stuff or using it as a server for something. But these days I usually put it to sleep since I rarely download/upload anything compared to before and I never use it as a server for anything.

 

Turning them on and off would do more damage as someone has already mentioned. When they heat up parts expand, and when cooling they shrink.
Keep doing that to metal and you're eventually going to wear things out.

Carbon footprints are a joke. It's just an excuse to tax you.

But really. The question is if it's safe to leave it running. And yes it is. If your parts are reliable it makes no real difference if you turn it on or off every day or leave it running.
It's just up to you if you want the power bill, and by the time you do wear out these components. You'll probably want to upgrade anyway.

 

At 100W idle, it will cost about an extra £50 a year, £4 a month to leave my PC on overnight every night.
My PC serves as an email alert and alarm clock,
as well as audio for TV, music and films...
(I've got a great DAC but cant control the volume unless I use the PC)

 

So does putting it to sleep just as bad as say turning it off?

 

As long as temps and dust are kept under control (and you dont have poor quality components), there is no problem leaving a PC on.

Use hard drive power saving.
My hard drives wore out faster when no power saving was used.

 

Yes. When a computer is put to sleep pretty much everything except the memory is off. It cools down and contracts, when you wake it from sleep it will heat up and expand again.

But I wouldn't worry about that, people like us don't keep the same parts for a decade.

 

24/7/360 two days to give it a break