7 year old one that blew it's motherboard. Unlike the old one, this one doesn't have "hibernate" which essentially shuts the computer down. The monitor will shut down along with the hard drive after a designated time, but the two cooling fans continue to run.

It's used off and on every day for e-mail, a few games an occasionally digital photography.

My question is, do you think it's better to let it run all the time or shut it down overnight or if it's not going to be used for say, 8hrs or so. It's a $400 box so I guess if it croaks in a few years it's not that big a deal....

Opinions? :D

My computer is on 75% of the time in the 3 years I have owned it. It has survived multiple power outages. One of my buddies who works for Intel says he never shuts his off. Says that's harder on it. I don't think it matters either way. It'll more than likely be obsolete before it fails. Since this computer related I am going to move this to bughunt.

I would shut it off every night. It'll force a daily reboot of Windows. While XP is more stable than say Windows 98, it still needs to be rebooted fairly often, to clear out temp files, recover memory, etc.

I have an old, probably 6 yrs old, computer at home. It's on 24x7 unless we're going away. Sometimes, as 72ElCaminoSS said, it does start to slow down. That's when I reboot it. Electronic components today are pretty reliable but the power up/power down, heat up/cool down, cycles are the most stressfull on them and that's when most failures occur. If you're not worried about the cost of spinning the fan all the time, leave it on.

It may have hibernate but the bios has to have the powermanagement setting set to the correct level. I think they are S levels. That also may be what is affecting the fans. If there is a new bios out there to flash your computer that might be worth a try.

Originally posted by 69malibu3speed:
..so I guess if it croaks in a few years it's not that big a deal....

Opinions? :D exactly. let 'er run. as a bonus you can schedule scans and updates to run in the middle of the night, when they should. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Originally posted by faulkkev:
It may have hibernate but the bios has to have the powermanagement setting set to the correct level. I think they are S levels. That also may be what is affecting the fans. If there is a new bios out there to flash your computer that might be worth a try. I think I figured out how to make it hibernate. You can test this fuction by calling up the windows shutdown screen and pressing the left shift key. This will change the "standby" button to "hibernate". Press the button and your system will immediately go to hibernate. You have to set "enable hibernate" under control panel power options also. Still not sure if it will work when timed in. I'm wondering if you should set the other power off options to never so they don't prevent hibernate from happening....like "power off hard drive" and "standby"...if either of these happens before "hibernate" will the computer still be able to hibernate?

I must be bored>>>.