Does turning off your computer every day or leaving it on all the time increases its lifespan? While turning off your computer at the end of the day really means you are exposing it to additional wear and tear, in fact, the actual wear comes from the act of safely shutting down the computer, not when you turn it on later.
Just as the internal combustion engine in cars is subject to increased wear during start-up due to the high levels of friction created by moving parts, a personal computer is subject to a similar type of start-up wear. However, this is directly proportional to the multitude of mechanical parts inside the computer.
So, modern computers now have almost no moving parts apart from a few fans and the hard drive, which is now rare. However, there may still be wear with the inrush current given to the circuits. Because electronic circuits consisting of indicators, capacitors and transformers draw a large amount of current during start-up. While this is significantly higher than the current level during normal operation, you can run into annoying problems in the shorter term if you also use a cheap power supply. In summary, turning the computer on and off frequently eats up the life of the computer as it reduces the power cycle.
But on the other hand, if the mechanics inside are few, that is, if you use an SSD instead of a hard drive, or if the computer components have quality capacitors, then this may not be the case. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s energy report, modern computers are built to withstand 40,000 power cycles. So this roughly means 5 years.
But what if we keep the computer on all the time? In fact, this is again a matter of the durability of the parts inside the computer. If the capacitors inside the computer are of poor quality, then the life of the device may be further reduced. Because this is about how much the capacitor in a typical computer PCB can carry the current passing through it. Typical capacitors have a lifespan of 32,000 hours, which is a little over 3.5 years.
Solution: Put your computer to sleep
If leaving your computer running 24/7 not only increases the voltage on the capacitors, but also causes high energy costs at the end of the day, turning it on and off all the time consumes the power cycle, then In this case, putting the computer to sleep would be the best choice. Because components in sleep and hibernation mode draw less power, wear is less, on the other hand, when you wake up the computer, the power it will draw in the first place will be less – both of which are beneficial for system health.
On the other hand, at the end of the day, this method will incur an additional energy cost to you. Therefore, if you need to constantly turn your computer on and off during the day, it would be more logical to put it into sleep mode, but if you turn it on and off once a day, continuing this process will not upset you in the short term and your system will easily carry you between 5 and 7 years. At the end of this period, as the performance required by both the operating system and the applications you use will change, you will renew your system whether you want it or not.
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