Desktop Dell2400. Keep it on or shut down after use?

ppl say to keep a computer on 24/7 because the boot process is known to be the most stressing on a pc. however, it really makes no difference. imo, the savings on the electric bill outweighs the overall longevity sacrifice of the computer.
 
You need to turn your computer off every night and let it rest. If you don't your internet will be slower. Plus, if everyone turned off their computer every night we would save alot of energy.

Sources: my computer nerd boyfriend and some "green" article about saving energy.
 
Why don't you just put it to sleep, so it's not really off, but not using much power either? I never turn any of my computers off, because, like someone already mentioned, it is very stressful to the computer Also louisgurl, there's no reason that keeping your computer on should have any effect on your internet connection, that I can think of...they are completely independant of each other, as far as I know...
 
Gosh, this could be argued either way. Kinda reminds me of an argument we had at a place I used to work on whether we should shut off the ladies room light switch to save electricity. Do you spend more energy turning the lights on and off rather than just a steady "on"? Who knows.

For your PC, as long as you keep your disk(s) defragmented, up to date antivirus, up to date software updates, run a scandisk periodically, you should be good to go.

I am of the school to shut it off at night (full shut off, not 'sleep') and reboot in the a.m. I do remember hearing how the machine can 'leak' resources and oomph if it's on all the time but I thought that was only true for much older 1990s computers. Not sure.
 
oooh! myth busters did a show on whether or not it takes more energy to leave on or turn off & on... and ultimately it came out that you save more energy by turning off the light & it makes very little difference to the life of bulb. i love mythbusters.

when I lived by myself, I used to turn off/unplug EVERYTHING excpet for my fridge when i left for work in the morning. even the digi clock, i'd just reset it when i got home. I only started leaving it pluged in when i got my lovebird & left it on to keep him company. I saved quite a bit on the electric bill.


You also save more gas by turning your engine off at long lights/waits... but most of us can't be bothered. LOL
 
I leave both my home and work computers on all the time. They both go into energy saving mode fairly quickly. My boss does the same thing with his computer, and the other guy in our office is convinced that we're ruining them or something. I think he's insane.
 
we never turn off our computers and we have four of them. They do go in sleep mode when not in use and I have to say that having them on does not mean that the internet connection will be slower I have no idea where you "computer nerd boyfriend" heard that but it is not true. I have to also say that turning them off does not make much of a deference on the electric bill at least it didn't on mine when we did that for a month I think it was like a 5 maybe 10 dollar savings which isn't enough if I'm gonna have to replace a computer it's gonna be 100+ times that cost.
 
The desktop gets turned off, the laptop gets closed (sleep mode). Everyone has different opinions, one person you ask will say to leave it on, another will say turn it off, so the bottom line is, do whats best for you.