Can a gaming PC be put to sleep or remain active all day?
Can a gaming PC be put to sleep or remain active all day?
I heard about this before, whenever you turn off the PC and let it cool down, hard drives (and possibly other components) age about eight hours. I used that as a rule. I’m not sure if it’s accurate. I have two hard drives in my current PC from 2005-2006, and they’re all fine.
If I won’t be using the PC for less than three hours, I put it to sleep. But if I’m getting close to six to eight hours, I shut it down completely.
I don’t use Hibernation. I’ve disabled it specifically. Why? Because Windows generates a hiber-something-file that consumes a lot of space (which is a problem for me). I usually run my Windows 10 from a 120 gig SSD, and I can’t allow hibernation to take up more than 10 gigabytes.
Your not going to get a real answer on this their no 100% way of doing it.
You can make a case for or against anyway of doing it. In general it don't matter their made to run all the time, be put to sleep, or turn off.
My personal settings monitor goes off after 1 hour, sleep is set to never.
Before work I use the PC when I'm going to work or bed I turn if off. Today I'm off work so the PC will be used throughout (not all the time as it's yard work day) the day so I will just leave it on till bed time
And the mention of surge protectors and lightning... electricity can take unexpected routes, causing harm beyond just the power supply unit. From a recent nearby lightning incident, several items were damaged:
PC - ethernet port
Printer - ethernet port
Stereo receiver - 2x HDMI ports
Invisible Fence
circuit board - burned, with the cover blown halfway through the garage.
This occurred in a house from the 1980s, featuring solid wiring and circuit breakers. All the computers, printer, and stereo were powered by high-quality UPS units—different models. The PC and printer were separated by two switches and a router; none of these were impacted. Devices connected to the receiver via HDMI (TV and HTPC) remained unaffected. The invisible fence was physically disconnected from the wall. My ex had installed it years ago, and it hadn’t been used for many years.
Among all the devices in the room, none suffered damage to their power sources. A few PCs restarted after a reboot, returning to normal operation.
For those who claim "I always unplug my PC during lightning...", consider this: every storm with lightning has its first victim. This was that one. It started with heavy rain—BAM! If I had unplugged everything each time it rained, the devices would have been switched off more often than on.
Sleep puts the PC and monitor into a very low power mode, almost like a complete shutdown.
When you use sleep without hibernation, the sleep/wake cycle lasts only a few seconds.
I rely on sleep often.
Sometimes you need to turn off the system for maintenance or repairs.
If an app is causing memory leaks or other issues, occasional restarts might help.
Usually, I go a week or two without needing a full shutdown and restart.
Even when powered off, some power remains to keep the PC responsive and the monitor ready for boot.
I don’t think it’s worth unplugging devices regularly, as any savings would be minimal.
For protection against electrical interference, that’s another matter.
If your home’s electrical system is well grounded and has some surge protection, that’s a solid foundation.
If not, a reliable UPS can help shield connected devices from power problems.