Re: leaving computer on 24/7
on Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 12:26:31PM +0100, Koen Dejonghe (koen_dejonghe@hotmail.com) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I installed debian woody on an ordinary pc and was wondering if I can
> leave the machine on 24/7 without damaging it.
This is a much-asked question (though it seems less frequent in recent
years), there's little conclusive evidence one way or the other. The
one study I remember from IBM (late 1990s?) suggests that:
- Turning off your monitor (CRT) will provide power savings and spare
your phosphors. Given that a monitor is likely the most long-lived
component of your system, this is significant.
- The likelihood of run-time failure of other components (CPU, disks,
memory) from 24/7 operation is lower than the likelihood of 200+
start-up surge cycles annually for a system started daily. The most
harmful moment of operation for your system is the ten seconds after
you hit the power switch from an "off" status.o
- The lifetime of typical computer hardware (3-4 years) is short
enough that you're likely to replace the system before any
components fail, due to technology advances (fast CPUs, larger
memory, faster and larger disks).
With the increasing use of multiple cooling fans, it's likely that
you'll replace a case or CPU fan at some point. Failure to do so at an
appropriate time may result in severly degraded system performance.
Cooked silicon generates few bogomips.
> Are there options in linux where I can turn of the hard disks after x
> minutes?
$ man hdparm
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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