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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered
down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Thanks for any advice, or pointers to some useful studies on the matter. Nick |
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On 4/9/2010 11:26, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Soft-off still draws electricity. If you worried about fire, shut off all power. -- @~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY. / v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you! /( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.33.2 ^ ^ 20:17:01 up 5 days 12:09 2 users load average: 0.00 0.00 0.00 不借貸! 不詐騙! 不援交! 不打交! 不打劫! 不自殺! 請考慮綜援 (CSSA): http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa |
#3
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On 4/9/2010 8:18 AM, Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote:
On 4/9/2010 11:26, Nicholas Dreyer wrote: I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Soft-off still draws electricity. If you worried about fire, shut off all power. And if you are really really worried, unplug it entirely. No telling when bad switch karma will catch up with you... |
#4
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On 09 Apr 2010 03:26:08 GMT, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Thanks for any advice, or pointers to some useful studies on the matter. For ultimate power economy, use the switch - modern PSUs continue to provide 5v when the PC is 'off'.. To *really* economise, switch off with a cheap external power strip - it's cheaper to replace that than a PSU when the switch eventually wears out! If you live in an area prone to lightning storms, it's safer to actually unplug the PC when not in use - a nearby lightning strike on the power line can easily jump over a power switch and *might* fry your PC. Of course, at most you'll save a few dollars a year... And many other devices (TVs, microwaves, cable boxes) also suck power when they're nominally 'off'. |
#5
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:08:51 -0400, Strobe wrote:
On 09 Apr 2010 03:26:08 GMT, Nicholas Dreyer wrote: I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Thanks for any advice, or pointers to some useful studies on the matter. For ultimate power economy, use the switch - modern PSUs continue to provide 5v when the PC is 'off'.. To *really* economise, switch off with a cheap external power strip - it's cheaper to replace that than a PSU when the switch eventually wears out! If you live in an area prone to lightning storms, it's safer to actually unplug the PC when not in use - a nearby lightning strike on the power line can easily jump over a power switch and *might* fry your PC. Of course, at most you'll save a few dollars a year... And many other devices (TVs, microwaves, cable boxes) also suck power when they're nominally 'off'. Thanks all for the feedback that points to the advantages of complete power off. I was leaning that way, but my only question regarding that approach would be: Is there any risk to the motherboard from regularly turning back on the low-level 5v "soft power"? |
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:30:43 -0400, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
I was leaning that way, but my only question regarding that approach would be: Is there any risk to the motherboard from regularly turning back on the low-level 5v "soft power"? You will get different answers depending on peoples prior experiences. My preference is to leave all electronics running 24/7, with something like boinc running, to keep the cpu at 100% usage, all of the time. That way, everything stays at the same temperature. My cpu (with a 14" fan blowing into the open case) runs at a steady 49C when clean. When it hits 55C, I clean the cpu heatsink, without having to shut the system down. My two hard drives run at 36C and 34C. They were running in the high forties, before I started using the big fan, with the case cover removed. While the bearings on my hard drives may fail sooner, the circuit boards do not undergo any thermal expansion/contraction, so the rest of the computer should last longer. As always, make sure all critical data is backed up offsite. Regards, Dave Hodgins -- Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email. (nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.) |
#7
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:39:00 -0400, "David W. Hodgins"
wrote: On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:30:43 -0400, Nicholas Dreyer wrote: I was leaning that way, but my only question regarding that approach would be: Is there any risk to the motherboard from regularly turning back on the low-level 5v "soft power"? You will get different answers depending on peoples prior experiences. My preference is to leave all electronics running 24/7, with something like boinc running, to keep the cpu at 100% usage, all of the time. That way, everything stays at the same temperature. My cpu (with a 14" fan blowing into the open case) runs at a steady 49C when clean. When it hits 55C, I clean the cpu heatsink, without having to shut the system down. My two hard drives run at 36C and 34C. They were running in the high forties, before I started using the big fan, with the case cover removed. While the bearings on my hard drives may fail sooner, the circuit boards do not undergo any thermal expansion/contraction, so the rest of the computer should last longer. As always, make sure all critical data is backed up offsite. Regards, Dave Hodgins I cannot believe my eyes reading this posting. Are you serious? This will cost you much extra money, only 'to protect the motherboard', you significantly shorten the lives of your devices and from the vuepoint of the environment... Massimo |
#8
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
Somewhere on teh intarwebs Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:08:51 -0400, Strobe wrote: On 09 Apr 2010 03:26:08 GMT, Nicholas Dreyer wrote: I keep my PC on for at most a few hours a day. After it has powered down, is it safer to shut off all power to the motherboard using the toggle switch on the power supply, or is it better to leave it on, or does it not matter at all? Thanks for any advice, or pointers to some useful studies on the matter. For ultimate power economy, use the switch - modern PSUs continue to provide 5v when the PC is 'off'.. To *really* economise, switch off with a cheap external power strip - it's cheaper to replace that than a PSU when the switch eventually wears out! If you live in an area prone to lightning storms, it's safer to actually unplug the PC when not in use - a nearby lightning strike on the power line can easily jump over a power switch and *might* fry your PC. Of course, at most you'll save a few dollars a year... And many other devices (TVs, microwaves, cable boxes) also suck power when they're nominally 'off'. Thanks all for the feedback that points to the advantages of complete power off. I was leaning that way, but my only question regarding that approach would be: Is there any risk to the motherboard from regularly turning back on the low-level 5v "soft power"? Not so much to the motherboard but there's more stress put on the power supply as the big capacitors 'fill', there's a big inrush current. In fact the only times (twice in 15 years) I've had catastrophic failure (BANG!) of (one of) the large capacitor/s in the PSU was when applying mains power to it. There is another consideration. If the machine is turned off at the back, or unplugged, the small battery on the motherboard that retains BIOS settings will die more quickly. However they're only a couple bucks (depending on the brand and where you live). What could be more of a PITA is if you have custom BIOS settings such as an 'on the edge' overclock or 'just so' RAM timings, or even if you're running your HDD/s as AHCI (and the default is 'IDE emulation'). Then, when the battery does go you have to know these settings so that you can re-enter them when you replace the battery. -- Shaun. "When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson |
#9
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:28:18 +0200, Massimo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:39:00 -0400, "David W. Hodgins" wrote: On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:30:43 -0400, Nicholas Dreyer wrote: I was leaning that way, but my only question regarding that approach would be: Is there any risk to the motherboard from regularly turning back on the low-level 5v "soft power"? You will get different answers depending on peoples prior experiences. My preference is to leave all electronics running 24/7, with something like boinc running, to keep the cpu at 100% usage, all of the time. That way, everything stays at the same temperature. My cpu (with a 14" fan blowing into the open case) runs at a steady 49C when clean. When it hits 55C, I clean the cpu heatsink, without having to shut the system down. My two hard drives run at 36C and 34C. They were running in the high forties, before I started using the big fan, with the case cover removed. While the bearings on my hard drives may fail sooner, the circuit boards do not undergo any thermal expansion/contraction, so the rest of the computer should last longer. As always, make sure all critical data is backed up offsite. Regards, Dave Hodgins I cannot believe my eyes reading this posting. Are you serious? This will cost you much extra money, only 'to protect the motherboard', you significantly shorten the lives of your devices and from the vuepoint of the environment... Massimo Yes, I would never want to go through with all that Dave suggests - and doubt anyone else would, unless they have some extraordinarily valuable motherboard and hard drive setup - and didn't care about the racket, expense and environmental consequences of constantly running fans, but to get back to my unanswered question: Assuming CPU shutdown is to happen after more or less daily use of a few hours at most, does daily 5v "soft power" re-energizing of motherboard via power supply rocker switch prior to reboot add significant, or even measurable wear and tear on its circuitry? |
#10
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More or less safe to turn off power supply rocker switch?
On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:32:23 +1200, ~misfit~ wrote:
Not so much to the motherboard but there's more stress put on the power supply as the big capacitors 'fill', there's a big inrush current. In fact the only times (twice in 15 years) I've had catastrophic failure (BANG!) of (one of) the large capacitor/s in the PSU was when applying mains power to it. There is another consideration. If the machine is turned off at the back, or unplugged, the small battery on the motherboard that retains BIOS settings will die more quickly. However they're only a couple bucks (depending on the brand and where you live). What could be more of a PITA is if you have custom BIOS settings such as an 'on the edge' overclock or 'just so' RAM timings, or even if you're running your HDD/s as AHCI (and the default is 'IDE emulation'). Then, when the battery does go you have to know these settings so that you can re-enter them when you replace the battery. Ah, what you say here is very interesting to know. It's sounding like the slight energy consumption of leaving the PSU rocker switch on permanently is not as bad as the possibility of a blown out PSU from repeated powering-up, so I will continue to leave it on permanently. The reason I was focusing on the rocker switch question was because my last PSU blew after a mere four years with the rocker switch left on all the time except for occasional cleaning, maintenance and moving: One day, after CPU shutdown the previous night, nothing would start until installation of a replacement PSU. Thanks for sharing all your experiences, Nick |
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