I shut down every night. Not sure why people would think that's bad for the system. Never heard of the hard drive thing and I guess it kind of makes sense but leaving it on all the time sucks all sorts of extra dust and crap into it, wastes power and reduces the risk of damage due to power outages or surges (yes I have a surge protector but not a UPS). I can't imagine having juice running through all the gizmos and doodads non stop is good for them either. Unless someone can give me an authoritative reason to do otherwise I think I'll stick to just turning the beast off when I'm done for the day.

Beepster


I shut down every night. Not sure why people would think that's bad for the system. Never heard of the hard drive thing and I guess it kind of makes sense but leaving it on all the time sucks all sorts of extra dust and crap into it, wastes power and reduces the risk of damage due to power outages or surges (yes I have a surge protector but not a UPS). I can't imagine having juice running through all the gizmos and doodads non stop is good for them either. Unless someone can give me an authoritative reason to do otherwise I think I'll stick to just turning the beast off when I'm done for the day.

Not that I'm right and I might be completely off base here but I liken it to a light bulb.
Light bulbs usually burn out when you turn them on, not when they're already on.

Light bulbs are a pretty different. Very delicate filament in gas. A car would probably be a better analogy for a computer. I guess I see more things possibly going wrong by keeping it running then putting it through the boot process. I used to leave my old system running for ages. It still works but I have to completely take it apart and clean it because all the fans are gunked up and the guts are COVERED in dust. I think it's screwing up my vid signals and I'm sure other stuff. I want to avoid that with the new system. 

The only thing I could see going wonky from boots are the hard drives (mine are mechanical) and MAYBE the fans. Nothing else should burn out because it's all pretty much solid hardware connections. I'm no expert though so maybe Jim could come back and give us his thoughts.

i dont use sleep, but I shure could use some !! FooMan load x-2 , you will love it !!

Considering that approx. a 3rd of my life is going to be spent sleeping, it's no wonder that the older I get, the less I need (most of it has already been used in my teenage years anyways). Now if I could only figure out how to reduce the expected 4 years of my life that I will spend on the bowl... 

As for the DAW, I start it up when needed and shut it down when done. The days of having multiple machines ON 24/7 is long gone and my pocket book has been quite happy about it all.

Moving parts wear out eventually (even the bit between your legs), that's why hard drives are a pain in the ruddy ass!

Yeah but when was the last time you heard of anyone actually have one fail (in a DAW setting with regular maintenance and good housekeeping, and using reputable drives?)

Provided you've got everything backed up - and we all have don't we? - the cost benefit of having to replace a drive every 5 years is miniscule compared to the power savings from switching your pc off every night rather than leaving it on 24/7/365 - for 5 years, if you're comparing like with like.

For nearly 15 years I have ALWAYS disabled sleep on all my, and my client's computers.

For 98, and for XP, many computers would not awaken. Hence, unsaved files were to often lost. And lost power ment possible disk corruption. Sleep is a stupid option.

But, hibernate is my little friend. Power button, sleep button, close lid, all enable hibernate mode.

But not on the music comp: no power stuff is enabled.

(For w7 and w8 I also disable ALL assessment and reporting tasks, via the task scheduler.)

My moto,  don't try to fix what should not exist.

I have 8 computers in the house/office.

All of them are hibernated/powered-off each night

About 45 seconds to boot from hibernate.

The music comp boots cold in less than 2 minutes. And the coffee is enjoyed.

Alegria


Now if I could only figure out how to reduce the expected 4 years of my life that I will spend on the bowl...

 
 
At least a netbook should reside in the potty room.
 
And. remote access to all the other computers in the house reduces the feeling of lost life-time.
 
 
I don't get the paper or any magazine. All news and misc reading is now done via the comps.
 
Comp access everywhere is required.