Is it Okay to Keep a PC Running 24/7?

 Article Summary

• Is It Safe To Leave a PC Running 24/7? As long as you maintain good habits and regularly upkeep your PC, it’s generally safe to keep it on continually.
• Hardware Lifetime and Reliability: Extended operation hardens mechanical components (fans, drives) and can cause memory leaks if not regularly shut down.
• Power Consumption and Costs: Running 24/7 can add $5 to $30/month to your electricity bill, whereas sleep or shutdown modes cut energy use dramatically.
• Best Practices and Use Cases: Utilize sleep or hibernate mode, maintain vent cleanliness, schedule reboots, and reserve 24/7 uptime for servers, backups, or remote access.

Is keeping your PC on 24/7 a convenience or risk? At My Computer Works, we’re often asked this question repeatedly. Whether you’re a gamer powering demanding rigs, a creative professional who needs constant remote access, or an average consumer simply desiring immediate startup, it’s a good idea to learn if it’s okay to keep your PC running 24/7

In our latest blog, the team at My Computer Works explores whether keeping your PC on all the time is doing more harm than good. Spoiler alert: it depends. So, with this in mind, let’s dive in!

How Continuously Running a PC Affects Hardware Lifespan

How long can a PC run continuously? Theoretically, contemporary computers can run continuously for years or even several years. 

Yet mechanical components like fans and hard drives wear out slowly over time. Fans rotating at thousands of revolutions per minute accumulate dust and slow airflow, and rotating platters in HDDs sometimes lock or make clicking noises. More resilient SSDs also have a limited number of write cycles, and continuous background reading and writing will eventually reduce their decades-long lifespan.

Power Supply Units (PSUs) also undergo stress due to heat and load variations. Excessive heat can cause capacitors and other components to degrade and fail prematurely. Considering this, keeping your PC on 24/7 is not the best idea if you want it to enjoy a lengthy lifespan. 

However, if you decide to keep it on all the time, to counteract these risks, make sure your casing has adequate airflow, change dusty filters periodically, and look into acquiring good-quality cooling solutions. You might also want to invest in professional computer servicing and maintenance with My Computer Works. 

Power Consumption and Energy Costs: Is It Bad for a PC to Run 24/7?

Besides wear and tear, is it economical to keep your PC running 24/7? A typical desktop uses between 60 W at idle and up to 300 W under load. Running that 24 hours a day translates into 43 to 216 kWh per month. Since you’re looking at an average electricity rate of at least $0.13 per kWh, you’re looking at $5.59 to $28.08 monthly just to keep the power flowing.

A better alternative to saving on costs is to use Sleep Mode or enter a full shutdown. Sleep mode generally consumes less than 5 W, reducing consumption by more than 90%. Shutting down completely drops power to almost zero, although some motherboards will draw a trickle to maintain features such as Wake-on-LAN.

Pro Tip: For more information on energy savings, see the U.S. Department of Energy’s guide on energy-efficient computers.

Does Leaving Your PC On Improve or Hurt Performance?

Keeping your machine on can guarantee that system updates download and are installed when it’s not in use. It can also run background processes such as antivirus scans or defragmentation (for hard drives) without disrupting you. For this reason, servers and remote workstations tend to remain on permanently and work well, albeit with a reduced lifespan.

Unfortunately, without regular restarts, system software can experience memory leaks, where processes will not relinquish RAM. Also, resources dwindle over time, and you’ll see slowdowns, crashing apps, or system crashes. The solution may be daily or weekly scheduled restarts, depending on what you’re doing.

When It Makes Sense to Leave Your PC On

There are specific reasons behind keeping a PC on 24/7. Here is when it makes sense to do so:

• Media streaming or file sharing on home servers.
• Running backups of multiple hours or even days.
• Remote workstations require ongoing accessibility.
• Cryptocurrency mining, whereby profitability relies on ongoing hashing.
• Processes like overnight downloading, processing large datasets, or rendering operations.

In addition, network drives, virtual desktops, and cloud-supported services tend to necessitate keeping machines up and running. 

So, if you’re just surfing the web and exchanging emails, ask yourself, “Should I turn my computer off at night?” to save energy and decrease wear and tear. How you answer this question will help you make this decision.

Best Practices for PC Health

Here are some tips on how to monitor PC health and improve performance, longevity, and efficiency:

• If you’re wondering, ‘Is sleep mode bad for a PC? ‘ Don’t be. It is a myth that this mode harms your computer. Contemporary systems are capable of many thousands of sleep cycles without damage. So, make idle sleep or hibernation modes available.
• Prioritize ventilation and cooling provision. Utilize dust filters, clean fans every month, and reposition your tower or laptop so you can have unobstructed airflow in order to avoid PC overheating.
• Schedule regular system reboots in order to clear temporary files and memory and apply pending updates.
• Use diagnostic software to monitor system health. Windows’ built-in Performance Monitor or specialized software will assist you with checking PC health and monitoring PC health readings, temperaturelevels, fan speeds, voltage levels, and disk quality.
• Optimize your BIOS and power settings. Adjusting the best power settings for PC, or turning on CPU C-states or AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet, for example, can lower idle power without impacting responsiveness.

The Wrap-Up On If It’s Okay to Keep Your PC Running 24/7

Ultimately, it depends on your own requirements. If you depend on continuous availability, scheduled operations, or remote access, keeping your PC 24/7 can be a good idea, assuming you implement energy-efficient PC settings, keep your hardware in good shape, and carry out regular shutdowns. 

If you don’t require immediate availability very often, shutting down overnight or employing sleep mode will preserve component longevity and reduce your energy bill. So, are you ready to improve your PC’s performance and longevity and learn more about the pros and cons of keeping a PC on 24/7? 

If so, learn about professional maintenance from My Computer Works today. Enjoy expert advice and tailored tech assistance that will help you keep your computer running as it should, even if you don’t switch it off as often as you might need to.