Power thoughts...
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For the past seven or eight years or so I’ve been running (amongst others) two nearly identical computers. One is my development machine, which is used pretty extensively most days, and each night I put it into “sleep” mode. The other is running tasks for a client and has been left running pretty much 24/7 (with tis screen off!) though it’s never under very much of a heavy load. Over this time, I’ve had to replace the hard drive on my development machine (a couple of years back) and it also runs far more noisily now than the other one, which has just kept going sweetly all this time. My gut feeling (which could be completely wrong, and is getting to the point of this post) is that a constant daily routine of sleep/wake takes its toll on a computer, especially the hard drive (they don't half make a grumpy noise when waking up!), and that really these machines are happier just left running all the time. With their screens turned off when not needed, the power consumption isn’t that great.. ..so – is it a good idea to leave them on all the time?
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For the past seven or eight years or so I’ve been running (amongst others) two nearly identical computers. One is my development machine, which is used pretty extensively most days, and each night I put it into “sleep” mode. The other is running tasks for a client and has been left running pretty much 24/7 (with tis screen off!) though it’s never under very much of a heavy load. Over this time, I’ve had to replace the hard drive on my development machine (a couple of years back) and it also runs far more noisily now than the other one, which has just kept going sweetly all this time. My gut feeling (which could be completely wrong, and is getting to the point of this post) is that a constant daily routine of sleep/wake takes its toll on a computer, especially the hard drive (they don't half make a grumpy noise when waking up!), and that really these machines are happier just left running all the time. With their screens turned off when not needed, the power consumption isn’t that great.. ..so – is it a good idea to leave them on all the time?
Wait, wait! I only recently discovered that computers have "OFF" buttons! Are you now telling me that they can "sleep"?!?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Wait, wait! I only recently discovered that computers have "OFF" buttons! Are you now telling me that they can "sleep"?!?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Yeah - and wait til you find out what they dream about....
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Yeah - and wait til you find out what they dream about....
Dali-esque running blades?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Dali-esque running blades?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Could be - they won't tell me. But I heard them whispering once... something about sheep and machines and electric ghosts...
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Could be - they won't tell me. But I heard them whispering once... something about sheep and machines and electric ghosts...
Well, we'll have to Ford that river when we get to it.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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For the past seven or eight years or so I’ve been running (amongst others) two nearly identical computers. One is my development machine, which is used pretty extensively most days, and each night I put it into “sleep” mode. The other is running tasks for a client and has been left running pretty much 24/7 (with tis screen off!) though it’s never under very much of a heavy load. Over this time, I’ve had to replace the hard drive on my development machine (a couple of years back) and it also runs far more noisily now than the other one, which has just kept going sweetly all this time. My gut feeling (which could be completely wrong, and is getting to the point of this post) is that a constant daily routine of sleep/wake takes its toll on a computer, especially the hard drive (they don't half make a grumpy noise when waking up!), and that really these machines are happier just left running all the time. With their screens turned off when not needed, the power consumption isn’t that great.. ..so – is it a good idea to leave them on all the time?
Google did some research on the life expectancy of drives quite a few years ago. They were actually surprised by the results. The results were what you discovered - that a drive that is in fairly constant use lasts longer than one that is used infrequently. It seems that starting and stopping a drive may place more strain on it than having it in fairly constant use. They also discovered that drive would generally break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life - those breaking early were generally due to poor batches. These studies were not on SSDs so I don' know what the results would be with an SSD.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Google did some research on the life expectancy of drives quite a few years ago. They were actually surprised by the results. The results were what you discovered - that a drive that is in fairly constant use lasts longer than one that is used infrequently. It seems that starting and stopping a drive may place more strain on it than having it in fairly constant use. They also discovered that drive would generally break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life - those breaking early were generally due to poor batches. These studies were not on SSDs so I don' know what the results would be with an SSD.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Interesting... although I left that one machine permanently on, the power settings were such that it would turn the hard drive off after 20 minutes of inactivity. So I presume it did that, but I've never been aware of hearing it make the sort of grinding noise that both it and the one on my development machine makes when powering up after being in sleep mode (or a full boot). Just from the noises they make, I definitely feel that powering-up puts quite a toll on the hardware.
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Google did some research on the life expectancy of drives quite a few years ago. They were actually surprised by the results. The results were what you discovered - that a drive that is in fairly constant use lasts longer than one that is used infrequently. It seems that starting and stopping a drive may place more strain on it than having it in fairly constant use. They also discovered that drive would generally break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life - those breaking early were generally due to poor batches. These studies were not on SSDs so I don' know what the results would be with an SSD.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Quote:
break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life
We used to call it the "bathtub effect". The failure graph of mass produced electronics tends to have the shape of a bathtub. High failure rate in the beginning, mainly due to production errors, then a relatively low, flat curve, to be followed again by a high failure rate near the end of life for the device. This effect is nothing new. :)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Quote:
break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life
We used to call it the "bathtub effect". The failure graph of mass produced electronics tends to have the shape of a bathtub. High failure rate in the beginning, mainly due to production errors, then a relatively low, flat curve, to be followed again by a high failure rate near the end of life for the device. This effect is nothing new. :)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
Exactly! Which is why you should probably never buy that extra insurance they try and sell you when you buy something in a shop - because the item's warranty covers the item for the beginning of the bathtub and the insurance never lasts past the end of the bathtub(which is when you really need insurance).
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Exactly! Which is why you should probably never buy that extra insurance they try and sell you when you buy something in a shop - because the item's warranty covers the item for the beginning of the bathtub and the insurance never lasts past the end of the bathtub(which is when you really need insurance).
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
-
Google did some research on the life expectancy of drives quite a few years ago. They were actually surprised by the results. The results were what you discovered - that a drive that is in fairly constant use lasts longer than one that is used infrequently. It seems that starting and stopping a drive may place more strain on it than having it in fairly constant use. They also discovered that drive would generally break early in their life or towards the end of their expected life - those breaking early were generally due to poor batches. These studies were not on SSDs so I don' know what the results would be with an SSD.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
I knew it by the 'infant mortality' rate. If it is going to die, it will die early in its life.
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For the past seven or eight years or so I’ve been running (amongst others) two nearly identical computers. One is my development machine, which is used pretty extensively most days, and each night I put it into “sleep” mode. The other is running tasks for a client and has been left running pretty much 24/7 (with tis screen off!) though it’s never under very much of a heavy load. Over this time, I’ve had to replace the hard drive on my development machine (a couple of years back) and it also runs far more noisily now than the other one, which has just kept going sweetly all this time. My gut feeling (which could be completely wrong, and is getting to the point of this post) is that a constant daily routine of sleep/wake takes its toll on a computer, especially the hard drive (they don't half make a grumpy noise when waking up!), and that really these machines are happier just left running all the time. With their screens turned off when not needed, the power consumption isn’t that great.. ..so – is it a good idea to leave them on all the time?
This is anecdotal evidence, so take it with a grain of salt, but... My wife lets her computer go to sleep, since she never bothers to change the Microsoft defaults for power saving options (which is what, sleep after 20 minutes?) I hate this, and mine runs 24/7 unless it needs rebooted or shut down for a hardware upgrade. In the past seven years, I have had one HDD die on me (well, SMART started reporting being out of spare sectors, so I replaced it.) In that same period of time, my wife has had two video cards, two power supplies, and two HDDs die on her. Her computer has also slowly gained more and more frequent BSODs than mine (her's once or twice a week, mine... never?) despite the fact that I install and uninstall far more software than she does (her practically none, me two or three times a month.) The last time I had a BSOD was when I installed some buggy beta drivers, so the cause there was obvious. Her's has slowly gotten worse despite no changes in software or configuration... So, if you ignore the completely non-scientific-ness of the evidence... Turning a computer off and on (or sleeping) really does seem to have a negative effect on the hardware. :wtf:
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This is anecdotal evidence, so take it with a grain of salt, but... My wife lets her computer go to sleep, since she never bothers to change the Microsoft defaults for power saving options (which is what, sleep after 20 minutes?) I hate this, and mine runs 24/7 unless it needs rebooted or shut down for a hardware upgrade. In the past seven years, I have had one HDD die on me (well, SMART started reporting being out of spare sectors, so I replaced it.) In that same period of time, my wife has had two video cards, two power supplies, and two HDDs die on her. Her computer has also slowly gained more and more frequent BSODs than mine (her's once or twice a week, mine... never?) despite the fact that I install and uninstall far more software than she does (her practically none, me two or three times a month.) The last time I had a BSOD was when I installed some buggy beta drivers, so the cause there was obvious. Her's has slowly gotten worse despite no changes in software or configuration... So, if you ignore the completely non-scientific-ness of the evidence... Turning a computer off and on (or sleeping) really does seem to have a negative effect on the hardware. :wtf:
Well, it certainly does seem to be the case. When I get my new computer (tomorrow :) ) I think it's going to stay awake...