Shutdown or leave on?

i generally run my comps 24/7,
the only real concerns you have is the electricity usage of having them on, make sure you have the monitors set to turn themselves off after 20 mins or so, most of the wear and tear on a computer hard drive comes during spinup, so i woudln't worry too much.

Turning the pc's off clears the RAM. That could be a pro.

If always on, you need to make sure that they are protected by good UPS. Surge protectors won't protect from a loss of data due to power outages.

I prefer to have my users power down each evening before leaving. The RAM is cleared, all data is saved and closed, and there are no security risks of someone else using an open account.

Servers should be left on with the proper UPS and only rebooted out of hours when updates are being applied.

There are few if any pros to leaving PCs on 24/7 unless they are used nearly that much.

There are many negatives to leaving PCs on all the time:

Heat buildup inside the case.

Increased cooling costs for the building.

Increased dust buildup inside the case and on the vents.

Perhaps the biggest negative, a computer that is left on 24/7 is an easier target for a virus or a hacker.
It is also more desirable for someone looking to launch a DOS attack.

We have some systems that are left on 24/7, and others that are shut down each night.
We see no significant difference in the failure rates of either.

We do need to perform regular cleaning and fan replacement on the PCs that are left on.

Chas

The place were it really makes a difference in leaving a computer running is in extreme evironments. Its best to leave them on because when turned off for enough time the metals and plastics change and the stress can cause problems. But keep in mind that the hardest thing for a computer to do is start and stop. But I agree with the other post about clearing the memory etc.

If they are not on a UPS that has an auto shutdown. Leave them on during the day but when everyone leaves. Shut Them Down.

During the normal work day you have to decide if security is an issue. If it is have them log off.

Of course getting employees to Log off or Shutdown is a whole different issue.

Lee

that is a question only you can answer, but it basicly comes to this: do you care about the power usage of the systems? if left on does the systems still run fine after 3 or 4 days, a week and soforth? lets say yes they are fine, then you don't realy need to worie about it, although if you choose to let them run thats ok, but at some point the systems will need a break, this is what I would do if I was you presumeing the systems work fine after beeing on for several days, I would like on the weekends or something when ( in an office setting) no one is using the systems, perhaps every/every other week end stay late and shut everyone down, late sunday evening or perhaps an hour before people come in go in and boot every one up. with my personal computer it gets left on often but at least once a week I turn it off over night. either way you choose is fine off or on as long as you give the systems a break now-and-then. there is no set rules on this issue. although older systems running windows 95 and some running 98 should be shut down because of resorces, or at least a warm boot ( rebooting) everyday, you can leave them on,just do a quick reboot.