Why should you turn off your gaming or office PC? MeinMMO presents you with a few reasons why turning it off can make sense. You can indeed do your hardware a favor by doing so.
Why do many people not turn off their computers? The computer is likely to accompany many users in their daily lives, whether at work or gaming. However, many users simply do not turn off their PCs for various reasons:
- For instance, you might want to access your PC via remote connection from your phone or laptop while on the go.
- Or you may not want to wait the 10 seconds for the computer to start, even though you have an SSD installed.
- Some also leave their computers running for days while downloading large updates with a slow internet connection.
For instance, the Spanish manufacturer Panda Security found that 23% of people never turn off their work computers (via pandasecurity.com). However, there are good reasons why you should give not only yourself but also your computer a break.
Keep the PC on or turn it off?
Is it bad if the PC runs 24/7? No, as all manufacturers test the components installed for durability. Therefore, normally there is no risk if your computer remains turned on for a longer time. If you treat your hardware with care, clean it from dust or maintain it in general, then overheating issues should also be limited.
If you still want your computer to remain on permanently, you should at least take some precautions. You should protect your computers from dangers such as power surges, lightning strikes, or power outages. A power strip with integrated surge protection is a good recommendation. Ideally, you should also encrypt important data in case other people might use your computer.
Saving energy
In our time, where people massively waste electricity, for instance, to mine bitcoins, this tip may sound ironic. Nevertheless, if you do not want to become the new bitcoin king, you should simply turn off your computer. NFTs are now also the latest trend when it comes to virtual currencies.
This saves electricity and helps the environment. However, you won’t save huge amounts of money with this, as you will only save a few watts on average. You can check this with an energy measuring device that you plug into the socket.
However, you should not forget that you often have several other devices connected to your computer. For example, printers, monitors, or USB hubs also consume electricity. Depending on the number, this can add up quite a bit.
Better performance
If you let your computer run for days without a complete shutdown, it can weaken performance in the long run.
This is because your computer processes many tasks in the background or leaves instances of programs open in the background because they were not closed properly. Some anti-cheat programs can still run in the background even after the game has long since been finished.
If you turn off your computer, it can close all open programs and, for instance, clear the RAM. To avoid issues, you should regularly turn off your computer.
As an expert, Brad Nichols tells the magazine “Reader’s Digest”, it is advisable to completely shut down your computer at least once a week if there is really no other choice (via rd.com).
Moreover, a restart can also solve annoying problems or errors for which you cannot find the cause.
Fewer annoying notifications
The majority of you probably have set up your PC to receive many different notifications. Whether it’s emails, chats, or tasks on the PC, they all need our attention – at least it always seems that way.
If you simply turn off your computer once, it will at least give you a break from all those notifications for half a day or at least a few hours.
Security
If you work from home and no one else has direct access to your computer, this should be a minor concern for you.
However, if you work with sensitive data that is not meant for everyone’s eyes, you should turn off the computer for security reasons. This way, at least without a password, others cannot access your data – unless they remove your unencrypted hard drive from your computer.
5 things under 20 Euros that can make your PC faster and more stable
The offers listed here contain affiliate links. By purchasing through one of these links, you support MeinMMO: without affecting the price, we receive a small commission from the vendor.
