I haven't shut down my computer in six months.

It is always either on or in sleep

mode. Does it reduce the lifespan of computer?

Hari Baliga, former Design Engineer at Intel (1996-2014)

Updated Oct 13

Congratulations! You are doing the right thing by putting your computer into sleep mode when not
using it.

You are reaping the benefits of saving power with this scheme. I don’t think there is any conclusive
evidence to suggest this will reduce the lifespan of the computer. As others have stated before, the
only part that is powered on is your DRAM. And DRAMs tend to last a long time!

The use of sleep mode is better for the mechanical parts of your computer like the CPU/GPU fans,
case fans, and the PSU. Their lifespan will certainly be extended by this practice.

Sleep mode is specifically a great scheme when you have an SSD. Since all state is saved in the
DRAM, excessive write cycles to the SSD as might happen with hibernation are eliminated in sleep
mode. Just similar to the speedup of boot time with an SSD, your resume from sleep mode will be
just a second or two, after you wiggle your mouse or hit a key. This brings the responsiveness of a
computer (desktop or laptop) in line with the responsiveness of a smartphone or a tablet.

Just for reference, I have a Core 2 Duo desktop that I built in 2009, that is still being used even
today! It automatically enters sleep mode after an hour of inactivity. It has an SSD and it resumes
within a second of being activated again. All of my other computers (both desktops and laptops)
also use sleep mode, so I avoid having to do anything with them at night or while away for extended
periods.

So, by all means, continue your merry way!

P.S: Thanks for all the constructive comments. Some clarifications below.

In my answer, I didn’t say you’ll save all the power. Using sleep mode, you’ll save most of the power,
almost 90%. Using a kill-a-watt meter, my Core 2 Duo desktop built a decade ago (BTW, I’m proud
of my classic-car-like desktop which was built with one of the CPUs I worked on) measured <8W in
sleep mode, while normal usage was between 80–100W. Similarly, a Core i5–6200U laptop measured
just 0.5W in sleep mode versus about 8–10W with normal usage. I don’t mind treating my computer
like an LED night lamp while it is in sleep mode!

For those wondering what I might be doing with a kill-a-watt meter, I initially bought it to calibrate
power draw while charging my EVs and then moved onto using it for measuring various computers
with their normal workload and sleep modes. Along with my Digital multimeters, it has been a great
investment!

You can consider hibernation or even shutting down your machine especially if you have an SSD
since the boot will be darn quick anyways. Even without hibernation, a simple reboot and a restore
all-tabs configuration in Google Chrome gets you going to where you were before you shut down
 your machine. I was specifically answering the question about sleep mode without pitching for
which might be the most power-saving approach.

I prefer sleep mode as I have low capacity SSDs in my machines (80–120GBs) that might not be of
very high quality and hence I avoid the excessive write cycles that might result by using hibernation
with my 8GB+ DRAM configurations. Again, theoretical calculations aside, it’s my personal
preference.

My suggestion was that in general, mechanical components tend to wear out quicker and have a
shorter lifespan in a typical computer than electronic components.

The point about losing data with sleep state if there is a power failure is valid for desktops or
powered systems. OSes including Windows have greatly improved these days in that they recover
peacefully and reliably most of the time. Power failures where I reside are such a rarity that I hardly
ever worry about it. Also, it is up to an individual user to properly invest in a power failure safe
mechanism like a battery backup, etc. I don’t run mission-critical applications for me to warrant
needing a battery backup for my desktops. It might not be the same for every user.

The convenience of getting a desktop or a laptop to be active within a second after exiting sleep
mode trumps any other mode for my usage model. Saving 90% of regular power consumption is
enough for my needs. With my decade long experience of using sleep mode on both desktops and
laptops, personally as well as professionally, I can gladly recommend using it.

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Kimbal Summers
Apr 10 · 29 upvotes
I turn my computer on and off after each time I use it and its lasted me just on 9 years.

My reason why - is because I move it about; however I’m well aware larger systems stay powered up all the time as
rebooting up and powering down is a major issue for some setups. Gee even my home NBN modem takes 2 mins
to come online after rebooting; so its left on 24/7. My old work server took about 20 minutes to reboot and come
on line - so other than maintenance powering down was kept to a bare minimum.
As computers are relatively reliable nowadays and if your not intending on moving them about as I do ( I take my
lap top everywhere ) then leaving them on is far better. Temperature variations are more stable and start up surge
on components is also reduced.

Yet I would every 6 months or so turn them off to have the dust cleaned out of the fans, unless the manufacturer
says otherwise.

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Hari Baliga
Original Author · Apr 11 · 10 upvotes
Thanks for your comment. Ultimately, everyone chooses what’s most important to them. The question and the
answer were meant to address if it’s okay to use sleep mode and why would one use sleep mode. You wouldn’t turn
on and off your smartphone or your tablet after each use right? Why not? The same reason that it takes a few
seconds to get to where it can be used. And then you might miss important calls and messages. It’s an
inconvenience. Similarly, computers these days with SSDs and equivalent power features use the sleep mode to
provide you a response similar to the phone and the tablet. Many users like me find it greatly convenient to use a
computer like a phone or a tablet most of the time. And when not in use, sleep mode provides us the benefit of
>90% power savings. Power savings for desktops and laptops add up. It’s a win-win situation. To top off, there are
no detrimental effects on the life span which was the gist of the question.

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Antonio Ippolito
Apr 13 · 1 upvote
but the question was maybe about software, not hardware?
like missing update to operative system, antivirus etc?

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Hari Baliga
Original Author · Apr 13 · 2 upvotes
It specifically asks about the lifespan of the computer with the usage model. Do you still think lifespan is a question
about software? As you might know, since Windows 10, all updates are automatic and after updating, the OS
automatically asks for a reboot when enough critical updates have been implemented. Aside from those, is it okay
to just let it sleep? If you think you are better off with other modes like hibernation or complete shutdown, it’s your
call.

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Tom Duhamel
Apr 9 · 10 upvotes including Hari Baliga
Sleep is different from hibernate and doesn’t use the hard drive. Therefore, it won’t make a difference whether it’s a
rotating magnetic drive of an SSD. This will make a big difference when hibernating though. Otherwise, I agree with
all of your post. My computers are set to go to sleep after half an hour or so, and have been since that feature was
first introduced in the late 90s or so.

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Hari Baliga
Original Author · Apr 9 · 5 upvotes
Thanks for your comment! The reason I paired sleep mode with SSDs is that all my systems have SSDs now for boot
and application launch speedup and I don’t want to incur unnecessary write cycles to the SSD with hibernation on
thereby speeding up the SSD deterioration. With my usage model, I would expect each system to go into
hibernation several times a day and that would be very detrimental. This is why I prefer sleep mode. Otherwise, I
completely agree with your comment and thanks for pointing out the ambiguity in my answer.

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