Why shut down computer ?
Save Energy
An average PC consumes 100 W of power while on - just like a light bulb. Lets say electricity costs an average of 20 cents per KWh in Australia. By shutting your computer for 12 hours a night, you would save 12 hours x 20 cents x 0.1 KWh = 24 cents per day. That's a total of $7.20 per month.
Better security ?
If you worry at all about internet security, you already know that if your computer is off, it cannot be hacked or infected with malware. Nevertheless, malware is frequently seeded when you are actively using your computer and is activated when you restart your computer. The benefit of shutting down your computer for security is quite questionable.
Why leave your computer ON
Download Torrents or large files faster
If you are in Australia and downloading torrents or large files, you may want to leave your computer on. Here are a few reasons why:
- Torrents are downloaded from other users computers, known as peers. Both your computer and your peer's computer must be on. The more peers you have, the better download speed you get. Let's say someone seeded (uploaded) a movie in the US - it will likely be better available during the late afternoon across US time zones when Americans are sitting at home with their computers on. That means you will want your computer in Australia to be on during the early hours of Australian daytime.
- Some Australian internet providers offer free, unlimited night traffic on certain accounts.
- Networks are less congested at night-time.
8 October 11 Tags: Computers