QOTW: Shut down or sleep?

[Saracen999]

Depends.

Mostly, during the day (including up to about 2am) I use sleep mode, because normally, I'll be back faily quickly. If i know I won't be, shutdown.

Over night, fairly commonly, still sleep mode. But I do believe in periodically doing a full shut down. It seems (and I'd stress "seems", as it's merely gut feel backing it) to help Windows keep it's knickers unknotted.

Oh, and that's these days. I don't have to go back too far to get to where I'd never trust sleep mode, because Windows always seemed to wake up with a right grump on, getting out of the wrong side of bed, having a bad hair day, and like a supercharged version of me before my first coffee. That is, best avoided.

[nar53]

I let mine sleep but restart it about once a week to clean out the cobwebs.

[Norkay]

Haha, neither - my computer's running 24/7.

[Kovoet]

Shut down

[Core2Extreme]

My desktop is set to run World Community Grid when it's idle. Checking its current tasks, it looks like today it's working on finding a cure for cancer.

For my laptops, I usually hibernate them. Sometimes I don't use them for days at a time, so sleep would run down the battery, and it's nice to have whatever I had open still be open the next time. I usually don't run WCG on them, since their fans are smaller and noisier than the pretty-much-unnoticeable fans on my desktop.

[pastymuncher]

Shut down and then power off at the wall every time.

[Wh00pS]

Shut down and off at the wall.
I'm same with all appliances at night, if it doesn't need to be on then it ain't on.

[Jonj1611]

Sleep in the daytime, shut down at night

[Euphonium]

Any time I don't have a specific overnight task running, I shut down and turn off at the wall. Tower, monitors, USB dock, printer, speakers, everything. The only things that stay on are the router, switch, and NASbox that serves as my (legal) torrent client. It took a bit of work, but I have 18 individually switchable 13 amp sockets over my desk.

[bae85]

Considering my computer takes literally 3 or 4 seconds to get from off to windows login screen, shut down. The old days of keeping it on 'standby' are gone (unless you have a specific purpose).

[Gentle Viking]

Well as a guy 10 years into a sleeping disorder, in general sleep i get about 1/3 of what normal people get, even if i spend at least as much time as anyone else in my bed.
I really relax when i long range shoot,,,,, not with a fiddy cal, but something a lot smaller, anyways the issues are the same more or less, and just need 100 M or so to make it really fun.
Also use to relax waving my fly rod in the air, but that one are dusty now.

EDIT: my computer i shut down, always have, screen saver / hibernate ASO i never used, its ON until i turn it off.

[lon3wolf2002]

Well seeing as I'm off to bed when I turn the pc off it's a full shutdown in my case.

Don't see the point in hibernate/sleep when I'm running ssd's, not to mention the 'wasted' space it uses.

Same as this.

[WeRoRa]

99% Of the time i put it to sleep. Just love when I turn it on and everything is exactly where I left it and that within 2-3 seconds. I only shutdown when Im gone for a couple of days or when windows updates.

[Spreadie]

Shut down, everything, almost always. Except for the NAS/Server.

[thewelshbrummie]

Always shut down my gaming rig. Laptop/Tablet only ever sleeps, like my phone.

My HTPC is on 24/7. It's almost silent & around 6000 miles away from me. It's useful to have for recording UK TV and using OneDrive to upload recordings so I can download it and watch content in the US.

[Output]

Mine is on 24/7, with it only rarely being off - other than the usual restarting after installing updates.

Any time I'm not at the PC, it's always either doing something in the background or just available ready to do something (whether in the background or simply for me to return to it). It can also serve as background noise, rather than things being too quiet.

Any time I do shut it down however, it will be a full shut down rather than sleep, as I'd rather have a proper shut down and boot to avoid any potential oddities by something not playing well with the sleep function.

That's why I have Fast Boot disabled too, as if I tell the PC to shut down I want it to specifically do just that.

The only thing that gets the sleep treatment is the monitors in the power settings, although if I'm not at the PC, I've probably already pressed the buttons to put them in standby, the sleep setting for those are obviously more of a backup in case I haven't.