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IGF i don't get it, why the so called need to not turnoff for a while? Nice wallpaper though.
My previous record was 273 days until a storm took out power to my house. Electrical and electronic equipment prefers to remain powered. There's a reason many electrical and electronic systems contain heaters that are turned on when the system is taken out of service. Condensation is a bad thing for electronics and that's what you'll get when you turn them off.
Thermal cycling is tough on electronics. So are the electromagnetic transients caused by turning the PC on and off. The only thing worse for electronic systems than thermal cycling is vibration.
Steady state temperatures aren't the killer as commonly believed. Most of the components used in PC's have a knee temperatures in the range of 55-70C (130-160F). That means they will operate within published specifications up to that temperature without a significant reduction in operating life. Above that temperature, they have to be derated but can still be used. There's a low end too, usually -20C or -40C.
Of course, keeping your PC turned on all the time costs money. Sorry, no new screenshot.
@Arow: So turning a PC on and off is a bad thing all around? I know it can cause problems with fans, that's what's happening with me, but I didn't think it'd affect other stuff too.
Jorophose, I hate to hijack a screenshot thread, but, yes, cycling power to electronics is not the best thing. Cycling most engineered systems is stressful whether electronic or mechanical or a combination. As a non-computer example, the purpose of the reactor trip is to place a nuclear reactor in a known, safe condition. However, the stress on plant equipment caused by a 2-3 second transition from 100% to 0% power causes this event to (probabilistically) be the single greatest contributer to core damage. That's why nuclear plants are shutdown slowly over several days instead of just "flipping the switch."
"Hibernation" and other low power options are compromises. The system remains energized with lower power dissipation. The thermal stresses placed on the system are greatly reduced going from this "hibernation" state to 100% operation. Similarly, electromagnetic and electrostatic stresses are reduced by utilizing low power states. Other engineered systems do the same. The nuclear plant has a condition called "hot standby" where the temperatures and pressures are only reduced about 100-150F and 500-750psig. This is preferred to the "cold shutdown" condition of ambient temperature and 0psig.
For example, my uP idles around 110F. The ambient temperature is about 78F. That's a 30F delta and the processor will make the transition in a couple of minutes. To put that in perspective, we thermal cycle military grade electronics around 60F/min during accelerated life testing (ALT). Ten thermal cycles is common during this testing. So, by turning my computer on and off everyday, I am effectively performing ALT. That's why all four of my PC's at home operate continuously.
Arow you really got me thinking and confused now I'm gonna start a new thread on this to see what others think of it, will copy & paste the same content there.
Well, for me it's because I use my PC for everything, basically. I don't own a TV set or a stereo system. Perhaps that is a little nuts... http://4crito.com/screenshots/fc6_jan24.png
I turn my computer off when I sleep. My computer isn't that loud, but I prefer a quiet environment when I sleep. Maybe it will shorten the life of it, but who cares? Any machine will age and ultimately die; you can only slow down what is inevitable. I bet this computer will live for at least five years (almost definitely longer) more even if I turn it off at night. And I backup weekly (and make mid-week exceptions if I get some data that I'd want the best chance of keeping) so loss of data is not a problem.
Maybe if you have an incredibly important server or something this whole power-off/on issue matters. Other than that, I can't see any point to waste your time and energy thinking about it; just turn the thing off if you want it off or leave it on if you want it on.
EDIT: As to fonts don't really recall doing anything other than tweaking X for my LCD. I know I couldn't get my favorite Wine helper app http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/ working with FC6 (worked fine on FC5), so haven't installed any MS fonts at this point.
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