I am sure this argument could go round and round and get nowhere.  My own 
personal experience has been that it definitely saves on power to turn off 
the machines, and it hasn't made a difference in the life expectancy of 
the machines.

For years, I left my machines on 24,7.  Then I started turning them off 
when I was done using them.  With three PCs running, there was a 
noticeable drop in my electric bill when I started turning them off.  I am 
sure I am jinxing myself here, but I've never had a hard disk failure 
regardless of whether or not I kept the machines on or turned them off.

I've had one machine for 12 years now.  At one point, it was up and 
running for about four years, with only a handful of power cycles, usually 
due to a power outage.  I've been running that same machine, on and off 
ever since, power cycling it daily.  It's not been an issue.

I think in the past, drives were not as reliable as they are today.  I 
think they are more capable of handling power cycling than they used to 
be.

And, yes, companies turn over computers regularly.  Here at the 
university, our desk top machines are on a two year refresh cycle, and our 
servers are on a three year refresh cycle.  Although, now the vast 
majority of our servers are all virtualized.

So, from my own personal experimentation, power cycling does save power, 
and does not seem to negatively impact life expectancy.  Granted, not a 
big sampling, but just my own experience.

-- 
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail:	[log in to unmask]
Tel:	(412) 268-9081


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