I wanted to know how often I should shut down my computer. I had DSL where I could sign off and on. Now I am "always on" but I used to never shutdown. Maybe 3 times a week when I went to sleep. I dl stuff while I am off in la la land but I am afraid since after I DL it will not disconnect like before with my program. Are nightly shutdowns the best way for the computer? I appreciate any help on this matter. It shows the noob written all over my face. Thanks

A computer scientist will tell you, the best is to NEVER turn the machine off. Like all delicate electrical equipment, each time you turn it on, you send a little electrical surge through the machine, which is always better to avoid. There is no real point to turning the computer off, especailly if you have the power management enabled.

So I should just set the power to shut off the drives after lets say an hour? What about standy mode. I have never used them. I have them all to NEVER. Whatever is best is what I will do. Thanks for the tips

Well, I would set them to 30 minutes if you don't use your computer for anything that involves leaving it to process for hours on end (video editing for example). Set everything to power down after 30 mins and that way you save electricity as well as giving your computer components and monitor a rest too. Switching off is something you need only really do if you are worried about your machine catching fire or something extreme like that!

If you are married and pay your own electric bill, you have to turn your computer off every once in a while. Otherwise your wife will nag you for high electric bill. As for the rest, I agree with Francis 100%. Leave your computer on and it will not cause any harm. Eventually, your computer will give up, but by then, Pentium 20 will already be out and yours will be completely obsolete. Anybody who will contradict this idea are probably newbies and had just started using their computers. The part of a computer system that uses electricity the most is the monitor. Depending on the size, it function like a small colored TV. The computer itself doesn't use much. Some computer are supplied by 250 watts PS but actually uses only 150 watts. That's equivalent to 2 light bulbs. At night when the hard drive motors are not working and the CPU is not processing anything and all the cards are idle, it uses less than 15 watts. Some people can afford that.

The only part of a computer that i highly recommend shutting down is the monitor. You will shorten the life of your monitor if you dont turn it off when not in use.