5 reasons why you should turn off your computer at night

Why should you turn off your gaming or office PC? MeinMMO introduces you to a few reasons why switching off can make sense.

Why do many people not turn off their computers? The computer is likely to accompany many users in everyday life, be it at work or when gaming. But quite a few users do not turn off their PC in the first place and there are various reasons for this:

• So you might want to access your PC via remote connection from your mobile phone or laptop when you are out and about.
• Or, despite the built-in SSD, you don’t feel like waiting 10 seconds for the computer to start.
• Some also leave their computers running for days when downloading large updates on a slow internet connection.

For example, the Spanish manufacturer Panda Security found that 23% of all people never switch off their work computer (via pandasecurity.com). But there are good reasons why you should not only give yourself a break, but also your computer.

Leave the PC on or switch it off?

Is it bad if the PC is running 24/7? No, because all manufacturers test the built-in components for permanent load. There is therefore normally no risk if your computer is switched on for a longer period of time. If you handle your hardware carefully, remove dust from time to time or clean it thoroughly, then heat problems should also be limited.

If you still want your computer to be turned on permanently, you should at least take a few precautionary measures. This is how you should protect your computers from dangers such as overvoltage, lightning strikes or power outages. In the best case scenario, you encrypt important data in case other people could also use your computer.

save energy

In our time, when people waste massive amounts of electricity to farm Bitcoins, for example, this tip certainly seems ironic. Nevertheless, if you don’t necessarily want to become the new Bitcoin king, you should simply switch off your computer.

That saves electricity and protects the environment. However, you will not save huge sums of money with it, as you will only save a few watts on average.

However, you shouldn’t forget that you often have a number of other devices connected to your computer. For example, printers, monitors and USB hubs also consume electricity. Depending on the number, a lot comes together here.

Better performance

If you leave your computer running for days without a complete shutdown, this can weaken performance in the long term.

Because your computer works through a number of processes in the background or remnants of programs remain open in the background because they were not closed properly. Some anti-cheat programs can still run in the background, even though the game has been closed a long time ago.

If you turn off your computer, your device can close all open programs and, for example, empty the RAM. To avoid problems, you should turn off your computer regularly.

For example, the expert Brad Nichols explains to the magazine “Reader’s Digest” that you should switch off your computer completely at least once a week if there really is no other way (via rd.com).

In addition, such a restart can also solve annoying problems or errors for which you can otherwise find no cause.

Less annoying notifications

Most of you are likely to have set up your PC to receive a wide variety of messages on your computer. Whether it’s e-mails, chats or tasks on the PC, they all need our attention – at least that’s how it always seems.

If you just turn off your computer once, the many notifications will leave you alone for at least half a day or at least a few hours.

safety

If you work from home and no one except you have direct access to your computer, then this should only play a subordinate role for you.

However, if you are working with sensitive data that is not intended for every eye, then you should switch off the computer for security reasons. Because in this way, at least without a password, you cannot access your data – unless the other person removes your unencrypted hard drive from your computer.