Here is question I often get.....'If I'm going to be off my computer only for a couple of hours, is it better to put in in sleep mode, hibernate or just shut it down?'
This has actually been an issue of hot debate among computer geeks since probably the invention of the screensaver. These days, with screensavers being standard and computers sucking far less power than they have in the past, the debate has cooled somewhat.
First, let's pin down these terms a little.
When a computer goes into
sleep or
standby mode, it shuts off its display screen, video card, CPU and hard drive, so processes like
anti-virus scans won't run.
It stores the computer's last state to the RAM, and so requires a small amount of electricity (called a “trickle charge”) to maintain that. A laptop left on sleep mode for long enough WILL shut itself down eventually. The advantage to sleep mode is that, when you “wake” your computer, it comes back to its current state very quickly -almost instantly, so if you're only going to be away from it a couple hours, this might be your best bet.
In
hibernation mode, the computer writes everything from the computer's RAM, including its current state, to the hard drive and then shuts down, so it functionally uses
no power while in hibernation.
Once the computer is brought out of hibernation, it goes straight to the computer's current state, including all open programs. Although this takes less time than a full shut-down and start-up, it does take longer than simply waking it up from sleep, although it uses no power when hibernating, as opposed to little when asleep. Again, no programs or scans will run while a computer is hibernating.
Power off is self-explanatory.
The main reason for shutting your PC down is power savings. The amount of money that it takes to run a PC depends on how many watts you're actually using to run your PC. Most estimates that I'm finding put it between ten and twenty dollars per month, running 24 hours per day.
There's also the question of stress on your computer components. Whereas having it on is harder on your components than having it off, the process of shutting down and starting up your PC puts more stress on these components than simply leaving them on.
So what it comes down to is personal preference.
It is a good idea to restart your computer once a day. This allows your computer to clear any information in the memory cache and in your RAM and allows your computer to run more quickly.
