Is doing this safe for my computer???

The main benefit by turning your PC off yourself is to save yourself a few pennies on your electricity, not to mention that it'll be quieter without a computer running in the background. Also, shutting down the PC means that when it comes back on it has all of its resources available to use. If the PC has been left on or allowed to go to sleep and then come back on, it still doesn't have 100% of its RAM and CPU power to tackle whatever you're gonna do next.

Hopefully when you're turning off your PC you're shutting it down first. If not then if the PC was accessing the drive at the point of it being turned off, it can damage files on the hard drive or even damage the drive itself physically.

This debate has been going on for over 20 years so I doubt there is a "right" answer. Everybody has an opinion, but no one presents any proof. It's a trade-off.

If you turn your comp off when you are not using it will cool off. When you restart it it will warm back up. The electrical components will expand and contract accordingly and, over time, this expansion and contraction will affect the electrical connections more than if they are left constantly on. Also, you will send a surge of electricity through you computer each time you turn it on and after the components age this surge can blow them out.

On the other hand, running your machine all the time means anything mechanical is running more than it would if you turned it off. Mechanical devices like fans and hard drives fail at some point no matter what you do, just because mechanical things wear our, and leaving them on shortens their respective lifespan. You will also spend a bit more on electricity, but in "sleep" mode your computer is pulling about 40 watts, depending upon how efficient your monitor is.

You can pick your poison. In the end it probably doesn't matter all that much. But keep in mind that your TV is on all the time, even after you turn it "off".

And BTW, there is no memory issue here. Whoever told you that should read up a bit before they offer advice.

It used to be true that some motherboards and CPU's suffered reduced lifespan due to excessive power on/off particularly when a power supply was subject to spikes.However, with the advent of newer ATX power supplies stability is much improved.

With an ATX or Equivilant PSU there is a small residual 5 volt trickle supply even when the PSU is switched off but still plugged into the wall socket. This keeps the circuitry slightly heated and prevents excessive power spikes. However to enable this always use the proper computer shutdown sequence via your system software rather than just turning off your computer using the case switch, or the rear panel power switch.

You don't lose any memory or anything by turning it off. Infact you get better performance because it will clear the memory catche from previous programs making it run smoother.

Its also good for the enviroment.

The American Company E1 together with "The Alliance to Save Energy" has estimated in their report how much Computers cost in Money and Pollution. They concluded that 1/3 of the Computers in the U.S. doesn't get turned off completely during the night. This give a yearly extra electrical bill close to 1.9 Billion Dollars and 2.2 Million Tons of Carbon Monoxide release, which is the equivilant of the Carbon Monoxide release from 2,6 million cars

Don't believe what people tell you... (if you ter it off you will NOT waste memory and make your computer get problems sooner) theoretically yes you computer will last longer if you leave it on, because the hard disc drive will need to start(spin-up) every time you turn on your pc, a hard drive will last about 50,000 spin-up's, so it's a really long time if you put it to sleep the hard drive still powers down, so it still needs to spin-up... Even if you leave your PC on the hard drive may not be the problem, but all the fans inside the pc will eventually stop working(in about 20,000 hours) so will the possessor, etc...

So basically it's up to you to leave your computer on or off the only difference is the electrical bill you'll receive.

Hope it helps...

P.S. here is a page I found if you would like to read some more about it: http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/on-off.htm

While you don't want to turn a computer on and off many times a day, if you turn it on in the morning before work, shut it down before leaving for work, then turn it on when you get home and shut it off at night, you'll lengthen the life of your computer and save electricity. The second person you mentioned in your question is flat out wrong.

Look at it this way....If switching off computers was harmful they wouldn't have the shutdown option in the first place.

I always switch off my computer when not in use. It frees up memory and clears temporary files. In fact I work for an IT company with 1500+ employees and we've been specifically advised to switch off our computers when not in use.

The lifespan of a computer is based on a lot more things than the mere switching on and off.

Cheers.

The worst thing you can do to a computer is continually power up and down. If you will not be using it for at least 6 hours, power it off.

If you come back every couple of hours, put it into Standby Mode.

I think they will be fine. Memory cell are tiny sillicon capacitors, they are not mechanical hardware or liquid capacitors, so keeping your memory active (hibernate mode, memory remains eletrically active to ensure the data in it stays there) will not damage your memory.

It's completely fine if you wants to leave your computer on standby mode for long period. However if you're planning on not using it for a very long time, might as well turn it off.

Well,

Leaving it on all the time does wear out moving parts. (Fans, HDD) Dirt and dust can also accumulate faster inside if you leave it on. Going into to and out of sleep mode or standby...depending on memory management quality of your motherboard can lead to problems too. The only down side to turning it off is you have to wait for it to boot up next time you want to use it.

I think turning the computer OFF whenever you are not using it a proper way of taking care of it