I leave my machine on all the time. Thunderstorms don't concern me, I use an APC RS-1500. It comes w/ a gaurentee that if lightning or other electrical problems damage your equipment, they will pay up to $25000 worth of damage, and my equipment isn't worth nearly that much.
leave it on.. gives the hackers smthg to play with @3am while your dreamin' of sugar plum fairies.. :\
I only turn mine off after a windows update. I'm actually scared to turn off my computer. A few years ago I had a Dell that pretty much died when I shut it off and restarted it. I ended up spending an unbelievable amount of time trying to get it fixed before giving up and getting a new one. It was probably a fluke, but I still feel like one of these days my computer is going to shut down and never wake up again.
That makes me almost think you are not a real trader, The few times my systems didn't work I couldn't care less about the costs or insurances. I couldn't get to the markets, that was far worse. Btw. I have a few UPS's that insure up to 250.000 US$, but I still don't like thunderstorms. I had troubles after near lightning, although my routers, my network-switches and even my USB-hubs are behind UPS. In the end a defect USB-device prevented my system from booting. Took me a day to find. I would have gladly payed a lot of money to have that system up NOW. No time for that. Ursa..
My friend who's a high end computer guy told me to leave mine on all the time. He pointed out that corporate servers are never shut down, or at least not every night. I do have good hardware, though. I have left my rigs on 24/7 for years with only a weekly reboot and never had any problems. Just make sure you aren't using a $20 PSU. Isn't there any heat stress issue involved in temperature cycling a CPU hundreds or thousands of times?
----------------------------------------- Hi TraderNic I don't agree with your high end computer guy and your leaving it on 24/7 because of the heat issue and lightning. Running 24/7 compared to maybe 8/7 is that 3 times as much dust goes through your machine and that buildup is then blocking air flow 24/7 "directly on" the parts. Heat is more stressful on parts then the extra on-off cycles... and I learned that from my first hand senior engineering lab testing work I did at a Collins--Rockwell lab back before becoming an agpilot. Even a clean home has dust. Look inside an old TV... Like a dust bin coating everything... If the world was dust free, your method might be about even with part time use. Lightning is another wild card that can over ride anything man made... Have a great weekend... agpilot
Well, I'm still a newbie trader, I'm going to graduate college this month actually. BTW, everything from the outside world that comes into my computer room goes through my APC UPS. I have a hub, 3 computers, and some speakers in my room. The hub, machines, and speakers are all hooked up to 2 UPSes (monitors too), the intra-room ethernet cables run straight from the hub to my computers. However, the one ethernet cable that runs from the basement router to my hub is exposed, since that's connected to a cable modem which is directly connected to the outside world. Solution: I filter the ethernet cable through my UPS which has an ethernet surge protected port on it. Pretty much anything that has metal contacting my machine w/ the outside world in any way is filtered through the UPS. So I have absolutely no concerns.
Pro's for leaving it on...... Fewer component problems....there are surges anytime power is applied and removed to any electronic equipment and they take their toll.... Con's for leaving it on..... Someone already mentioned dust which is a major concern....the electrostatic charge on electronic components is a dust magnet and your computer fans are constantly supplying dusty air to the "magnets"....this can be nearly eliminated if you take the CPU covers off every quarter and do some housecleaning.... Electrical storms....I have a UPS/Surge Protector too but I don't completely trust it....I am much happier with everything unplugged if I know a major thunderbumper is in the area.... At the end of the day, you have to decide which condition is preferable to you personally...power on all the time or off when not in use....a case can be made for either situation.... Best, HM