I agree, I leave mine on for a long distance of time.

Ive been used to using hibernate every night when I was on XP mainly because my PC would run very slowly if I didnt. Now on my new laptop with a much better spec, running Vista, I still tend to shutdown and power off every night. Im not sure whether this is the 'right' way or not.

Is it a true shutdown? Pay attention. In the vista start panel, the icon that looks like a power button, isn't. It tells you that it suspends the power for faster startups. To truly shutdown, use the little right-arrow (triangle), and chose to turn off the computer. Does this slow down the bootup / startup, some. But As it seems clear with vista, the problems begin when you start the computer. Still, my biggest thing is to turn off my external hard drive (where I store ALL my personal data), and now I leave my computer on as it is my web server. But other than that, I'd shut down each night, The state doesn't pay me that much, so as to leave everything on 100% of the time. The difference in my electric bill is NOTICEABLE.

I turn my own PC off just about every night and sometimes even unplug the box...mainly to save power, but also to protext against lightning strikes. At the office they are on 24/7 and we have some that have been like this for several years. Most common component failure for any PC or server at our site: cooling fans, and power supplies.

Heat/cooling is the main thing the wrecks hardware, if you keep temps constant then there is less wear. Although, in the case of cooling fans, it is a matter for the bearins failing. So in the end. there are pluses and minuses to power machines on and off.

Yes Thaylok, I do a proper shutdown...(.that little power button did catch me out at first) and it does take longer to start up. During the day if Im not using it for a while I use that little power button, similar to hibernate I guess. I use a laptop connected to the mains so if Im moving it around and reconnecting to the mains I prefer to shutdown each time....am I paranoid?

It won't hurt to shut it down for the night. Saving that extra electricity is better to save electricity. Just shut it off for the night if its a work computer. If its a personal computer, just keep it on hibernate because before you know it your going to have to use it. Saves you the time having to wait for your computer to load.

thaylok... i tested the power useage of my computer and running all month with no down times ( which is unusual because i usually shut down a few times a month) is about 60 dollars... not bad and meh dosent matter to me i can afford that