Why do some people stay on 24/7 mostly AFK?

[VectormanX]

I turn my PC off when I don't use it. it does not take long for it to boot and start up PSU, so it's no bother to me.

[bloodflowers]

You are close. Lets just say you are "warm" to the real reason. It goes far beyond just a HDD. Think about the following:

~Power Supply Build Quality and performance
~HDD Build Quality and Performance
~Load States among CPU and HDD
~Cases with Poor Airflow

SSDs have their own set of problems which at times makes them worse than HDD.

SSD don't supper from spinup stress though, you're right that all of those components can fail usually as a result of the heat/cool cycle (I repair arcade electronics as a hobby and bit of money on the side, and the heating/cooling cycle will even kill PCB tracks sometimes). However, at work it's always the disks that go first, or motherboards specifically on (Dell..) laptops.[/quote]

I wager that the system you own is better maintained and has a higher build quality than 90 - 99% of the systems you encounter out there. ^_^

Oh, I doubt it - most home built machines are like a dogs dinner of high performance and/or overclocked parts (don't even get me started on stupid neon lighting and windows), while the business use types we deploy to desktops are all extremely tidy inside and very well built indeed, but they cost more and have lower spec and limited upgrade options. Last time my system at work was fully powered off was when we had generator work done, 4 years ago.

[Keilyn]

I would imagine that your job really cracks down and puts safeguards against HDD Thrashing. That right there is the easiest way to blow a hard drive...as well as focusing on a maximum load state your work allows.

The major importance on the business end of things is power consumption. If you run a business of 1000 machines....or even just 100, the highest efficiency is important. VIA has a solution in which a small system can be built that will peak at 10W of power and do practically all the basic stuff.

I thought that your personal system would have been better than most you encounter. I do run an SLI system for gaming, programming and modding/modeling. I have a laptop I use when I am just working on basic work that I personally modded with an Aluminum Case to replace the plastic shell. Thanks to this it weighs a ton more but I havent had a single hardware failure in six years on that laptop.

[TheAstarion]

I've had a couple of hard drives go clunk on me, and I'm one of those people who shuts down his machine each time he's not going to use it for more than six hours. Had one DVD drive completely vanish off the face of the earth too; all of a sudden it wouldn't show up in device manager no matter how many times I checked and replaced the cables. Then again, this computer wouldn't install WinXP SP2 without getting stuck in a boot loop so maybe it was an all round lemon.

Had two consoles mess up in all my time; my first 360's craphics card went (but no red ring, so no replacement for me), and my ps3's file system keeps corrupting (always fixable, but losing all data is annoying as all sin).

Just curious, what problems do solid state drives have?

[Anime_Angel]

I always wondered that myself, at night I find it hard to get in the most popular server because it's full and yet, it is because of the AFK people like that lolilol

well I doubt there will be any updates but on Phantasy star online 2, I think they should make it so that those who are AFK for an hour or so should be automaticly moved onto another server to make room for people who do want to play lol

[Rukyius]

He he the AFK server