Do You Squeezebox Guys Leave Your Computer On

cloudbaseracer · « **on:** 2 Mar 2009, 02:24 am »

I currently use my laptop to play a few files and mostly Pandora through my system. I have not ripped all my music to a hard drive. I plan on buying a "dedicated" system along with (2) 1.5 TB hard drives - one for back-up. I am wondering if you guys just leave your computers running all the time? Does this cause a problem? I really love listening to the Squeezebox and the Duet but hate to have to power up my laptop each and every time just to hear some sweet tunes. Am I missing a more user friendly way to do this? Keep in mind that the laptop is temporary and will be replaced with a desktop tower of some sort. I assume with this would require a full monitor and keyboard/mouse to be able to upload and play with files? Once I have all of this I just leave it on all the time?

Thanks,

James

pardales · « **Reply #1 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 02:28 am »

I've always left my computer on 24/7 and never had a problem with it.

Philistine · « **Reply #2 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 02:28 am »

I have a PC as a dedicated server, and it's 24/7 with no issues.

cloudbaseracer · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 02:38 am »

Thanks guys.

I am looking to put this computer in the mechanical room where I will have my whole house system as well. Not my two channel set-up just the whole house receiver. Is there a reason to have a monitor attached? It seems like a weird place to have to work on files?

James

denjo · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:08 am »

My SB3 is on from Friday evening until Sunday midnight! I use an external hard disk to store all my Ripped files which I can carry with me for use in the office.

jermmd · « **Reply #5 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:13 am »

I have a server and multiple PC's that are never turned off except to upgrade programs.

dvenardos · « **Reply #6 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:21 am »

I leave my PC on, but let it go to sleep. Squeezebox can wake it from sleep but usually takes a couple cycles to get it going.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:39 am »

Quote from: dvenardos on 2 Mar 2009, 03:21 am

I leave my PC on, but let it go to sleep. Squeezebox can wake it from sleep but usually takes a couple cycles to get it going.

Me too...

ted_b · « **Reply #8 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:45 am »

zybar · « **Reply #9 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:49 am »

24/7 with the appropriate sleep and power functions engaged.

George

Rashiki · « **Reply #10 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 05:49 am »

I have a low noise PC set up in my office as a general purpose file server and to run SqueezeCenter. I don't have it set up to go into standby mode, but I do let the drives spin down. It's been running 24/7 for over two years with occasional reboots and upgrades. I've had at least one PC running 24/7 for the last six years to serve three generations of SqueezeBoxes as well as a homebrew predecessor.

-Rob

Bigfish · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 12:30 pm »

I have a desktop PC that I leave on 24/7. Sometimes it will reboot itself after loading new antivirus definitions.

Ken

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 12:47 pm »

24/7. Everyday when I'm finished using it, I'll restart it just to 'clear things out'.
Only turn it off when Microsoft says I need to, but it's right back on in a few minutes.

Bob

sts9fan · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 01:01 pm »

I shut mine off. As I do with all the lights and many other power consuming stuff at night. Seems pointless to leave on. Unless it need to warm up to sound better

AudioCat · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 01:31 pm »

Quote from: sts9fan on 2 Mar 2009, 01:01 pm

I shut mine off. As I do with all the lights and many other power consuming stuff at night. Seems pointless to leave on. Unless it need to warm up to sound better

Agreed. I'm conscientious about energy consumption and don't mind taking an extra minute to boot the computer up when needed. My Mac Mini's only purpose is to run as a music server so I shut it and the external hard drive down when it is not in use. The MacBook I use to control the headless Mini goes into sleep mode when not in use.

Although, I'm not using the Squeezebox anymore (it's for sale: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=65390.0 ), I often used its SqueezeNetwork to listen to internet radio which didn't require having the computer on.

mcgsxr · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 01:34 pm »

My SB3 specific PC cycles on and off with the audio system. It is not conneted to anything else, and does not have a monitor today, but will in the future. I don't like hard booting it off, so the use of a wireless keyboard and monitor (as they become surplus in the other PC systems in the house) will come in time.

The desktop in the house gets shutoff daily. It is connected to the Net.

The kids laptop runs 24/7. It is connected to the Net, but constrained in terms of sites it can visit. I run Firefox on it.

orientalexpress · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:06 pm »

i leave computer on 24hr because sqeezecenter take more then 2 hours to scanned all the musics,but my thecus server turn on at 4 pm and turn off at 11pm everyday.

lapsan

Bill Baker · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:13 pm »

I see most of the talk here being about PCs with one mention of a laptop. Concerning laptops, how many leave these on 24/7 and what are you doing about heat issues. Laptops seem to run hotter and I do not trust the fan pack used under laptops.

bprice2 · « **Reply #18 on:** 2 Mar 2009, 03:24 pm »

Quote from: Response Audio on 2 Mar 2009, 03:13 pm

I see most of the talk here being about PCs with one mention of a laptop. Concerning laptops, how many leave these on 24/7 and what are you doing about heat issues. Laptops seem to run hotter and I do not trust the fan pack used under laptops.

I don't know if this is an old wives tale or not, but I have heard that it is best to power off a laptop rather than leave it running. The reason being that a laptop needs to go through Scandisc at startup, because it is more susceptible to disc errors.

JEaton · « **Reply #19 on:** 4 Mar 2009, 08:28 am »

Quote from: cloudbaseracer on 2 Mar 2009, 02:24 am

I currently use my laptop to play a few files and mostly Pandora through my system. I have not ripped all my music to a hard drive. I plan on buying a "dedicated" system along with (2) 1.5 TB hard drives - one for back-up. I am wondering if you guys just leave your computers running all the time? Does this cause a problem?

Other than higher electric bills, there are only two things that come to mind... Cooling fans will die faster. Case fans, CPU fans, power supply fans. It's an age old debate as to whether or not other mechanical components, notably hard drives, will be similarly affected. IMO, the difference in hard drive life is negligible. Secondly, those fans will suck more air and dust into a machine that's on 24 hours a day than they would in fewer hours, so you'll have to vacuum and/or blow the dust out of the inside of the machine more often.

Quote

I really love listening to the Squeezebox and the Duet but hate to have to power up my laptop each and every time just to hear some sweet tunes. Am I missing a more user friendly way to do this? Keep in mind that the laptop is temporary and will be replaced with a desktop tower of some sort. I assume with this would require a full monitor and keyboard/mouse to be able to upload and play with files? Once I have all of this I just leave it on all the time?

Do you plan on continuing to use the laptop for everyday use and for CD ripping? If so, you don't need a keyboard and monitor attached to the dedicated server while it runs. You can administer the computer remotely from the laptop with various software packages, depending on the operating system running on the server. However, if you have no keyboard or monitor in your home then you'll probably find it difficult to set up the computer initially and you'll probably run into instances where you really must have them to troubleshoot issues at some point in the future. I remotely administer my server with no keyboard or monitor ("headless") but find that every couple of months I run into some issue that can't be dealt with over the remote connection and have to hook up a keyboard and monitor.