Do you leave your PC on constantly? What about your MAME cab?

[DashRendar]

Curious if anyone leaves their MAME cab powered on constantly.

I know some folks use their MAME cabs as jukeboxes, and some use them for other things (watching movies, consoles, web surfing, etc).  Since cabs generally stay cooler than a tower, it makes sense to leave it on constantly.

Especially if you use it daily.

[trencej]

When mine was working, it was on all the time, Just muted. Left whatever game i last played in attract mode and away i went. Dont think i will be doing it on my new Naomi Sega cab though, damn its loud!

[DashRendar]

Yeah, thinking about leaving the MAME cab on constantly, but there's issues with the marquee light.

[Ginsu Victim]

MAME cab will run for a few hours sometimes without being played, just so that anyone can walk up and play a quick game. It isn't on constantly, though.

My main PC will be on for weeks at a time sometimes. Depends on what torrents I'm seeding.

[Franco B]

Dont think i will be doing it on my new Naomi Sega cab though, damn its loud!

Let me guess, N1 mobo fan? They can be reeaaal noisy.

[Benevolance]

I leave the cabinet on.

I installed a switch on top of the arcade cabinet so that I could turn the marquee leds on and off separately, and I've got the monitor set to turn off after a few minutes of inactivity as a nod towards being green, but that's about it. Otherwise, the cab is in a state of ever-ready-to-play.

[javeryh]

I turn everything off when I am finished.  The computer I'm a little less sure of what happens because I only have a laptop and I just close the lid.  When I want to use it again I open the lid and have to hit the power button to get it to respond (I'm not sure if it is asleep or off).

[HaRuMaN]

I turn everything off... mostly to save $$$.  Electricity can be expensive, especially here in AZ when you're trying to cool your home in the hot summer...   

[romshark]

My desktop and laptop are just about always on (although in standby mode when not in use).
My cabinet is only turned on when I'm using it. If needed, the MAME PC, monitor and sound, Jamma power supply, Naomi, and the lights are all individually switched, so I can run just what I need.

I use one of these to control power in my cabinet. Have a similar one for my desktop.

[gryhnd]

I turn everything off... mostly to save $$$.  Electricity can be expensive, especially here in AZ when you're trying to cool your home in the hot summer...   

Here in MA too, so everything is off unless needed. Parties are an exception of course, then I fire everything up.

[DashRendar]

My desktop and laptop are just about always on (although in standby mode when not in use).
My cabinet is only turned on when I'm using it. If needed, the MAME PC, monitor and sound, Jamma power supply, Naomi, and the lights are all individually switched, so I can run just what I need.

I use one of these to control power in my cabinet. Have a similar one for my desktop.

That brings up an interesting idea.  Add a Standby button to the admin buttons maybe?

[Benevolance]

Electricity can be expensive, especially here in AZ when you're trying to cool your home in the hot summer...

My wife and I leave our computers on for the opposite reason. Up here in Canada it's cold, and we don't turn the heaters on in the kitchen and office with the computers running. We have electric heat in our house anyway.

[Gorotsuki]

My PC stays on most of the time.
I pretty much live in front of it.

[ark_ader]

I have my small server/nas on all the time, but it draws very little power anyway.  I have trashed my cabinet, and all my projects so the only thing I can call a cab is my pimped out Xbox1.  That would stay on, but likes to turn itself off after a few minutes (power saving mode).

The old rule is - if you are not using it - switch it off.  Considering my last power bill was over $500 (a quarter) I will learn the old rule. 

[XCVG]

I turn my PC off at night and on again every morning. Kind of a habit. Not sure what I will do when I build Micro-Candy. Probably will only turn it on when I want to play, to avoid excessive wear and tear.

[bkenobi]

I leave the file server and main computer turned on.  I leave the cabs off unless I'm using them that day.  Once they are on, I usually leave them on until I go to bed.  With power saving mode that computers have these days (monitor off, HDD spun down, most components in low power mode, etc), I don't think the energy used is that significant to the power bill.  I have lights on my deck that turn on in the morning and evening for the dog (or more accurately, so I can see the dog).  I'm not too worried about a few extra watts I guess.  Power isn't that expensive compared to other things here in WA.

[WhereEaglesDare]

I have several PCs, one Main House PC, my laptop )which is only on when Im using it) and a few servers.  My webserver is always on, but my FTPs and File Servers only go one when I need something off of them, and then off again when I got it.  My main PC gets turned on in teh morning and off at night.

[trencej]

Dont think i will be doing it on my new Naomi Sega cab though, damn its loud!

Let me guess, N1 mobo fan? They can be reeaaal noisy.

Im Guessing thats the fan on the naomi board? If so, no, dont have the naomi board, it will have a pc in it once i find out from Mr Warne if my j-pac is fried or not. But there does seem to be a massive fan behind the Monitor. My old cab was damn near silent! (and will be up for grabs in the buy/sell/trade forum shortly)

[severdhed]

all of the computers in my house pretty much run all the time, except for the ones in my mame cabinets...i shut them down when they are not being used, because I sometimes go for weeks at a time without playing them.  my laptop and my wife's laptops are running constantly, mainly because if i need to google something quickly i dont want to wait for it to boot.  i have a pc in my basement that runs constantly and acts as a file server..i keep all of my music, pics and documents on it. my main desktop is on the 2nd floor, and i dont use it that much, but it also runs constantly.  mainly because i have it set up as an FTP server and for remote desktop when I am not at home and i need something.  the only other PC in the house is an old tablet PC that i'm trying to figure out what i want to do with. (bartop?)

[DeLuSioNal29]

I turn all of my stuff off.  Especially the arcade machine.  I've seen too many arcade monitors go up in smoke (I've even seen a PC monitor erupt in flames at a local electronics store I worked in as a kid).  So I don't trust leaving them on all the time.  I don't want the convenience of not having to turn it on override the safety of my family and house.

Also, hard drives are like light bulbs and have a limited spin life.  Why leave them on and waste that spin time if they are not being used?  I know it can be argued:  What if I enable power saver mode on the hard drive?  I don't know about you but I disable all power saving features on my hard drive for my arcade for performance reasons.

Plus, with the introduction of intro videos, it's kind of cool to have the cabinet switched on when people come over. 

D

[CrazyKongFan]

I normally leave my PC on unless I'm going to be gone over a day. I use dialup and sometimes the connection is crappy. When I get a good one, I hate to disconnect Plus it's handy being able to just turn the monitor on and start using it. My MAME cab gets shut off when I'm not using it though, as do my 2 real games. Although I did leave my DK on for a couple days after I got my high of 373K...couldn't bear to see it erased I've since installed the D2K kit in it, so that won't be a problem any more, since it saves high scores.

[Blanka]

With a boot time of 15 seconds, and shutdown in 2 seconds with the ctrl-eject hotkey, and all connected to a smart strip, why not switch it off?
Only thing I leave on is the Wifi router. That one has trouble being shut down every day, and it does not boot fast enough for the computer, so it results in all network errors.

[HanoiBoi]

I currently have a laptop in my MAME cab.  I keep that on at all times.  When I'm done, playing, I hit pause.  I have the monitor, marquee and speakers plugged into a smart strip (9.99 knockoff) and I power them down with one button.  So, the PC is always running.  Looking to move to a tower soon so that I can configure everything to power on/off with one button.

PC is a laptop too.  If it's plugged into the wall, I don't shut it off.  If not, I'll close the lid.

[Eddie_Brock]

My PC is on whenever I am home... If its a workday, sometimes not at all, or occasionally in the evening.

As for my arcade, while its still not 100% complete, I expect a similar result. I would probably power it on in the morning, so that we could jump on it whenever we need, and power it down at the end of the day. It would not be on when we are away, or gone for the day working. I like the idea of it sitting in attract mode waiting for someone to come use it throughout the day though.