Leave PC on or shut down after gaming?

What option would be more beneficial? Leave the cooling to the fans for a while or shut it down directly?

I would advise to leave if for few mins to cool down before shutting down. As same with cars, it always better to let system cool down before shutting down. If you shut down your system, there will be still significant heat built up without cooling (fan off). It may not kill your CPU, but it may affect (prolong use) thermal paste insulation or similar.

I always let it cool down before shutting down.

Cheers,
Miki

Let it cool down. I leave my computer in sleep mode at night. Once a week, usually Sunday night, I shut down over night. The boot is good for the computer it fixes any small problems that may have developed. Everything reloads and the computer is ready for the day. Another member here, has mentioned that he prefers to shut it down every night. He is not wrong and I am not right, it can be done either way. That being said you should shut down ocassionally or problems will develope. The old notion that shutting down is bad for the computer, due to all the boots is no longer true. Those in the know would agree.

I totally agree with Richard - and you should give it a little time to cool down with the fan(s) running if it's been running hot (typically for games, but for whatever other reasons as well). I too leave my laptop in sleep mode most nights and restart or shutdown only when required (for battery maintenance, to install updates or new programs that require a reboot to complete, and so forth). I probably should do so weekly or on some set schedule for the reasons mentioned, but I don't have a set schedule (nonetheless, it almost certainly occurs at about that frequency anyway for the other reasons given how often I try new software for testing, or need to verify how things work booting from disks, how they work using advanced boot options, how the BIOS work and are configured, and how often I reconfigure the system or do maintenance that requires or benefits from a restart). If I do this near bedtime (and I try to schedule it that way if I can), I simply allow the system to shutdown and just boot in the morning as it makes little sense to restart at bedtime only to immediately put it to sleep. So the system restarts and gets its rest often enough to prevent any problems from developing.

I too know others who shutdown every day - and that's perfectly fine. It's mostly a matter of personal preference.

I leave mine on 24/7 at or nearly 100% load on both my cpu and gpus. I'm also overclocked on them.

Honestly, with proper cooling, your temp vswings shouldn't be that great, so a cool down shouldn't take that long.

Thanks for the replies, I was just curious as my 9800gt would go up to 70+ degrees on load before idling to about 57 degrees at idle

those values are quite normal, so nothing to worry about.

Cheers,
Miki

Would changing the gpu fan speed be good or should I just leave it alone?

Leave it alone, dont try to cause problems.

you can try cleaning it with some compressed air, if that will make you calm . But really, everything is normal, and you know what they say "if it ain't broken, don't fix it".

Cheers,
Miki

My temps don't raise enough to have me worry that the residual heat after my fan turns off will hurt any part of the CPU. But I do usually check my squads forums or maybe somewhere else after gaming. So I would say I cool mine down, unintentionally.
I shut mine down every night and haven't any issues from doing so. I'm the danger to my COMP!