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I have a stand-alone PC with no network connection running Windows 7 (64bit) and the system clock loses about 1 minute per week. Is this level of drift considered "normal" or is it a dodgy RTC or a Windows configuration issue or something else?
What is the expected accuracy (roughly) of a PC clock?
EDIT: The PC is never switched off.
Anecdotal: My work desktop drifts by around 8 seconds/day without NTP (cheap-ish motherboard). My home desktop drifts around 1-2 seconds/week (top of the line gaming motherboard). Both are on 24x7. No idea if there's a general correlation between drift and motherboard quality. – Basic – 2016-02-16T17:08:08.953
Is the system on most of the time, all of the time, or what? It does matter, because the RTC in most systems is much less accurate when running on battery. – Michael Kohne – 2014-05-28T13:10:08.513
2In my experience, computer's RTC usually have a high clock drift. And I think it has to do with poor RTC quality. How much drift can be considered normal is difficult to say. I think it's better asking how much drift are you willing to accept. – drk.com.ar – 2014-05-28T13:39:18.080
1It is something else, namely the ambiguous quality of the 32768 Hz oscillator that drives the RTC. Among several PCs I've seem Windows system time drift between +1 to -1 minute per week. – sawdust – 2014-05-28T19:36:21.293