leezard Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 I thought I'd list some links for those people that like to monitor, benchmark or just tinker around with their hardware. Most of these I use when I do reviews. Video Benchmarking: 3DMark03 and 3DMark2001 Run up to 20 different tests to benchmark your video card performance. Online results to compare how your card matches up to other peoples. free version available, LARGE download! PC Benchmarking PCMark Run numerous tests on you PC. Free version available Monitoring Motherboard Monitor 5 Monitor CPU, case and chipset temperature, power supply voltage, fan speed. Built in alarm function. Free download. PC auditing Sisoft Sandra Get all the info about your PC hardware. Extensive reference results, Burn-in wizard, Cooling system information, Multi-platform. Free version available Aida32 Another great PC auditing app, provides pretty much the same info as SiSoft Sandra, and Aida is a smaller download. Free Stress Testing Prime95 Although this app wasnt made for stress testing a pc, it works GREAT. Basicly what it does is try and find Mersenne prime numbers (only 39 of them known) since it is a math app it REALLY puts a load on your CPU. Great for seeing how it will hold up and getting temperatures at a full load. Free Memory Testing Memtest86 Memtest86 is thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are only a quick check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86. Free Those are the main free apps I use. If your interested in a more "complete package" or you need to do some real diagnostics I also use these two programs, but they are not free. Quick Tech Pro QTP will put your system through the most vigorous diagnostics available. It includes the following: 57 motherboard tests, 28 hard drive tests, 9 floppy drive tests, 15 CD ROM, DVD,CDRW, ARMD (Zip and LS120) tests, 20 COM port tests, 25 parallel port tests, 20 modem tests, 21 printer (parallel) tests, 15 video graphics tests, 9 monitor tests, sound card tests, speaker test, mouse tests, an individual test for each keyboard key, 24 unique and proprietary algorithm memory tests and much more. WinStress W.S.T. performs a variety of functions including, Stress Loading, System Performance, and System Inventory. In Stress Loading mode, W.S.T. will simultaneously exercise all major components of the system including: CPU, FPU, MMX, RAM, Hard Disks, CD ROMs/DVD/CDR, Floppy disk, 2D and 3D graphics, Sound card, Printers, COM ports and Network adapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lianna Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Way to jump in there leezard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Sales Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Nice list indeed! Looks like I'm going to have to free up some downloading time.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted May 26, 2003 Author Share Posted May 26, 2003 I have a few more apps I use but they are mainly tweaking,overclocking apps and "could" cause some problems if your not sure how to use them. Never had anything bad (read unrecoverable) happen, but it's pretty scary when you try something and all the sudden your computer turns off and wont reboot. I'm really excited about this mod thing, gives me another place to express my hardware geekyness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinW Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Leezard - have you tried Gold Memory tester? http://www.goldmemory.cz/ Also, Mike Lin has a nice little app for reviewing all the "stuff" that get's started when you turn on your computer: http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml -kw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted May 26, 2003 Author Share Posted May 26, 2003 Thanks for the links, i'll check em out...right now i'm on my way to a cook out!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.