Want to know what is inside your PC, or how the performance compares to your friendīs?
You can in fact get some info from a built-in stupid XP utility, called DXDIAG. That can be ran from "Start/Run/[type DXDIAG].
You can see what CPU, RAM and Graphics Card you have.
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A better way to see what you have, where it is also possible to see the SPD of your RAM and how many RAM slots are populated, is to use the free program CPU-Z.
It is best to download an older version from here: link to CPU-Z The older CPU-Z does not need to be installed.
Just download and then unzip the jar files (to unzip the jar file you can use a free program called IZarc) in a directory and run the .exe.
In order to remove the program, just delete the files, and that's it. The program does not copy any file in any Windows directory, neither writes in the registry.
In the SPD tab you can select the RAM Slots of your PC and see what size, speed and make your RAM blocks are.
A really good feature is that you can save all the info to a file. Just go to "about" tab and "save HTML Report"
You can also download the newest version from: link to installable CPU-Z
There exists also a utility like this for the Graphics; it is called "GPU-Z"
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The ultimate best "system information" program is SIW.
It is not free anymore, at least not the version that is portable (means: doesnt have to be installed, but can run from a usb-drive)
But you can download the last free portable version from here: link to SIW_portable
You can generate nice HTML reports with this program by using the menu: file > create report file > HTML. (or "quick HTML" for a shorter version)
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A smart way to see what you have and even compare the performance with some other PC configurations, is to run a program like SiSoft Sandra or PCwizard.
They are both freeware.
PCwizard is a little powerful tool. Download newest version from: http://www.cpuid.com/
link to PC Wizard
Run it by doubleclicking the exe file.
Hardware info:
Click on the "Hardware" tab on the left and try all the stuff. You will end up being a nerd.
Benchmarking:
Click the "Benchmark" tab on the left and then "processor benchmark". Donīt touch the PC until the benchmark is finished.
It will read out different performance in MFlops. Then click on the "Compare with.." and select the system you want to compare with.
A very sophisticated benchmarking program, that is widely used, is Sandra (by SiSoft).
It can be downloaded for free from 3DGuru:
link to 3DGuru
This program can do benchmarking and compare the results with a lot of pre-stored info on known processors/chipsets.
It can also show your Windows product key, under Software/Operating system.
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By the way, 3DGuru also has a very good 3D graphics card benchmarking program in its free downloads, it is called 3DMark
It also has a CPU benchmark, and this is what I am normally using for benchmarking and comparing both CPU and GPU.
Both SiSoft Sandra and 3DMark are widely used to compare CPUīs and Graphics cards.
The following link shows a comparison of benchmarks (both Sandra and 3DMark) that I started in april2009,
in order to prove that Mattiasīs new laptop was defective, now with some more PCs added:
PC benchmarks - tests done by 5KW
Graphics benchmarks - tests done by 5KW
Microprocessor benchmarks - tests done by 5KW
Recently, it is very hard to find some updated benchmark charts (especially for laptop/mobile stuff).
Some charts for CPU and Graphic comparison, that I have been using lately (many benchmark charts can be found here):
link to notebookcheck GPU
link to notebookcheck CPU
link to PassMark CPU, GPU, HDD (maybe not all correct)
link to Techarp
Notebookcheck is the best, and the benchmarks can be found here on that site:
