REQ: recommends for hardware performance eval utilities, plz?

[datora]

.
Hey folks --

I haven't gone looking for utilities to evaluate performance/ integrity of hardware for about two years.  Haven't needed, and I lost a couple of extensive bookmark files this year with all my best & favorite sites ...

But, now I haz needs.

If you will, please give positive and/or negative recommendations for freeware utilities that you have experience with ..?  Names & basic URLs  + a basic thumbs up or down are good for me, I do t3h google thing pretty well. 

I'd like to evaluate:

 - hard drives
 - cpu's
 - memory
 - video cards

Bonus for sound, CD/DVD, &/or power supplies if you got 'em.

I'm renovating some older systems, so generally working with Pentium 4s, DDR and DDR2 memory, PATA hard drives and AGP 4x & 8X video cards (integrated and add-on).  I'd like to generate benchmarks & performance numbers to compare hardware in different systems, and it'd be nice for trouble-shooting utilities that might indicate Impending Doom of devices malfunctioning.

Of particular interest are hard drive utils so I can decide which ones to trash & which ones to replace; got about 12 to start with, running from 20GB up to 300GB & there'll be more in upcoming months.

I expect to be using 32-bit WinXP for just about everything, although I'm open to learning enough linux to maybe set up some USB drives for probing/evaluating systems.  However, going linux also means I'm nearly-n00b (not st00pidz) and would Really Appreciate helpful training links to get me off the ground.

Please respond here with discussion, or add onto Useful software repository topic, as you may be motivated; I be watchin' this tech forum pretty regular, so I shouldn't miss much wherever it might turn up.

Thank you! 

[flynn]

Not sure if this what you need, but thease freewares can report statistics of currently running system and/or can benchmark,
Whicgh is im assuming is waht you need to do, rather than just compare items your looking to get?

hope it helps-

Sisoftware SANDRA- http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/?d=&f=downandbuy&l=en&a=
lite version is free but has a lot of functionality and can benchmark, is a little bulky, although has many options.

CPU-Z - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
is a very small app that give the statistics of what your system running, maybe benchmarks, never tried XD

GPU-Z - http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
simmilar but reports GPU stats.

nice compatibility web site? http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/index.html
for motherboard and processor compatibility

GPU benchmark site, http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
How accurate this is, i has no idea and accept no garantee XD!

Have fun sorries if I missed your point ahah !!

[flyawave]

Wprime is a free Benchmark utility for CPU power. it uses Maths to calculate the first 32 million or 1024 million integers. Be careful, the 1024M test can make your CPU very hot as all CPU cores will be at %100
on a x64 machine you need to run as administrator

[daveLovesIt]

Sisoftware SANDRA- http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/?d=&f=downandbuy&l=en&a=
lite version is free but has a lot of functionality and can benchmark, is a little bulky, although has many options.

+1 for SANDRA, she rocks. The benchmarking tools should be enough for most of your needs, and its a good way to cut down on the time taken to accurately identify all of the hardware in a system. It also provides some performance and stability suggestions based on what it finds, this has occasionally flagged up a driver/config/BIOS-setting issue for me in the past.

To have a taste of linux, just make a SysRescue disc. No need to mess around with HDD installs, and the website there is probably not a bad place to start learning about how to use live linux distros to troubleshoot PC's, including Windows. Also, Knoppix is always good, but you may find the learning curve a bit steeper IMO.

[datora]

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Thanks guys! These are exactly the sorts of hints I'm looking for. 

Please keep them coming, folks!

I'll post a few of my own later when I have some more time.  Stuff like CPU-Z I've used & Knoppix I knew about, but haven't played with for a couple years.  These are the sorts of reminders I'm asking for, plus hopes of new stuff ... like SANDRA looks awesome.

Warnings, like for Wprime, are also Very Much Appreciate!  Don't want to fry anything! 

[x5ga]

For HDD benchmarking, use CrystalDiskMark

[flyawave]

For HDD benchmarking, use CrystalDiskMark

+1 for that

[Lupin]

I use Lavalys' Everest for basic benchmarking. It's not free but...

For HDD diagnostic, I use Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. It's a bootable tool that can test disks every manufacturer out there as long as it's detectable at boot.

For memory diagnostic, nothing beats memtest 86.

[Pentium100]

Memory - memtest86
HDD - MHDD
Hardware list - System Information for Windows (it does not require install and fits in a DMF floppy).
HDD benchmarks - HDTune (there is a free version) and HDTach, though the CrystalDiskMark program also looks nice.

[fohfoh]

For shits and giggles, I found Piriform speccy an interesting utility for a good 30 seconds to show the innards of a computer. Probably less impressive if you built it and already know what's inside.

As for testing... yeah, just use the other recommendations. Pi test and all that crap isn't worth comparing to the others. 

[datora]

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Hey, again thanks!  Thanks all for the replies! 

@fohfoh - I caught your post in another thread and you reminded me of a forgotten forum: Overclock.net.

I have my mecca and begin now to don my pilgrim's robes. 

Looks like I'll be scarce around here for a while ... need to reacquaint myself with a huge library of new material there.  I think I'll find most eval software I can need by reading up on some of my favorite topics.  I'll make sure to post back here or the Repository thread with utilz & apps that I field-test & feel are worthy.