A system analyzer is often overlooked as the toy of PC modding fanatics, but the reality is that these applications are very effective at dissecting your PC and giving you the hard truth about its performance. PC Wizard aims to explore the insides of your system and give you the complete low down on its strengths and weaknesses.

Once you launch PC Wizard you’ll notice it takes some time to detect all the hardware installed on your PC. Use the left side of the interface to navigate through the different categories. PC Wizard reveals all the basic details of your hardware, like ports, drivers and processors, but you’ll soon realize there’s much more to it, like analyzing system files or investigating the configuration of elements such as your Internet connection or your Control Panel. Over-sized icons make it fairly obvious what you can inspect, however we would have appreciated an explorer type window to navigate through components and select exactly what to analyze.

The core of any self-respecting system analyzer is the benchmarking tool and that is where PC Wizard excels. The application lets you inspect everything from processors to cache, RAM and multimedia like DirectX, MP3 compression and video. Benchmarks provide the results as a list of information or via comprehensible graphs. These will show you straight away where you’re PC stands and the “compare with” button will let you measure your processor up against well known models. We have to warn beginners though that the information is fairly technical and will be more relevant to experienced users. Just for fun, test out the video benchmark to obtain a swarm of multicoloured balls and lines all over your screen.

That’s the only bit of excitement you’ll get with this application though. PC Wizard is not here for fun it's here to be effective. The detailed information and thorough benchmarking tests give you reliable data on all the characteristics and components of your PC. The complexity of this type of application means beginners are best kept away from it altogether, however advanced users will revel in the wealth of knowledge it will uncover on their PC’s performances.

Download PC Wizard 2008 1.86 in Softonic

Every once in a while, you need to know some very specific detail about your computer, whether it’s for a piece of software that you want to install or to yell out to the voice on the other side of the technical support line. Either way, it quite often happens that the spec sheet that came with your computer has inconveniently vanished and you can’t remember if your processor's internal data cache is 12kB or 16kB, or whether those holes in the back are USB 1.1 or 2.0. Thankfully SiSoftware have developed a solution that will answer these and many more questions you may have about the inner workings of your computer.

Sandra is a program that contains modules designed to carry out a number of functions on your PC such as benchmarking, analyzing and listing the hardware or software components. The interface is simple with clear groups and well-labeled tests for you to perform. Depending on what you want to check, the details will either be shown immediately or you're forced to wait some time for the spec to be analyzed. We would have preferred some warning when there was a wait involved instead of suddenly seeing a dialog saying not to move the mouse or press any keys for one to ten minutes! Putting this to the test, it seems not to be a threat but a promise, because the program accordingly froze when we went against this “advice”.

Where Sandra could come in very useful is with its benchmarks, if you want to tweak the performance and need to judge just how each variable affects the overall efficiency. Unfortunately much of the data that you get appears in quite cryptic terms and unless you’re willing to read up on what each specification means (the help file is a good source for definitions and tips) then you could well be left scratching your head more than once. On the other hand, if you know exactly what every entry means and would like to make any edits, then you may be frustrated by the fact that nothing displayed can be changed, so you’ll have to get stuck in to the registry and get your hands dirty.

On one occasion we noticed that when Sandra tried to run an IP test, after failing once, it retried again and again and became stuck in an endless loop that must be stopped by the user. On the whole, this little glitch doesn’t take away from the usefulness of Sandra and it remains the best system analysis tool we’ve seen to date. Thanks to its comprehensive checks and useful advice, this is a recommended download for just about everyone.

Download Sisoft Sandra Lite 2007 (11.35) in Softonic

Everest Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning Everest technology.

During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings.

CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes Everest Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

Download Everest Ultimate Edition 4.20.1170 in Softonic

It's not only the world that's getting warmer - PC's, by virtue of the fact that they are becoming increasingly more powerful, are literally warming up too.

Most good PCs and laptops have a fan which automatically controls overheating and regulates temperature but this is not always 100% reliable, especially when you've got lots of external devices connected. The good thing about HWMonitor is that it gives you an instant overview of your PC's vital power and heat stats while at the same time, remaining very light and not adding to the problem. In fact, it doesn't require any installation at all and can be run simply from the .EXE file. The program does not copy any files into the directory or edit the registry in any way. The program probably shows you far more stats that it needs to in reality - I mean, who really needs to know the temperature of their graphics card? It would have been useful if the program had included some kind of basic and advanced view to prevent you getting overwhelmed with data but at least the info is there if you really need it.

If you're worried that you're fan is not doing it's job properly or your PC is getting disconcertingly hot, then HWMonitor is the ultimate monitoring tool.

Download HWMonitor 1.11 in Softonic

Ever needed to get detailed information about your PC but felt too lazy to look around for the specifications? Well, don’t bother yourself browsing the net or leafing through your PC’s instruction manual; set up a system analysis application like Belarc Advisor instead. This program will profile your PC, giving you thorough information on every aspect of your machine.

Installing the application only takes a few seconds and it will analyze your PC right away. Make sure you are connected to Internet, as Belarc Advisor only works inside a browser window. It displays not only your hardware specs like controllers, bus adapters or the capacity of your processor but also software versions and licenses. Belarc Advisor also provides you with a list of all missing and installed Microsoft 'hotfixes' with a direct link to the corresponding update page.

Belarc Advisor also carries out a CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmark of your PC according to elements such as event log policies, security options and users rights. For each category, Belarc will give you a grade out of 10, with elements you comply with given a green check and those you fail given a red cross. If you click on a particular element you will be taken to a suggestions page. For example, click on “password age” and a new tab will open up with information on how and why to change your password regularly. We recommend looking over Belarc Advisor’s suggestions for any element in the benchmark that your PC might have failed. Try implementing their tips and do the benchmark test again to see if your PC gets a better score.

While the amount of information can easily overwhelm new users, Belarc Advisor is an excellent and speedy solution to get detailed specs on your PC. Providing details on your hardware and software and featuring a thorough benchmarking test, Belarc Advisor should come in handy when upgrading your PC or looking for any vulnerability to patch.

Download Belarc Advisor 7.2.24.6 in Softonic

CINEBENCH is the free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D. Consequently, the results of tests conducted using CINEBENCH 9.5 carry significant weight when analyzing a computer’s performance in everyday use. Especially a system’s CPU and the OpenGL capabilities of its graphics card are put through their paces (even multiprocessor systems with up to 16 dedicated CPUs or processor cores). During the testing procedure, all relevant data is ascertained with which the performance of different computers can subsequently be compared, regardless of operating system.

CINEBENCH includes render tasks that test the performance of up to 16 multiprocessors on the same computer as well as software-only shading tests and OpenGL shading tests on huge numbers of animated polygons that will push any computer to its limits.

CINEBENCH 9.5 is available for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and as a “Universal Binary” version for Apple Macintosh computers with PowerPC or Intel Core Duo processors. The database functionality and simple export allow for easy statistical data collection. CINEBENCH is used extensively by leading trade journals and hardware manufacturers such as Intel, AMD and Apple to compare computer performance.

Example of results:

****************************************************
Rendering (Single CPU): 229 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 267 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.16

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 326 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1283 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 2947 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 9.05
****************************************************

Download Cinebench 9.5 in Softonic

CrystalMark allows you to test your CPU, memory, HDD and video (GDI, Direct Draw, OpenGL) and subsystems. It also displays useful information about your system which can be saved in a text or HTML file.

CrystalMark allows you to test separate components and to also obtain detailed information about them.

Download CrystalMark 2004 R2 in Softonic

Give your computer a comprehensive once over. Dr. Hardware is a program of extreme detail that is not recommended for anyone who isn't into the possibility of their computer grinding to a halt during examination.

Upon installing this program, you will be presented with a telling readme file that informs you that it may evoke "Severe Exception Errors" (blue screen), "General Protection Faults", or "Program Errors". This isn’t due to the program being unstable, but rather to the fact that it pushes your computer to its limit in order to get an accurate measure of just what your system is capable of.

To begin with, you land on a general rundown of your system where you can perform the general overview test, that will outline your hardware configuration. You can then go on to explore the various tabs throughout the program, which aim to make navigating easier, but can actually get quite ambiguous since there are just so many tabs on there. The interface feels outdated and the creators don’t seem to have put much thought in to making it easy to use.

That said, the program contains a breathtakingly detailed breakdown of your computer's components and once you get used to the interface, you can find info about any hardware setting imaginable. The configuration menu will let you customize how the program performs, in accordance with the whether you are a novice or an expert computer user.

This is a powerful piece of software for checking the performance of your computer, although with such a rigorous scan, you may expect your system to crash at any moment.

Download Dr. Hardware 2008 9.0.0 in Softonic

HWiNFO32 is a professional hardware information and diagnostic tool supporting latest components, industry technologies and standards. This tool is designed to recognize and extract as much information as possible about computer's hardware which makes it suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufactures, system integrators and technical exteperts too.

The findings are presented in a logical and easy to understand form and can be exported as various types of reports.

Download HWiNFO32 1.78 in Softonic

If you need to be reassured on the health status of your Hard Disk, run CrystalDiskInfo and see what the response is like. CrystalDiskInfo is a hard-disk health monitoring utility. It displays basic HDD information, monitors S.M.A.R.T. values and disk temperature.

You don’t have to do anything apart from running the program in order to have a health status report, stating temperature level, error rate, spin-up time and lots of other information which might be useful to know, especially for tech-savvy users. Even if you are not one of those, you might still find it cheerful to see written in a glossy blue box that your hard disk status is ‘Good’.

Unfortunately, there is no interaction with the program, it’s just a window with data and you can’t do much else with those. There is a graph display, but it doesn’t seem particularly easy to understand it, if and when it works.

Although the figures given by CrystalDiskInfo can be hard to be understand for non tech-savvy users, you can still find out more about the technical characteristics of your hard disk and know easily if everything is ok with it.

Download CrystalDiskInfo 1.0.4a in Softonic

How many times have you walked up to a system in your office and needed to click through several diagnostic windows to remind yourself of important aspects of its configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version? If you manage multiple computers you probably need BGInfo.

It automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop's background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more. You can edit any field as well as the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen. Because BGInfo simply writes a new desktop bitmap and exits you don't have to worry about it consuming system resources or interfering with other applications.

Download BGInfo 4.14 in Softonic

Test My Hardware analyses the configuration of your PC to spot if there are any potential problems on your system. It displays the results in an attractive interface with logos for each component.

In reality, this is not a particularly revealing tester. It performs a rather simple analysis that won't reveal anything that a technician couldn't find out from Windows hardware manager anyway. However, it does at least give you a general overview of the condition of your system including processor, motherboard, memory, operating system, additional components and devices, etc.

The interface of My Test Hardware classifies the results in a practical and ordered manner so it's easy to identify the component you're particularly interested in. A quick and simple program that might not solve your hardware problems but provides a good starting point.

Download Test My Hardware 2.4 in Softonic

EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings.

CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

Download Everest 4.20 in Softonic

Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard / motherboard information, and a lot more besides.

System Information: Scan your system and get a complete report about your computer's hardware and software, for example: motherboard information, video system information, PCI / AGP buses information, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) information, network information.

System Benchmarks: Test your system performance, such as CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD ROM, and compare it with other systems.

Download Fresh Diagnose 7.90 in Softonic

Hot CPU Tester Pro is a system health and stability tester. It tests CPU, chipset and virtually all parts of motherboard for errors/bugs, defective parts and components. It is a burn-in test with uniquely designed state of the art DefectTrack engine. DefectTrack is a technology developed by 7Byte to diagnose systems regarding its stability and in general, computer's health.

Take a look at what Hot CPU Tester has to offer:

• Revolutionary DefectTrack 2 engine, accurately tests the whole system and its subsets.
• Written purely to test CPU, chipset, motherboard, Memory
• Fully supports x64 computing platform(AMD64 Technology,Intel® EM64T)
• Fully supports dual-core and multi-processor systems
• Fully supports Hyper-Threaded processors
• Utilizes SSE,SSE2, SSE3, MMX & 3DNow! instructions sets
• Tests L1 & L2 Cache
• Tests System Bus & Memory Bus
• Tests Chipset along with motherboard
• Tests Hard Disk Drives
• Monitors CPU performance under pressure
• Built in Anti-Crash & Exception Handler
• Comprehensive Benchmark tests
• SMBIOS & CPUID featured
• LiveSupport

Download Hot CPU Tester Pro 4.4 in Softonic

System Information Viewer enables you to view a wide range of technical data about your computer, regarding system elements, installed hardware or network configuration, amongst others.

Although the amount of information displayed is impressive, the program's interface is quite unattractive, to say the least. Also, we had some stability issues when testing the program's network tools, but that may be due to the size of our local network. The upside is that you can copy all the information displayed on the interface to the Clipboard with just one click.

In all, System Information Viewer makes a good, thorough analysis of your computer's specifications. The only thing we could ask for in future versions is having a better interface.

Download System Information Viewer 3.22 in Softonic

This program performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. It gives detailed information about your computer hardware and devices operational modes, including undocumented information. A unique Drivers Troubleshooter function and quick HDD Health Status checker are included. It provides information on CPU, motherboard, hard disks, S.M.A.R.T., CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, memory modules, chipset, BIOS, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP devices, monitor, video card, sound card, network card, printer, installed programs and hotfixes, etc. This program also creates a report file in plain text, INI, HTML and XML format, and is able to run in batch mode.

Download ASTRA32 1.56 in Softonic

MvPCinfo is a small program that collects information about computer's hardware and software. After a few seconds of analysis, you can check out detailed information about your setup. Simple to use, the program doesn't need to be installed and will run perfectly from a diskette or any other removable media, which makes it a great choice if you have to check out multiple PCs.

Among the variety of components it will detect are the processor, the BIOS, memory, motherboard, CD-ROM unit, sound, video, network cards, IP address, e-mail addresses, keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer, etc.

Download MvPCinfo 2.1 in Softonic

System Analyser does exactly what it says on the tin, helping you keep track of the performance of your PC in a range of different areas. The application can be used to check all manner of components and settings, including information about Bios, Network, DOS, CPU/FPU, Cache, Memory, SPD, Video, AGP, Monitor, Drives, partitions, IDE, ATAPI, SATA, CD-Rom, DVD, Blue-ray Disk, RPC2, Lpt, Rs232, Mouse, Keyboard, IEEE 1284, Modem, Fax, ISDN, Sound, ASPI/CAM, SCSI, DMI, PCI, PCI Express, PCMCIA, Plug and Play, ESCD, IRQ, DMA, and CMOS.

Download System Analyser 5.31 in Softonic

What BurnIn Test does is thoroughly exercise the hardware in a PC in a short period of time, in the same way as normal applications use a PC over a long period of time. This takes advantage of the fact that computer hardware tends to fail either very early in its life or after many thousands of hours of use. Typically BurnInTest should be used before a PC is put into service, as the failure of a computer that isn’t being used for a critical application and doesn’t have any critical data is much less damaging, (especially if it is still under warranty).

BurnInTest will bring to surface intermittent or hidden problems so that after a successful check the computer can be used with much more confidence. BurnInTest can also be used by overclockers to verify system stability at high clock speeds.

BurnInTest tests the CPU via mathematical operations and SIMD calculations, hard drives, RAM, CD ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphic, network connection, printers and video playback. This can all be done simultaneously as the application is multithreaded. The Professional version also has a number of additional features such as tape drive testing, USB port testing, USB 2.0 port testing, Serial and parallel port testing with the use of loop back plugs.

Download Passmark BurnInTest Professional 5.3 Build 101 in Softonic