Benchmarking Software: Where to get it and what exactly do they mean?

[ArvinC]

Hello everyone!

Pretty much a newbie "Harware Junkie", but looking to find out where one gets their hands on the benchmarking software that magazines, reviewers and people like us use to test and tweak their systems? And what exactly does each test measure and what do those results mean? I have just finished putting together my rig (Click down below please...tell me what you think!) and wanted to benchmark it to see how well it fairs against other "standard" systems. Any help or info would be great!

ArvinC

 

[Shockwave]

Benchmark s/w is just that. It stress tests your rig and compares your results to known systems to give you an idea where you stand. Theres as many different types of benchmark programs as there are programs themselves. There system tests, grpahic tests, memory tests, stress tests etc etc. The only ones I use are stress tests. (CPU burn in and stuff) to make sure my rig is stable. I cant think of any links for benchmark programs right off, I quit benchmarking a long time ago. I got into a benchmark phase, where ALL I cared about was getting a better benchmark. It got old, I'd OC, make changes, benchmark, make changes, benchmark and thats all I did. One day i figured, who the heck cares?! I set everything back to stock, and just left it at that. I'm not saying you shouldnt benchmark, but most of the times, the gains you get later on are really not enough to warrent hours and hours of tweaking and benchmarking. Go to BIOS, set your RAM settings to max, stress test, if its stable leave it at that is my recommendation. But, just search for SiSoft Sandra or CPU Burn among others. Also, use google to search for the program names that magazines and websites use.