 |  | use SANDRA to test your computers performance |  | | By Holly Cunningham | | (1/20/04) |
If your computer has problems, the symptoms may be too vague for you to detect them. It may boot up more slowly or take longer to read files from its hard drive than it did when it was new. But performance problems creep in gradually, so you may not realize your computer takes longer to perform its tasks. How do you accurately diagnose your computer's performance? Enter SANDRA from SiSoftware, which offers easy system-testing and benchmarking tools for any and all aspects of your computers performance--and its so accurate it hurts.
Take a big picture
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SANDRA |
Keep your computer running at peak performance with diagnostic and benchmarking tools.
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PCMark2002 |
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PerformanceTest |
Run performance tests on your computer.
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SANDRA opens with a window full of icons sporting arcane names such as Burn-in Wizard, APM & ACPI Information, and DMA Settings. Even experienced system-tweakers can get lost in all the options. Fortunately, SANDRA's wizards make it easy to dive right in. For basic system-testing, double-click the Combined Performance Index wizard, which rates performance on five aspects of your system, including memory, multimedia, and storage. Before initiating the test, make sure you shut down all open applications (besides SANDRA, of course). As the test runs, SANDRA generates a score for each of the five components and displays all the results as a red pentagon. SANDRA automatically selects reference results, shown as a blue pentagon, so you can see how your system measures up. You will probably want to adjust the reference results with the pull-down menus on the left-hand side of the wizard window to match your own system's components. If you don't know what kind of chipset, CPU, or hard drive you have, go back to the SANDRA main screen (don't worry about closing the wizard, it will save your test results) and run the mainboard, CPU, and drive-information modules. If the red pentagon is considerably smaller than the blue pentagon, your system may not be running up-to-snuff.
Test and tweak
With an idea of the big picture, you can now move on to the Performance Tune-up wizard. Before running this test, put discs into your CD drives so SANDRA can check the drive performance. Make sure the discs have some kind of data on them and are not unformatted CD-RWs. If you have a firewall, and you should, dont wander away during testing, as youll need to grant Internet access permissions for Winsock testing. Once SANDRA finishes running its tests, it generates clickable tip icons in the report, suggesting fixes for areas of deficient performance. Unfixable device or software problems generate a red warning flag. SANDRA doesn't execute its suggested fixes, which can range from the mundane (removing wallpaper, updating drivers) to the complex (reflashing the BIOS). You will need to go down the list and make all the adjustments recommended that you can comfortably do using the help and FAQs. After making your changes, run the Performance wizard again to double-check for problems.
Document your system
Now that you know how your computer compares with others and you've had a chance to improve its performance, you can use SANDRA to document all this information. SANDRA's Create a Report wizard documents your system information and performance results. The system information lets you know exactly what's in your computer, with detail you won't get from Windows. The performance results can be used to document how system changes affected performance or to show technical support that some component of your system isn't working properly. When you launch the Report wizard, be very selective about which modules you choose to include. By default, SANDRA includes all its information and performance modules, which will tie up your computer for a while and generate a huge report that takes hours to go through. Instead, you can generate single reports for different aspects of your system. For example, check only the drive information and file-structure test module to get a report that just covers storage. SANDRA gives you multiple options on what to do with a report, including saving it as text, e-mailing it, and uploading it via FTP.
Stress it out
Our final step should only be taken by people who can handle terms such as CPU idle temp and who know how many fans are built into their computer cases. The Burn-in wizard generates a complete picture of system temperatures by running its various tests, with the intention of stressing the components of your computer. If you've never opened your computer case, don't use this wizard. For you system-tweakers who want to take the risk, launch the Burn-in wizard and select which tests you want to run. We recommend doing one component at a time, such as selecting only the tests that relate to the CPU. SANDRA then lets you select how many times the test should be run. For your first time, set it for three so you can make sure your system doesn't overheat. Click the Monitor System Health check box, but don't uncheck the Terminate on Overheat/Failure box, unless you really want to melt your system components. Click past the processor-selection screen (which is only useful for multiple processor systems) and use the default temperatures and fan speeds on the next screens. Once you've run the stress test, the results screen shows you how much your computer's components heat up. You can use this information to determine whether you need additional cooling in your computer.
Holly Cunningham, a frequent contributor to CNET, is a freelance Web designer working primarily to keep her Chihuahua in furs.
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