Hardware Benchmarks

This site provides two entirely free software utilities that will assist in benchmarking and tuning the system for optimal performance. The first utility, CPU-Z can be used to identify detailed technical specifications for any X86 processor. This small program can be run directly without installing into the Windows system or writing to the registry. For more detailed system information, PC Wizard will run a wide set of analysis including checking cache and RAM performance, hard disk speed, MP3 compression, and removable flash media performance.

Futuremark produces the well-known 3DMark and PCMark benchmark software. Free versions of the software are available for download and users can upgrade to paid professional versions which include additional functionality to gauge the performance of a computer's hardware system components.

A great source for news on performance PC computing, this site has a number of valuable resources. Their overclocking database has rankings and information on the average maximum clock speeds collected from thousands of real world overclocked PCs. The site also features a lively forum where users can discuss new hardware, benchmark results from modifications and tweaking, and look for answers for technical problems.

While the main site is in Russian, BenchmarkHQ provides a complete translated English site that has become the de facto source for information on new releases of computer benchmarking software. The site also hosts a small directory of benchmark tools broken out by hardware subsystem and with short descriptions and ratings.

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation establishes and maintains a standardized set of benchmarks for high-performance computers. Submitted results are published on the site along with technical information on the benchmarks.