Speccy, CPU-Z and GPU-Z: These are the most commonly sought after software for gathering information. CPU-Z and GPU-Z mainly provide specifications and a few statistics about the CPU and GPU respectively.
On other hand, Speccy is simple to use, light on your system, portable and compatible with 32-bit as well as 64-bit systems. Use this software if you want a simple, clean interface that gives you all the necessary details you may require. What we would love to see as an add-on to this software is real-time monitoring and an inclusion of benchmarking tools.
If real-time monitoring and in-depth details of your system is what you are looking for then, AIDA64 and HWinfo are your best bets.
HWinfo:
Unlike its com-petitors, HWinfo provides real-time monitoring and displays tem-peratures directly from the sensors and your CPU. It not only summa-rizes your system’s information pro-viding you
com-plete details, but also delivers graphically arranged data that can be further customized by the user. Along with continuous reporting this software also alerts you if anything goes wrong in your system or if the temperatures rise beyond the maximum point set. Another feather in HWinfo’s cap is its neat, labelled and categorized two-window layout. Most other information providing software fail to run without errors or crashing and tend to stop responding in the midst of a monitoring session. With, HWinfo however, you can be sure to never run into these troubled waters.
In the future we’d like to see HWinfo include a few benchmarking tools and more resource usage by applications.
AIDA64: This software fills the gaps that its competitor HWinfo fails to address. Referred as ASMDEMO earlier, AIDA64 was essentially a 16 DOS hardware analyzer, a freeware that could perform basic functions.
After going through a number of nomenclature changes, today it can be accessed in four different versions. The extreme version is intended for
Explore advance options with SlimCleaner
personal usage, the AIDA64 Engineer version, AIDA64 Business version and finally the AIDA64 Network Audit target professionals. You could head on to their product page to compare features: http://www.aida64.com/
compare-aida64-features. Apart from a stable software, the product also proves to be a treasure of information about the hardware installed, You can expect support for overclocking, benchmarking and analyze how your PC performs when it is stressed. AIDA64 comes with basic diagnostic sup-port too! This software is a beast that is available on various platforms and is an all-in-one suite, albeit with a free trial that expires in merely 30 days.
SiSoft’s Sandra (System Analyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assis-tant): Sandra is a great and free alternative for AIDA64 but it comes with limited services and shortcomings. You could look at two more software that may not be the best in the business but are definitely powerful and deserve a mention — Belarc Advisor. Belarc Advisor has the ability to gather information as detailed as the type, revision, software keys as well as the serial number of hardware components.
Which one should you go for?
If getting in-depth information with real-time monitoring is what you desire then HWinfo should be your definite pick. Although, if you benchmark your PC often and don’t mind shelling out a few bucks (after its free trial period) then we highly recommend the AIDA64. In case you do not fit into either categories we’d suggest you start with Speccy and then upgrade.
PC Cleaning:
Keeping your system clean by clearing up your cache, registries and cookies is a great way to ensure the security, pace and overall efficiency of your system. Websites too have now become rather open about their cookie policies. If you have never cleared the temporary folder on your computer then chances are that those huge temp files are engulfing your storage space, slowing your system down...To clear unwanted temporary files, registries, cache, cookies and history saved by various applications or browsers during long browsing sessions take a peek into our listing of software that help you keep your PC Clean.
Internet Windows Washer: A basic software at its core, this will take care of your Internet cache and windows cache by deleting cookies, applica-tion as well as browser history. Funcapplica-tioning much like your personal, virtual recycle bin from the yesteryears this software requires the user to choose
what needs to be erased manually. While the software is light and simple, its user interface is reminiscent of the Windows XP. We believe, that just like Windows XP, this software too is past its prime.
CCleaner: CCleaner is an advanced software that doesn’t require you to manually select files that need to be deleted or retained. Most people have either used or heard of this software. CCleaner can be summed up as the
“windows disk cleanup on steroids with an advanced user interface.” Used widely for its primary function i.e. cleaning temporary files, it also offers a set of other utilities like registry cleaning which looks after unwanted registries, the uninstall manager that can be used as an alternative to the traditional program uninstaller in the windows control panel, the startup manager where you can choose what apps to start automatically on startup and a drive wiper that wipes the free space on your hard drive so that the deleted files cannot be recovered. The built-in disk analyzer in the software provides you with details of all file types in your storage. It also comes bundled with a duplicate file remover that has been added in recent updates where you can let it analyze and then take control to delete the duplicate files it finds based on similar attributes. The professional plus version also provides a hard disk defragmentation tool, a hardware analyzer and file recovery options. It also gives the user complete freedom to customize your right click menu i.e. the context menu. Another smart feature that CCleaner offers is to whitelist important cookies so you can tell it to skip those social media cookies or steam cookies so that your website and games load quicker. Armed with a user-friendly interface this software is a lethal combination of cleaning and other essential utilities, available for the price of one.
SlimCleaner: This cleaner provides you with all the above features packed with its add-ons and completely different design approach. You get a HiJack Log tab that pro-vides you access to logs of programs and plug-ins that are vulnerable to third party attacks and can affect
the system. To make it sim- Explore advance options with SlimCleaner
pler for basic users, it has a novice mode too. It also has a file and folder shredder that leaves files irrecoverable. It also has shortcuts to various windows utilities like the Device manager, system information, system restore etc. This software packs in various features slotted in categories that make navigating through features and tabs a breeze. You can also choose to schedule tune-ups to run periodically if you are just too lazy to do it manually every time.
Which one should you go for?
Both CCleaner and SlimCleaner offer almost the same package. Look out for their additional utility features while choosing the right software for your system. If you are a user that wants a simplistic software interface, quick working and are looking to go with a tried and trusted brand, CCleaner is ahead of SlimCleaner in these aspects. Where SlimCleaner gets a lead is its functionalities and additional features that it offers advanced users.
These software are just basic ones and probably of little use if you are looking for some advanced cleaning. Disk drives stores sensitive informa-tion even after it’s fully formatted and that informainforma-tion might prove to be very risky if it falls in the hands of a miscreant . To ensure this does not happen, you should securely delete all such files so they are just not recoverable using software, come what may. You should definitely check out these software - HDD LLF, Eraser, Hardwipe, SDelete and Darik’s Boot and Nuke CD.
For your information, these extraordinary disk wipers use aggressive wiping methods like GOST R 50739-95, DOD 5220.00-M, Schneier & Gut-mann etc. For example, DOD 5220.00-M is a US Department of Defense approved drive sanitization method that commands to overwrite all address-able locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify for clearing and sanitizing information and these software can do this process until 7 passes. Wiping disk drives using this methods and standards might take from hours or even up to days depending on the number of passes you choose, for example, in the case of DOD, its 7 passes and with Schneier & Gutmann is 35 passes.
Eraser: Eraser can be set to securely delete any file or a folder and it can be even scheduled to destroy the specific folder following the schedule. You have all the access to select the number of passes and the method to be used to delete the file. This is one of the most solid performers with an equally well user interface and a task scheduler. It allows you to completely remove
sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected from a variety of patterns. It comes with a very detailed built-in help menu. It works with any drive (including IDE, SCSI, and RAID), and with FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions but its only negative is that it uses a whole lot of memory.
Hardwipe: This is yet another software utility that can be useful to deep clean files from your system permanently to prevent information from ever being recovered. One of the intelligent features of this software is that it uses the RAM and cache available intelligently so your computer remains responsive even during lengthy operations just where a lot of these tools might be working in the background but seem to be unresponsive.
DBAN: DBAN stands for Darik’s Boot and Nuke is a really powerful program that requires burning it on to a CD and then booting your system from it to load the DBAN utilities. You can further choose what method or standard you want and then let it workit’s charm (for very long! probably hours or even a day!). It’s great for bulk disk cleaning of PCs and is also useful as an emergency tool for quickly removing sensitive information . However, one must not forget to disconnect all other drives that you do not want to wipe. he power of this app makes it a dangerous tool in the hands of beginners.
Which one should you go for?
If permanent destruction of data is not a regular act for you yet you are using these data wiping softwares, you should go with Hardwipe. It’s got a much better and simple to use interface. Incase you want something portable, and don’t want to pay for it, Eraser is a good choice. Eraser also has the feature to schedule wiping your folder without you having to do it manually. DBAN is for advanced users who can work well with this heavy on functionality software and need to wipe data on a number of PCs. For an average user, Eraser or HardWipe should be good to go with.
Sweat your PC!
There’s nothing worse than an overclocked system not performing up to the mark. Do you know what the actual potential of your rig is? Go ahead, run these PC stressing tests to know how stable your system is at any modified setting!
Memtest86 and Prime95: They are one of the oldest options to check how your CPU performs by pushing it for several hours. MemTest86
boots from a flash drive or a DVD to check how much load your memory can take, while having no OS running in the background to deliver accurate results. Prime95, on the other hand gives you the flexibility to choose from small FFT tests to complex Blend tests checking overall PC levels.
OCCT: If you want to take this testing to a higher level and test how stable your PC is even when it goes through serious exertion check out - OverClock Checking Tool,
popularly known as OCCT. OCCT comes free for personal use and has capabilities to check your CPU, PSU, as well as GPU. For testing the CPU, it includes an OCCT test, a LinPack benchmark test, a GPU test and the aforementioned power supply test. There is also a useful temperature and voltage-monitoring window where you can keep an eye on the values during any of the tests with the help of real-time graphs.
HeavyLoad: It is a utility that aims to stress the main components, similar to OCCT. The advantage of HeavyLoad is that its disk space and free memory tests do not put undue stress on those components, but rather continually write a large file to the drive and pressurize the system simu-lating heavy load when all major components are utilised. A number of additional plugins can be added to add more stress to the hard drive by using Jam software or the Treesize tool to simulate more heavy disc access to check your PC more rigorously.
StressMyPC: If you are looking for a compact and ultra-portable soft-ware to run a stability test on your PC look no further than StressMyPC.
It provides you with all the necessary tools on the go!
PassMark BurninTest: Just in case you want to check only one compo-nent, say for example the 2D graphics or the RAM or even any of the ports for that matter, PassMark BurninTest is what you are looking for! It is not a free software but it comes with a 30-day free trial. All these tests try to
OCCT can test CPU, PSU as well as GPU
push your hardware to levels ranging from 60% to 100%. Another test for hammering the GPU specifically is Furmark which is known for its lethal capacity of killing GPU’s if not used correctly.
EVGA Precision X: EVGA Precision X is a robust software that proves to be a great utility for gamers. It has one of the best user interfaces, that resembles a speedometer of a sports car which is precise for displaying and monitoring scores. You can adjust the GPU clock speed, temperature as well as voltage settings in real time. It comes with a special K-boost profile that disables all power saving features and sets the GPU to run at highest set frequencies. A built-in fan speed controller, extensive GPU setting capabilities as well as a test button that tests your setting on the go for any application are too included. The OS Scanner X is an additional plug-in which offers multiple stress test and benchmarking functions. The Pixel clock feature and the integrated Nvidia’s monitor overclocking concept are always a positive while tuning your computer. EVGA Precision X offers you a wide range of system functionalities and Noobs are therefore said to research before you get your hands on this software. Additionally, AMD users can head on and check out Radeon Profile Tool as well!
Which one should you go for?
StressMyPC is portable, can be used on the go t which is its unique selling proposition in this category. But if you are looking to put your PC under rigorous stress tests, you should opt for OCCT or give HeavyLoad a try.
HeavyLoad also offers a portable version, but requires additional plug-ins depending upon the tests. However, if you are looking forward to test specific components of your rig, you should definitely go for PassMark BurninTest.
EVGA Precision X specifically excels in configuring your graphic card just right for your use and if that is what you want to look out for, then your search ends here.
However, be very careful when running this as well as other tests in
‘Xtreme’ modes as they are known to kill your graphic cards or even your systems in the whole! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!