Windows PC Benchmarker Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, ---------------------- September 2007. +===========================================================+ | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | +===========================================================+ | * Introduction | * Why I wrote this program ? | * About the Benchmark Tests | * Hints and Tips for better PC Performance | * Installing and Using this Program | * Uninstalling this Program | * The Future | * Freeware Information | * Warranty | * Amendment History | * Contacting the Program's Author +===========================================================+ Introduction : -------------- Windows PC Benchmarker is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, etc. This program is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. See "Freeware Information" below. Windows PC Benchmarker enables you to : 1. Benchmark and evaluate the performance of various selected aspects of your computer. 2. View the results of this benchmarking in a graph. 3. Save the results and compare them against other selected benchmark results. This program should be useful to anyone who wants to evaluate or test the performance of their computer or tune up or fine tune the various aspects of their PC. This program benchmarks the operation of various components in your PC and then displays the results in a special logarithmic graph, so that the various values can be shown all on one graph. This means that significant differences in values may only appear as slight differences in bar lengths on the graph. To see the values for each test, you need to check the "Show Values" checkbox (in the top right hand corner of the graph). You can save, load, and compare the results against other saved results. You can also copy the Benchmark Results graph and the raw benchmark results data (in TAB separated format) to Windows Clipboard, so you can use this within your own documents or spreadsheets or web pages. (This should be very useful for PC magazines reviewing a bunch of PCs, or PC manufacturers or overclockers wanting to extol the virtues of their PC, etc). See "About the Benchmark Tests" below for details of each test, and what the tests mean. Included with this program are the benchmark results for 4 of my PCs : - Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz, Windows XP Pro, 512 MB, 40 HG, Intel 82845G On-Boad Graphics - Pentium III 700 MHz, Windows XP, 256 MB, TNT2 M64, 60 GB 7200 Segate Baracuda IV HDD - Celeron 900 PC, 128 MB, SIS On-Board Video - Pentium II 300 Mhz, 64 MM, Winfast Video, 3 GB HDD - and various other PCs, against which you can compare your PC, and add your own results to this list. (At the moment, I own more than 10 PCs - ranging from the first IBM XTs and an old Apple 2 - yes, my whole life is computers ... ;) Developed using 32-bit Delphi. This program will **NOT** run under Windows 3.x (even with Win32 installed). Why I wrote this program ? -------------------------------------------- I wrote this program because I have always wanted a no hassle / no fuss benchmarking program. Most (if not all) benchmarking programs out there are complex to use (or they are at least more complex to use than they need to be), and/or they are expensive to buy, and/or many are unsatisfactory in various ways. In comparison, this program is very easy to use, is very inexpensive to buy, and it hopefully provides tests that will satisfy your requirements. This is a program I have wanted to develop for ages. About the Benchmark Tests : ---------------------------- Each benchmark test is designed to take between 3 and 6 seconds on my Pentium III 700 MHz PC (so that is around 35 seconds for all 7 tests). At the time of writing, this PC is over 3 years old and is infinitely far from the latest leading edge PCs. However, if you are running this on an old Pentium 100 (i.e. a PC that was built in early-mid 1996), then things will be a lot slower than even this. But, if you are running this program on the latest and most powerful PC then the benchmark tests will complete much more quickly - and you may find that all tests finish in a few seconds (or less !). N.B. To get the best results, you should close down all other programs while executing the benchmark tests. See "Hints and Tips for better PC Performance" below for further details. The following benchmark tests are available : ** Integer Arithmetic : MIops This test is designed to check how quickly a computer can perform integer calculations, by executing 900 million integer calculations and timing how long they take to execute. The results are given in : - MIops : Millions of Integer Operations per Second ** Floating Point Arithmetic : MFops This test is designed to check how quickly a computer can perform floating point calculations, by executing more than 125 million floating point calculations and timing how long they take to execute. The results are given in : - MFops : Millions of Floating Point Operations per Second ** Disk Speed (Small Files) : KB/Sec This test is designed to check how quickly a computer can read and write small files, by creating and writing 500 small (4 KB) files (containing special data) on the selected disk or harddrive and then reading these files back in again while timing how long this process takes. The results are given in : - KB/Sec : Kilo-Bytes per Second (1 KB = 1,024 bytes) ** Disk Speed (Large Files) : KB/Sec This test is designed to check how quickly a computer can read and write large files, by creating and writing 10 large (10 MB) files (containing special data) on the selected disk or harddrive and then reading these files back in again while timing how long this process takes. The results are given in : - KB/Sec : Kilo-Bytes per Second (1 KB = 1,024 bytes) ** Memory Speed : MB/Sec This test is designed to check the speed of your PCs memory (RAM) by creating large dynamic arrays in your PC's memory and then filling these with data and copying data between them, while timing how long this process takes. The results are given in : - MB/Sec : Mega-Bytes per Second (1 MB = 1,024 KB, and 1 KB = 1,024 bytes) ** Graphics: Standard Windows Forms / Controls This test is designed to check the speed of your PCs Windows Graphics processing by creating a Windows Form and populating it with a bunch of standard Windows Controls (such as editboxes, listboxes, radio buttons, etc) and then changing the values or attributes of these many 1000's of times, while timing how long this process takes. The results are given in : - Controls/Sec ** Graphics: 2D Bitmaps and Drawings This test is designed to check the speed of your PCs 2D Graphics processing by creating a Windows Form and populating it with a bunch of simple drawing shapes, and then moving these around and changing their colours and attributes many 1000's of times, while timing how long this process takes. The results are given in : - KPix/Sec : 1000's of Pixels per Second When these tests have been run, it is possible to compare how your PC performs against other PCs, or fine tune your PC so that it performs better. Hints and Tips for better PC Performance : ------------------------------------------ Here are some simple hints and tips to improving the performance of your PC (and improving its benchmark results) : 1. Make sure your PC has enough memory (RAM). e.g. if you are running Windows XP, then your PC should have at least 128 MB of RAM, and preferably 256 MB or more RAM. 2. Defregment your registry and system files every time you boot your PC. (This requires some special software, such as Page Defrag by Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com). 3. Defragment your harddrive once per month. 4. Scan Disk your harddrive at least once per month. 5. Uninstall no longer needed software, especially if that software has a tendency to run every time Windows starts up. Tweak XP and various other programs can help with this. 6. Only run the programs you need. For example, if you are running Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet Explorer, Eudora, and a bunch of other programs, and system resources are becoming scarce or your PC is starting to slow down, then close the programs you no longer need open - you can always re-open them later. 7. Use Moose's Software - it is useful, inexpensive, regularly updated, and very well supported ! ;) http://move.to/moose Installing and Using this Program : ----------------------------------- To use this program, unzip the contents of the ZIP file to a directory - such as c:\Program Files\ - and run the executable file : Benchmarker.EXE. You can also drag and drop shortcuts to this program onto your Desktop or Start Menu using Windows Explorer. If you want the program to run automatically when Windows starts up, then select this option under the "File" menu in the program. I hope you find the program easy to use and useful. Uninstalling this Program : --------------------------- At the present time, there is No Uninstall function. If you ever want to delete Windows PC Benchmarker from your computer, then : 1. Exit the program, and delete it from wherever you installed it on your harddrive. Simple as that ! The Future : ------------ In the future, many improvements could be made to this program, such as : - More benchmark tests. e.g. 3D graphics, CPU <-> L2 cache speed, etc. - More graph options. e.g. the ability to compare the benchmark results of 3 or more PCs at once. - Add in benchmark results for the earliest computers : The ENIAC (1946), the Manchester Mark 1, EDSAC, and others, so you can see how many 1,000's of times faster your lovely PC is in comparison to these early pioneering machines. - Detailed progress indicators during the benchmarking process. - The ability to abort the benchmarking process. - Anything else ? If you would like any of these improvements, or would like to suggest more, please email me and let me know. How much more work I do on this program depends entirely on what support I get, how many people use the program, etc. Freeware Information : ----------------------- This is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. However, if you find the program useful, then please consider making a PayPal donation to support my efforts. (To make a donation, please run the program and select the "About" option under the Help menu, and then click the PayPal link on the "About" screen). Warranty : ---------- This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The user assumes the entire risk of using this software. If you do find any faults with this program, email me and let me know. Amendment History : ------------------- Vers Date Description 1.0 29-Oct-2002 First Public Release. (35,092 lines of code / comments.) 1.1 5-Nov-2002 Calculate and store all results as Extended Length Real Numbers to handle massive numbers up to 10^4932. i.e. This program will be able to benchmark just about any imaginable future computer - even those trillions of trillions of trillions of trillions of times faster than the fastest computers currently on the planet - without numeric overflow, truncation or wrapping errors. Fix a bug in the Integer Operations Per Second value. When results are saved or replaced, update the name on the graph if appropriate. Registered users can change the number of repetitions of the benchmark tests or the drive being tested. Allow Registered Users to change and set their own benchmark options for each test. For example, the number of files to create, the size of files to create, the number of integer operations to time, etc, etc. No other benchmarking program I know of provides this level of control or flexibility or customisability to the user. Automatically save any un-saved data when exiting the program - under the name 'Auto-Save'. (35,420 lines of code / comments.) 1.2 20-Nov-2002 Add in a "Copy Graph to Windows Clipboard" option under the "Edit" menu. Add in a "Copy Results Data to Windows Clipboard" option under the "Edit" menu. Fix units of graph for disk speed rates : they are KB/Sec not MB/Sec. (40,969 lines of code / comments.) 1.3 11-Dec-2002 Add File Menu options to enable the user to create or delete shortcuts to this program on the Desktop, StartMenu, etc - you can do this *ANY* time - not just when the program is being installed. (All Windows programs should provide this functionality). Sadly, not everyone uses a full stop as the decimal point. For example, some countries allow you to use a comma as both the decimal point and the thousands separator. In these cases, would this number "123,456,789" be 123,456.789 or 123,456,789 or something else ? God help us !!! ;-/ So, if you have a "." as the Decimal Separator, and save some benchmark results and then change your Windows Regional Settings so that comma is the Decimal Separator, and try and load the benchmark results then the you will get "invalid number" errors. To avoid these errors, I now force all data to be loaded and saved with a particular format with "." as the decimal point, and "," as the thousand's separator. By doing this, benchmark results saved on one computer can be used on any other computer - regardless of its regional settings. (Thanks for reporting this problem Solutor - Greetings to you in Hungary ! :) Add Solutor's PC into the benchmark results database (distributed with this program) : AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 256MB 266MHz DDR RAM, Maxtor 60GB 7200 HDD, Inno3D GF4 Ti 4200 128MB, Windows 2000 Pro, and Overclocked from 1533 to 1673MHz. (53,683 lines of code / comments.) 1.3f 3-Sep-2007 This program is now FREEWARE - see "Freeware Information" above. If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then it is possibly an old version. The latest version of this program is available from my WEB page - see below. Mike "Moose" O'Malley ____________________________________________________ Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. WEB: http://move.to/moose ____________________________________________________