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News archive 2002

[31.12.2002]I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! May the new year be very successful and prosperous for you! Thank you for your support throughout the year, and, of course, don't forget to visit BenchmarkHQ in 2003!

Happy New Year!


Dacris Software has updated its roadmap! Now it contains the exact release dates.
[30.12.2002]CPUCooL 7.1.7 has been released! New in this version: new Athlon detection, new SIS chipset detection, PLL's added.

Dacris Software has released the Technology Preview version of XMark.NET 2003! Beta release is scheduled for February.
[29.12.2002]RubyMicro Software has updated its DriverMAGIC Professional Edition to version 1.1.2! DriverMAGIC is a complete software package designed to make managing computer drivers a quick, easy and simple process.
[28.12.2002]Resource Patrol 4.0 has been released! It has a lot of minor bugfixes and improvements.

BenchmarkHQ Sandra 2003 (2003.1.9.31) is available for download! It contains some minor improvements and a few bugfixes.

[27.12.2002]Test In One Minute has been updated to version 1.53!

[26.12.2002]Monitor Test 5.1 has been released!

[25.12.2002]AltiPCI, a program that displays detailed PCI statistics of all devices in a Windows NT/2000/XP Pro X86 based system, has been added!

[24.12.2002]HostMonitor 3.56 has been released! New in this version: new property "reset statistics daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly", improved tests, etc.

[23.12.2002]IPMonitor 4.6 (Build 1223) is available for download! It includes alert message notification and other additional features.

NetInfo 4.6 (Build 1223) is available for download! It includes improved user interface and Save As Web Page feature.

WCPUID 3.1a has been released! It includes support for newest chipsets, modified system info, etc.

FRAPS 1.9C has been released! Changes are as follows: full DirectX 9 support, third party programs can now get access to Fraps data in realtime, the info available includes the game name, current FPS and number of frames rendered since the game began.

[22.12.2002]WebServer Stress Tool 6 has been released! New features include: three new test types (TIME: runs the test for a specified time - even hours or days; CLICKS: runs test until all users have reached a specified number of mouse clicks; RAMP: the number of users increases steadily), enhanced user simulation, enhanced logging and reporting, etc.

[21.12.2002]System Information, another small utility that provides you with essential information about your computer, has been added!

[20.12.2002]AutoBench 3D 2.0 Beta has been updated! Now it supports Doom 3 (leaked E3 version) and the final version of UT2003!

Quick Bench 1.1 has been released! This version includes some minor improvements and bugfixes.

Screen Mask, a small utility helping you to check your monitor color settings, has been added!

[19.12.2002]AIDA 1.73 has been released! This version supports the latest hardware, including AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800, chipset information for ALi M1644, Intel E7205, E7505, SiS 650GL, SiS 650GX, VIA Apollo Pro266(T), etc.

[18.12.2002]HeavyLoad 2.0 has been released! New in this version: chart, toolbar and About dialog, possibilty to select test procedures individually, sreensaver and power saving are disabled during the test.

TerraTec Electronic announced the integration of Futuremark Corporation's Performance Analyzer as a branded service to their worldwide clients and site visitors. The service enables TerraTec's clients and shoppers to view their system components and see how much more performance their PC can get with higher performing TerraTec Mystify graphics cards. This is the first time that Futuremark's Performance Analyzer has been localized and branded exclusively for a German speaking audience. In order to use this unique service, please visit: http://www.terratec.de.
[17.12.2002]PC Information 1.50 has been released! It has a wealth of new features and improvements, including: new pages - Processor, Operating system, Internet, AutoRun and Licences, chassis type and role of computer detection, processor's serial number, family, model, stepping and vendor signature display, serial numbers and sizes for hard disks, detailed OS page that includes hot fixes and page file information, list of AutoRun programs, etc.

[16.12.2002]Windows PC Benchmarker, a program that enables you to benchmark and evaluate the performance of various selected aspects of your computer, has been added!

[15.12.2002]Test In One Minute has been updated to version 1.52!

[14.12.2002]TaskInfo 2003 5.0.0.80 Beta 3 is available for download! It contains some minor improvements and bugfixes.

[13.12.2002]AIDA32 3.20 has been released! As being the last AIDA32 release of the year it fixes a lot of errors found in the features implemented earlier this year. Besides, it includes some small surprises too: for corporate users it offers a yet again extended audit statistics; for the home users it provides the detection of the latest hardware components and support for the new nForce2 chipset, also it extends the list of reference systems on the memory benchmarks pages. The following languages are now supported: Czech, Finnish, Romanian, Slovenian.

AutoBench 3D 2.0 Beta has been updated! Now the program has its own installer/uninstaller and contains several bugfixes.

System Analyser 5.2t has been released! New in this version: Hyper-Threading detection, SiS550x processors detection, Intel E7505 Chipset support, detection of more than 200 new PCI/AGP devices, minor improvements and bugfixes, etc.

[12.12.2002]FreshDiagnose 5.30 has been released! This version contains a new module: BIOS.

Test In One Minute has been updated to version 1.51!

[11.12.2002]MadOnion.com announced today that it has changed its company name to Futuremark Corporation. The goal of the name change is to leverage the strength of the 3DMark and PCMark product lines and to align its corporate and product brand identities. Futuremark Corporation will continue to be the leading provider of computer performance analysis software and services to its established corporate and end-user customer bases.You may recall that MadOnion.com was initially founded as Futuremark Corp. and then renamed.

Nero CD Speed 1.02 has been released! New in this version: CD-R Info function replaced by Disc Info which can show information about DVD recordables, Advanced DAE Error test with support for special test discs and CD Speed DAE test disc, support for TDK 90min CD-R, maximum overburn capacity can be set for the write transfer rate test, bugfixes.

[10.12.2002]Dr.Hardware 2003 4.0.0e (English version) has been released! Just like the German version, the English one include the following features: new Windows information sub category: Internet Explorer, improved detection of Athlon and Duron CPUs, chipset details for Intel 845 GE and 845 PE chipsets, detects many new SiS, Via Apollo/Pro Savage and NVidia nForce chipsets, support for ASB100, Sis950 and IT87 mainbaord sensor, support for Intel 845 GV chipset, detects many more PCI vendors and several hundred of new PCI devices, new benchmark results (Intel P-4 2,53GHz, Athlon XP 2400+), bugfixes. As always, the new version is available for download directly from BenchmarkHQ!

AutoBench 3D 2.0 Beta has been updated! This release fixes several bugs.

CPUBENCH 4.0.0.6 has been released! It has a few new tests, an updated interface, etc.

[09.12.2002]ASTRA 4.10 has been released! Here's what's new: DMI/SMBIOS support, detection of Intel Celeron (Northwood) and Intel Xeon MP (Gallatin) processors, multiprocessor support, AGP 8x support, detection of new Intel processors feature: Context ID, network computer name detection from DOS, added 349 vendors of PCI devices and 172 models, 12 monitor vendors and 168 new models, 1 vendor of PnP devices and 19 models, bugfixes, etc.

FRAPS 1.9B has been released! Changes are as follows: Geforce owners can now capture DirectX video as fast as OpenGL video, clipping has been implemented for applications running in a window with odd dimensions, bugfixes.

Resource Patrol 4.0 RC3 is available for download! Some of the new features are as follows: CPU multiplier detection, VIA/Cyrix CPUs identification, detailed information on logical drives, Windows installation date detection, real time CPU performance evaluation, a host of bugfixes, and more!

[08.12.2002]HostMonitor 3.50 has been released! New in this version: new HTTP test, redesigned "full screen" chart, Compact and Custom HTML report types, etc.

Dr.Hardware 2003 4.0.0d (German version) has been released! New features include: Internet Explorer Information page, detailed information about Intel 845 GE and 845 PE, detection of the latest SiS, Via Apollo/Pro Savage and NVidia nForce chipsets, support for Intel 845 GV, etc. English version of the program is expected within a week.
[07.12.2002]FCPUID 0.00 Beta 26 is available for download! Here's what's new: support for Intel mobile Celeron "Northwood" and Xeon 0.13 micron process, detection of Pentium 4 on 533 MHz bus, FSB speed detection, bugfixes, etc.

[06.12.2002]MetaBench 0.92 is available for download! New features include: 9 new tests, Hyper-Threaded compliant, SSE2 compliant, bugfixes.

DU Meter 3.03 (Build 110) has been released! This version introduces multi-language support and is available in English, Spanish, French and Russian.

[05.12.2002]HMonitor 4.1.2.1 has been released! New in this version: Nvidia nForce2 SMBus support, restored NT4 driver's compatibility, bugfixes.

QuickBench 7.0, a program that allows to quickly benchmark your system, has been added! Thanks to Quickbench!

[04.12.2002]TaskInfo 2003 5.0.0.78 Beta 2 is available for download! It contains a few bugfixes.

PC Wizard, a powerful system information utility, has been added!

[03.12.2002]Alchemy Eye 4.3 has been released! Here's what's new: NNTP server monitoring, several bugfixes.

VCool 1.8 Beta (Public Build 10) has been released! New in this version: support for VIA KT400, transparency option for the mini windows (NT/W2K/XP only), a "save state" entry to the mini window menu, bugfixes.

[02.12.2002]TaskInfo 2003 5.0.0.77 Beta 2 is available for download! It has some minor improvements and bugfixes.

Test In One Minute, a program that tests overall performance of a computer, has been added!

[01.12.2002]At last, we're changing our poll! The last one ended like this:
Which type of monitor do you have?
  • CRT - 81.9%
  • LCD - 16.2%
  • Other - 1.8%
You can always find these results at their permanent address.
Now, here's a new question: How fast is your CD burner (CD-R)? (Here I mean CD-R burning speed, not CD-RW). Please, vote!

[30.11.2002]I've just uploaded an updated version of BenchmarkHQ Sandra 2003 (version number 2003.1.9.28)! It contains a few minor changes and the Russian installer.

Click to enlargeDid you know... Benchmark / XO Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon / 94 Proof. Medium-amber color; deep-roasted nut and caramel nose with subtle rancio notes; full, deep flavors, great balance, creamy texture; a stylish Bourbon with good length. [Sazerac Co., Inc.]

[29.11.2002]FRAPS 1.9A has been released! Changes are as follows: the text "REC" is shown on screen while capturing videos of games, DirectX capture speed has been improved when recording 32-bit movies, DirectInput8 is now used for hotkeys, bugfixes, the option for gamma correction of images has been removed.

AIDA32 Preview version 3.135 is available for download! It includes nVIDIA nForce2 support, extended support for nVIDIA nForce, Finnish language module, a lot of fixes for detection of the latest and some old hardware components.
XMark.NET 2002 Second Edition has been released! This update will add full support for .NET 1.1 and fix bugs found in the service pack of XMark.NET. The patch is available for XMark.NET original ("Dacris Benchmarks .NET") and XMark.NET SP1. You can use the Look for Updates feature in XMark.NET to update. There is no method of updating manually. To do so, you should download and install the full package again.

[28.11.2002]BenchOne III release is expected by Christmas! The new version will include a System Information feature, 11 test algorithms, and more.

StatWin Professional 5.3 Final has been released!

[27.11.2002]HMonitor 4.1.1.2 has been released! New in this version: support for VIA KT333, KT400, P4X400 chipsets, VIA VT8235 southbridge, SMSC LPC47M10x, LPC47M13x, LPC47M14x Super I/O chips, full support for Intel boards with ADM1025/LPC47 sensors, and more!

HD_Speed 1.1.0.27 has been released! We have no information on changes at the moment.

TestLAB 2003, a multifunctional system utility that provides detailed information about configuration, tests the performances of the PC's components, etc., has been added!

[26.11.2002]Read our new review, this time focused on CD-R Diagnostic!

The author of OpenGL Stars is currently planning to release a new program called EarthGL! It is meant to test mainly the Transformation and Lightning subsystem. The release is expected shortly after Christmas. There's also a screenshot available.

[25.11.2002]RightMark Audio Analyzer 4.3 has been released! New features include: adjustable frequency of calibration and sync tones, adjustable amplitude and frequency of THD and IMD test signals, "Subtraction of frequency responses" option, minor bugfixes.

[24.11.2002]Mandelmark, another CPU benchmark has been added!

[23.11.2002]A new preview version of AIDA32 will be released next week! It will include nVidia nForce2 support and some other improvements.

CPUCooL 7.1.6 has been released! New in this update: SIS detection working, server error fixed.

[22.11.2002]According to www.cdspeed2000.com, Nero CD Speed 1.02 will be released soon! This version includes an advanced DAE Error test function, another new feature is the Disc Info function which replaces the CD-R Info function. Now you can also see information about recordable DVD discs.

PassMark KeyboardTest 2.0 has been released! New in this version: it is now possible for users to add their own keyboard layouts, up to 20 different keyboard layouts can be loaded at the same time, support for Windows XP look and feel.

[21.11.2002]Paessler GmbH has released WebServer Stress Tool V6 Prerelease! It contains a wealth of new features and improvements, including: three new test types (TIME: runs the test for a specified time - even hours or days; CLICKS: runs test until all users have reached a specified number of mouse clicks; RAMP: the number of users increases steadily), enhanced user simulation, enhanced logging and reporting, etc.
PCI32, a port of the PCI program to "true" win32, has been added!

[20.11.2002]PCI 0.48 (The PCI System information & Exploration tool) has been released! New in this version: support for PCI v2.3 standard, more decoding of PCI-X capability info, more decoding of type 1 headers (PCI bridges), bugfixes, etc.

AutoBench 3D 2.0 Beta has been released! This version includes a settings window and a few bugfixes.

[19.11.2002]ScienceMark 2.0 Beta version 17112002 is available for download! The new version provides multithreaded optimizations for the Primordia benchmark. Give it a try on a Hyperthreading or multiprocessing enabled PC.

CPU RightMark Beta RC2 has been released! New in this release: XML Batch implemented, Save/Load is available.

[18.11.2002]Want to know a little bit more about the latest version of Sandra2003? Read our review named "Sandra 2003: What's new?" And don't forget to say what you think in our forum!

SynthMARK 2003 (also know as SynthMARK Online) will be available very early next year, the beta will be released before Christmas, featuring online systems, world rankings, CD-ROM benchmarks, HDD Benchmark Read-Write, RAM benchmarks, FPU benchmarks, Predication benchmarks, scientific & compression benchmarks, and much more!
Thanks to RubyMicro Software!

SynthMark 2003 Logo


[17.11.2002]AleGr MemTest 2.0 has been released! This version is now able to run under Windows!

Recently overclockers.com published an article titled "Hyp(er)ing A Benchmark", which says that Intel's "Hyper-Threading will put PIV Sandra scores significantly above AMD's Sandra scores". You can visit overclockers.com to learn the full story.
I asked C. Adrian Silasi, the author of Sandra, to comment on this situation. And here's his comment:
"Sandra has always been about "what can be done by optimising for a technology" since back in end 1998 when the first 3D Now! test was introduced. We work with all manufacturers to support the latest technologies and show what can be achieved by implementing them.
Naturally programs that are not optimised (as most are not for HT) will not show much benefit; it was the same with 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2 and so on. This is just history repeating itself."


[16.11.2002]Ekaterinburg-based Token S.E.B. has released a new version of "Token CompuLib", a computer inventory and asset management tool! The new version supports AIDA32 INI format reports as a source for inventory. Currently, Token CompuLib supports only Russian interface. Learn more (in Russian)...

CPU-Z 1.15 has been released! This version corrects some bugs, and adds several new features: Hyper-Threading technology support, including logical CPU identification, support for i845PE/GE, VIA KT400, detection of the sensor chip model, new "ghost" mode.

[15.11.2002]RealStorm Benchmark 1.10 has been released! Some features of this version are: more than 15% faster raytracing engine, bilinear texture filtering, 7 times faster anti-aliasing with higher quality, etc.

FreshDiagnose 5.20 has been released! This version contains a new module - Windows Accessibility.

[14.11.2002]Dr.Hardware 2003 is at the beta testing stage now! If you want to participate, head on to the official page for more information on this (in german).

AIDA32 Preview version 3.122 is available for download! It provides advanced support for high-end workstations, servers, and portable computers equipped with Transmeta processors, includes new language modules (Romanian, Czech and Slovenian), fixes some bugs.For the Enterprise Edition the new preview version is also available via NetUpdate.

[13.11.2002]BenchOne II, a CPU benchmark, has been added! Thanks to Quickbench!

CPU RightMark Beta RM2 RC1 has been released! This version supports Hyper-Threading Technology and SMP/CMP. Also pay attention to the updated EULA.

[12.11.2002]Another minor Drive Health update: version 2.0.29!

Drive Health 2.0.28 is available for download! It fixes a few bugs.

iiyama Monitor Test has been added!

[11.11.2002]SIGuardian 1.6 Beta (build 236) has been released! It contains a new function - immediate system hibernation in case of overheating, bugfixes, etc.

[10.11.2002]X-VESA, an utility that allows to diagnose and inspect a VESA display adapter, has been added!

[09.11.2002]Dacris Software has updated its roadmap, which now includes Q4 2003 information! Want to find out what the future holds? Head on to Dacris Software Roadmap.

[08.11.2002]SiSoftware Sandra 2003 (BenchmarkHQ Edition) is now available for download!

eTestingLabs has released new versions of some of its flagship products, including:
  • Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 with new and updated applications (Adobe Photoshop 7.0, Adobe Premiere 6.0, Macromedia Director 8.5.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, Microsoft Windows MediaTM Encoder 7.01.00.3055, Netscape 6.2.3, NewTek's LightWave 7.5, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 6.0).
  • i-Bench 4.0 with new tests (Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) test, Real9, Windows Media 8, Sorenson Video 3).
  • Business Winstone 2002 1.0.1 with bug fixes.
As always, you can order those benchmarks online using the order form.

[07.11.2002]More than a week ago 7Byte has released its new product - MetaBench. Now Douglas Hall takes a closer look at the program!
Read our review!

HostMonitor 3.44 has been released! This version includes 3 new tests: UDP, NTP and RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service).

CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 351! It fixes a bug that affected a very small number of drives and prevented the program from starting if you had one of these drives.

[06.11.2002]SiSoft Sandra 2003 has been released! The most notable new features are as follows:
  • Gauge overall system in a flash with the combined performance index wizard to quickly gauge overall system performance and compare and contrast upgrading options.
  • Supports the latest technologies (AGP 3, Hyper-Threading), chipsets (Intel 7500, 845GL/GV/GE/PE; SiS 648, 655, 746; VIA KT400, P4X400), controllers (SiS 963; VIA 8233A/C, 8235/L), Clock generator ICs and devices on the market.
  • Extensive reference results: over 50 different reference results from legacy to cutting edge systems. Can save you own and combine with your own results.
  • Burn-in wizard: improved monitoring options, can see in real-time the changes in system state as burn-in progresses.
  • Cooling system information: Can estimate thermal resistance to determine the performance of the cooling system, thus ensuring proper cooling for the processor(s).
And more! At the moment you can download Sandra 2003 cusomized by our friends from Tech-PC.

T4U-Toaster, a CPU stress-test has been added! Thanks to Quickbench, which is online again!

MEMORyAL 3.4 has been released!

Serial Device Tester 1.5.0.13 has been released! It contains minor improvements and bugfixes.

[05.11.2002]AIDA32 3.10 has been released! New features include: FireWire devices list, extended audit statistics and motherboard database, support for some new chipsets and sensors, new language modules (Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish). In the upcoming versions of AIDA32 more language modules will be introduced. The translation to Catalan, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian languages is already in progress.

UT2K3 Demo Benchmarking 1.0 has been released! It has a few improvements, a GUI and is "super-simple to use".

Analyzer XP 2.30 Final has been released! New in this version: Windows XP styles support, more functional "Autostart", "System Information" and "DeInstallation" utilities, improved interface, several new tweaks, etc. Windows 2000 is no longer supported.

[04.11.2002]Drive Health 2.0.25 is available for download! It has a few minor improvements and bugfixes.

TaskInfo 2003 5.0.0.73 Beta is available for download! New in this release: Alarms from System Tray about low resorces or leaks, "CPU Graph" column, "View/Show Processes Tree", new tools - "Free RAM Fast", "Free RAM Slow", "Flush File Cache", "Clear Clipboard", "Check for Update", and so on. Further details are available at www.iarsn.com.

Nero InfoTool 1.03 has been released! Here's what's new: added ASPI information, show all available read and write speeds, improved DVD+R/+RW read support detection, added support for UltraSpeed CD-RW, improved data mode detection, added Operating System version number and Service Pack information, etc.

[03.11.2002]CPUCooL 7.1.5 has been released! New in this update: SIS detection rework, SMART rework, SIS745 cooling included (working!), PLL's added.

GoldMemory 6.45 beta is now available to registered users! The new version includes new design and testing kernel, new internal tests to improve errors detection, improved benchmark code, bugfixes, etc. It is not known when the new version will become available to the public. To learn more about registration, please visit www.mtsoftware.cz.

[02.11.2002]SpeedFan 4.07 has been released! It has a wealth of new features and improvements, including: support for LM90, LM85C, ICS9250-37 (ASUS P4T and IWILL P4R533-N), SiS648, VT8235, MAX1668 and MAX1805, SiS651, LM92, new info in report about the HDD, and so on. For more information visit the official page.

PassMark SoundCheck 2.0 has been released! New in this version: ability to display both the incoming and outgoing waveforms at the same time, ability to display both the incoming and outgoing spectrum analysis at the same time, 3D positional sound test, 3D effects test, information window about DirectSound and Windows sound capabilities, display of CPU load, etc.

[01.11.2002]StatWin Professional 5.3 Beta 4 is available for download!

Alchemy Eye 4.2 has been released! This version contains some minor improvements.

[31.10.2002]TuffTEST Lite has been updated to version 1.53 (00442)!

CPU RightMark Beta has been released! Since this is just a beta, it has a lot of limitations. For more information, please see the official page.

[30.10.2002]Motherboard Monitor 5.2.1.0 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features, such as: support for VIA VT8235 smbus, AMD1027, ITE8722F, Asus Mozart2, MAX6651, ISA dump added to system info, SMB dump added to system info, PCI dump added system info, Passive mode FTP option added, bugfixes, and more!

AutoBench 3D 1.0 Beta has been updated! New in this release: support for SPECviewperf 6 and 7.0, support for all versions of Quake 3, the interface now in English, Quake 3 'q3config.cfg' backup and restore.

Due to the delays in language module development the release of the next official version of AIDA32 (v3.10) is rescheduled to the first week of November. The upcoming week will be spent on extending databases and building in support for more sensors. Besides, it is very likely that the new version will include support for the following languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian and Ukrainian.
For more information, please visit www.aida32.hu.

While nVidia is about to announce its new nv30 chip on November 18, Vulpine GmbH has released a patch for GLMark 1.1p, which makes the program compatible with nv30!
[29.10.2002]MetaBench, a benchmarking program being developed by 7Byte (the author of Hot CPU Tester), has been added!

[28.10.2002]Alchemy Eye, a network monitoring tool has been added!

[27.10.2002]Drive Health 2.0.23 is available for download! It contains minor improvements.

The forthcoming release of Motherboard Monitor most likely will include support for Mozart 2 (used on the new Asus boards) and nForce 2. You can learn some more information at the official site.

[26.10.2002]As you know, Memtest86 is a stand alone, OS independent memory test, which creates a bootable diskette. Now you can also download ISO images suitable for creating a bootable Memtest86 CDROM!
[25.10.2002]Drive Health 2.0.21 has been released! New in this version: advanced drive temperature control: now you can set temperature threshold when Drive Health should notify you about disk drive overheating, Drive Health now correctly supports upto 20 IDE drives installed, bugfixes, and so on.

Active SMART 2.3 Beta is available for download! It has a wealth of new features and improvements. Most notable are as follows: temperature support for IDE and SCSI drives, new information in the SMART status file (SMART Info tab) for SCSI disks, new button "Check SMART now" to check disks manually, support of Windows XP themes, Active SMART from now on uses internal SMTP client and doesn't require MAPI to send email, bugfixes, etc.

[24.10.2002]Dacris Software has announced a minor feature update for XMark.NET. It will be offered as a free patch and is scheduled for general availability by the end of this year.

[23.10.2002]HostMonitor 3.40 has been released! Here's what's new: new test - Script, which will allow you to create your own tests using different script languages such as Visual Basic Script or Java Script, improved SNMP and Performance Counter tests, etc.

CPUCooL 7.1.4 has been released! New in this update: SIS (646/648) chipsets added, nForce cooling added, VIA KT400 chipset added, minor bug fixes.

System Speed Test 4.76 has been released! New features include: detection of the latest processors, PCI/AGP devices, memory bandwidth detection, DDR identification, bugfixes, etc.

[22.10.2002]X-ATA 1.42 has been released! New in this version: two new info pages for ATAPI/ASPI devices: 'Power condition' and 'Time-out and protect', several improvements and bugfixes.

AIDA32 Preview version 3.046 is available for download! It includes the Danish language module, dynamic language module support and MS Access 97 database schema.
[21.10.2002]Intel has released the Chipset Identification Utility 1.05, which allows to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard.
Download the Intel Chipset Identification Utility 1.05

[20.10.2002]AIDA16 1.72 has been released! Besides the new features the main goal of this version is still the simplification: several pages and some outdated and rarely used detection routines have been removed. Next releases of AIDA16 will follow this path, but in the same time the hardware detection engine itself will remain competitive and up-to-date.
Due to the shrinking user community of AIDA16 the author decided to cancel the development of the 2nd generation of AIDA16. Upcoming releases of AIDA16 will not deliver major improvements. All the resources will be used for the development of AIDA32 and its supporting projects. Development of AIDA16 will be discontinued around May 2003.

[19.10.2002]busTRACE Technologies has released a new version of its flagship product - busTRACE 2003! The program allows you to capture and analyze I/O activity going on between your Windows PC and its storage class peripherals. It supports IDE, ATAPI, ATA, Serial ATA, SCSI, USB, USB 2.0, 1394, Fibre Channel, and RAID!
Learn more about busTRACE!

[18.10.2002]Cache Burst 32 0.90.91 has been released! New in this version: memory peak bandwidth detection, latest CPUs identification, minor improvements and bugfixes.

FreshDiagnose 5.10 has been released! This version contains a new module - "Start-Up".

[17.10.2002]RealStorm has published a couple of pictures from its new benchmark, which should be released before Christmas! Further details about the benchmark itself are currently unavailable.

PassMark MonitorTest 2.0 (Build 1002) is available for download! It is a minor update.

[16.10.2002]A very early pre-alpha build (build 6465) of XMark.NET 2003 is out! Currently, no features are functional. You can download it from Dacris Software.

[15.10.2002]AIDA32 now supports the French language! Download the latest preview version 3.041!

Serial Device Tester 1.5.0.8 has been released! It contains minor improvements and bugfixes, including support for COM ports 5 - 6.

[14.10.2002]Nero CD Speed 1.02 is expected to be released pretty soon! This version will have a new test to check the error correction capabilities of drives when extracting audio.

[13.10.2002]The latest preview version of AIDA32, which contains 6 different language modules (two new modules: Dutch and Italian) is now available for download! Development of the Czech, Danish, French and Spanish language modules are already in progress.
[12.10.2002]Analyzer XP 2.30 Beta 2 is available for download! It contains several improvements (such as the improved SysInfo module, etc.) and bugfixes.

NetScanTools 4.3 has been released! New in this version: updated TimeSync server list, improved ping and traceroute packet post analysis, Chargen, Daytime, Echo and Quote have been merged into a single Simple Services tab, bugfixes, etc.

[11.10.2002]System Analyser 5.2s has been released! This version includes the following innovations: detection of Intel Itanium 2 and Celeron P4, AMD Hammer recognition improved, support for HPT372A UDMA/ATA133 RAID Controller, detection of a host of new PCI/AGP devices, including ATi Radeon 9000, Radeon 9700, etc.

RightMark Audio Analyzer 4.2 has been released! New features include: Subwoofer testing mode, WDM drivers switch (on/off), better stability, some minor improvements.

[10.10.2002]The forthcoming release AIDA32 will have the following new features: possibility to disable icons loading, identification and partial support of nVIDIA nForce2 chipset, GPU information for NV18, NV18GL, NV28, NV28GL, M9, M9-GL, and a few bugfixes. Now you can download the current preview version 3.033.

HostMonitor 3.32 has been released! New in this version: improved SNMP and Performance Counter tests, several bugfixes.

[09.10.2002]NetInfo 4.5 (Build 1009) is available for download! We have no information on changes.

RightMark Gathering is planning to release a new test, called RightMark 3D (RM3D)! RM3D will be meant for objective performance measurement of 3D accelerators. It will consist of three parts: synthetic tests and two game tests based on a real game engine. These game tests will use the same textures, models and scripts, but different APIs: OpenGL 1.4/2.0 and DirectX 9. RM3D will be available shortly after the release of DirectX 9.

[08.10.2002]MadOnion.com today announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA Corporation, which will result in enhanced customer support experience and drive down costs for NVIDIA system builders. By utilizing MadOnion's expertise in PC information collection and processing, NVIDIA now offers its system builders the ability to collect critical data on individual PC configurations -- before spending time with the end-user. MadOnion's service enables real-time capture of respondents' hardware and software configurations. This results in substantial cost savings for customer support organizations. Until now, attempts to determine reliable configuration data by asking end-users resulted in increased time on the phone and higher customer support costs.
Read the full press release.
HWiNFO 4.87 and HWiNFO32 1.21 have been released! Most of their new features are common for both applications. Some of them are as follows: enhanced support for VIA KT400, P4X400 and K8T400 chipsets, added recognition of VIA K8N400, K8M400, KM400, P4M400 and P4X800 chipsets, support for DDR400 and DDR533 memory clock, recognition of several new RADEON 9000 cards, detection of nVidia NV30 and NV30GL chips, recognition of Intel E8870 and nVidia nForce2 chipsets, recognition and support of Intel 845GE, 845PE and 845GV chipsets, detection of Intel Banias processor, updated detection of Mobile AMD Athlon XP and Mobile Duron processors, updated detection of higher AMD clock multipliers, etc. Additionally, HWiNFO32 has the following innovations: report of CPU Update Revision ID (Intel only), S.M.A.R.T. status report, and more!

StatWin Professional 5.3 Beta 3 is available for download!

MEMORyAL 3.2.1 has been released! Information on changes is unavailable.

[07.10.2002]Nero CD Speed 1.01 has been released! Changes include: added support for CD Extra/Mixed Mode CD's, support for UltraSpeed CD-RW's, small improvements and bugfixes.

IPMonitor, a network monitoring tool has been added!

[06.10.2002]CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 348! It contains some minor improvements.

NetInfo 4.5 is now available for download. It includes improved Finger and Whois tools and other additional features.

RubyMicro Software has released DriverMAGIC Professional Edition 1.1.0! DriverMAGIC Professional Edition is very powerful & complete driver software package. It gives the user a range of exciting possibilities with their drivers, including a very intelligent driver search engine, which can match your hardware to the drivers on the Internet.
Another feature is the DriverXPRESS client, which will allow you to make your own customized driver installer EXE files. DriverMAGIC Pro has been designed on an explorer style interface, giving new users quick control over the most powerful features with one click.
DriverMAGIC Pro gives users the ability to effortlessly install, import, export, delete, cripple, restore, extract, rebuild, compress and query their computer drivers.

[05.10.2002]UT2K3 Demo Benchmarking, an utility developed by [H]ard|OCP, which benchmarks UT2K3 with the same visual settings as others, has been added!

[04.10.2002]Disk Bench 2.1.1.0 has been released! New in this version: rewritten in VB.net, can now create files, not only copy them, Windows XP style.

AIDA32 3.02 has been released to fix some bugs found in the previous version! This version also includes the German language module.

[03.10.2002]FRAPS 1.9 has been released! Changes are as follows: fixed the colour of the counter in some OpenGL games, fixed screen capturing for Win2K users with DX8 games, added the ability to capture gameplay to AVI movie files, added the option to include the framerate counter on screenshots.

A new patch for Motherboard Monitor 5.2.0.0 has been released! This patch updates the program to version 5.2.0.6, which has a few more fixes. More information is available at mbm.livewiredev.com.

Download the patch (281 Kb).

[02.10.2002]AutoBench3D has been updated! Now it supports GL Mark and has a new command-line parameter - 'q' (less messages). The current version will expire on October 10 (thereafter it will suggest downloading a new version).
Download AutoBench3D (beta).

RightMark Audio Analyzer 4.1 has been released! New features include: Acoustics Testing mode ("swept sine" test of frequency response/THD, support of SAC files), several minor improvements.

FCPUID 0.00 Beta 25 is available for download! Here's what's new: SMP systems support, AMD Athlon 2400+ and 2600+ detection, bugfixes, etc.

According to the official AIDA32 site, AIDA32 3.00 denies to work when during command-line report creation there're no report profiles selected. To fix this issue, download the latest preview version.
AIDA32 3.02 will be released on October 4.

HostMonitor 3.30 has been released! New in this version: 2 new tests - RAS (allows to check RAS server using dial-up connection) and Performance Counter, "Export to text file" feature (allows to export tests' parameters to a text file), several improvements. Further information is available at the official site.

Advanced Administrative Tools 5.50 has been released! This is a stable version, it includes a few internal improvements and bugfixes.

[01.10.2002]ScienceMark 2.0 Beta version 300902 is available for download! It contains a few bugfixes.

AIDA32 3.00 has been released! It has a wealth of new features and improvements. Here are just some of them: software licenses list, digital product ID detection, BIOS manufacturer info, CPU cooler manufacturer info, memory module manufacturer info, audio adapter manufacturer info, network adapter manufacturer info, extended system summary, advanced support of Compaq, Dell, IBM computers, better support of Win95 and WinNT, and more!
More information is available at the official site.

[30.09.2002]OpenGL Geometry Benchmark, a program that tests the geometry Transform & Lighting power of miscellaneous video cards under OpenGL has been added!

Monitor Test 5 has been released! This version has 6 new tests. According to the author, the next version of the program, which will be released in the near future, will contain a few tests for LCDs and the interface will become multilingual.

[29.09.2002]WCPUID 3.1 has been released! This version supports newest processors, chipsets, etc.

[28.09.2002]CPU Identification has been updated to version 1.2c! Information on changes is unavailable at the moment.

CpuiDMax 2 (Build 104) has been released! This version supports newest CPUs and contains a support page!

[27.09.2002]AutoBench3D has been updated (now it is at the "beta" stage)! This version fixes several bugs, including the one caused problems under Windows 98. This version will expire on October 5.
Download AutoBench3D (beta).

The forthcoming version of AIDA32 will be released in three different variants! New designation of the "classic" AIDA32 will change to "AIDA32 Enterprise Edition" and will include all the already well-known features in the regular appearance and quality. The second variant - "AIDA32 Personal Edition" will target home and hobby users, and will miss some functions required for professional use e.g. it's not capable of audit & audit statistics, database transactions, also a couple of software-related pages are removed from it. The most interesting one is definitely "AIDA32 Network Edition", designed for corporate network managers and administrators. It will include all the professional features of the Enterprise Edition and will fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy disk. Its size shrink is due to removal of the following modules: needless pictures & icons, DirectX information pages, benchmarking and diagnostics functions. Regardless of the product line change, AIDA32 will still remain a free software!

[26.09.2002]RealStorm has released the updated version of the ResultBrowser 1.45 for RealStorm Benchmark. The program's results database has also been renewed.

Analyzer XP 2.30 Beta has been released! This version contains several improvements, including: Windows XP styles support, more functional "Autostart" and "DeInstallation" utilities, improved interface, etc.

[25.09.2002]NVIDIA World sent us word about their new program called AutoBench3D! It is intended for automated 3D benchmarking using a number of specified 3D Benchmarks. At the moment, the program supports Quake 3 (early versions, up to 1.17 inclusive), 3DMark2001 SE Pro, Unreal Tournament 2003 (leaked version). Just run the main file and AutoBench3D will scan for these applications, run them and log all results. The current version of AutoBench3D (which is "alpha") will expire on September 30. Thereafter you will have to download an updated version.

Download AutoBench3D (alpha) (97 Kb).

A new patch for Motherboard Monitor 5.2.0.0 has been released! This patch adds support for SiS smbus, ADM1027, etc. More information is available at mbm.livewiredev.com.

Download the patch (281 Kb).

[24.09.2002]A new version of CPUBench2002 is scheduled for release in October. It will include 2 new benchmark modules (D3D Software rendering benchmark and RayTracing benchmark), bugfixes, etc.

[23.09.2002]Advanced Administrative Tools 5.50 BETA 2 is available for download! This release has a few minor improvements.

MyCPU 1.13g has been released! This version has only one change: added some not properly recognized Athlon XPs to the database.

UTMark2003 Alpha 1, an utility that uses the Unreal Tournament 2003 demo to produce a 3D performance index, has been added!
Thanks to Emilio Frangella!

[22.09.2002]Winpulse 1.0.5 is available for download! This update has a few improvements.

[21.09.2002]Drive Health 1.1.10 has been released! New in this version: added information about Hard Disk drive geometry parameters and supported modes/features, improved failure notification engine in Core Service, bugfixes, etc.

Dacris Software has published its 2002-2003 Roadmap! The most interesting points are as follows:
  • XMark .NET 2003 is scheduled for final release in Q1, 2003. It will have a whole lot of new features, such as DirectX 9 support, sound diagnostic test, OpenGL 3D tests, game-like Direct3D tests, and much more! See the official project page for further details.
  • A web portal at www.xmark.net will be established in Q2, 2003 for results browsing, hardware reviews and articles.
  • Q2, 2003. TBD (codename "WMI Explorer), a freeware system information tool.
  • Q3, 2003. SysTest Professional, a professional benchmarking tool for business (system and network administrators) and hardware reviewers will be released.

[20.09.2002]Resource Patrol 4.0 RC1 is available for download! This release has a lot of improvements, including: CPU multiplier detection, VIA/Cyrix CPUs identification, detailed information on logical drives, Windows installation date detection, real time CPU performance evaluation, a host of bugfixes, and more!

FreshDiagnose 5.00 has been released! New in this version: Windows Services module added (only for WinNT/2000/XP), Virtual Device Drivers (VXDs) module added (only for Win 9x/Me).

[19.09.2002]StatWin Professional 5.3 Beta 2 has been released!

CPU Identification, an utility, which will display some information on your processor, has been added!

[18.09.2002]AIDA32 2.34.4 Preview version is available for download! This version's new features include: those I described yesterday, plus the Report Wizard's "little brother", a single-page solution to make an AIDA32 report, ability to display the encrypted serial numbers of later Microsoft products (Digital Product ID). These features will be introduced officially in the v3.00 stable version.

Download AIDA32 2.34.4 Preview!

Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 4.61 has been updated to support the latest Intel processors!

eTesting Labs has released BWS BatteryMark 2002! This version includes Office XP and other updated applications and workloads for the most realistic battery life test. The program no longer support Windows NT 4.0 and requires 128MB of RAM and a 500MHz P-III or better processor. Read a Benchmark Insider story for more information.

HMonitor 4.1.1.1 has been released! New in this version: Winbond W83791D, W83637HF, W83L784R, W83L785R support added, Winbond chips - additional initialization for fan speed reads added, HDD temperatures, bugfixes.

[17.09.2002]A few AIDA32 3.00 screenshots have been published on the official AIDA32 page! The forthcoming release is expected to have the following new features: more language modules (Italian, French, etc.), extended network audit, visual benchmark results, more manufacturer information, and more!
X-ATA 1.41 has been released! This version has a lot of new features and improvements, including: support for Promise PDC20277 ATA/ATAPI controller, ATAPI/ASPI DVD+R devices and media detection in the 'Get device configuration' command, ATAPI/ASPI firmware date detection through the 'Get device configuration' command (MMC-4), bugfixes, etc.

[16.09.2002]HostMonitor 3.26 has been released! This version has a few bugfixes and improvements, including more flexible scheduling.

[15.09.2002]Dacris Software has released a freeware version of Dacris Benchmarks - Dacris Benchmarks Lite, and renamed Dacris Benchmarks .NET - from now on it is called XMark .NET!

[14.09.2002]Advanced Administrative Tools 5.50 BETA is available for download! New features include: the RBL Locator module, a special tool, designed to quickly search for an IP address in DNS-Based spam databases; the Ping option; SysInfo module: HDD Serial, Model and Revision number and geometry info detection, Intel Willamette, Transmeta Crusoe and VIA C3 processors support, memory bank Type, Size and Speed detection, and more!

[13.09.2002]TexBench 1.3 has been released! We have no information on changes at the moment.

Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks .NET SP1 (6.0 Build 6132)! This update fixes bugs and makes a few minor changes to Dacris Benchmarks .NET. Learn more about this release.

A patch for Motherboard Monitor 5.2.0.0 has been released! This patch adds support for VIA VT8235, transparency override option, fixes a few bugs.

Download the patch (276 Kb).

[12.09.2002]PassMark ModemTest 1.2 Build 1008 is available for download! This release fixes several bugs and contains a few improvements.

[11.09.2002]BenchMarX 4.1 has been released! We have no information on changes at the moment. But it is easy to notice a couple of new synthetic benchmarks - Word and Excel.

[10.09.2002]KribiBench 1.1 has been released! The only change in this version is the rendering engine speed. Some models, like city.d in the kribibench pack are now rendered more than two times faster, other models show also a big speed increase.

RealStorm has released the ResultBrowser 1.42! Here's what's new: AMD Athlon XP processors are now named correctly, 3DNow! Extensions added to 'System' Information, SSE setting will be read out with AMD Athlon processors.

[09.09.2002]MBMLog 1.8.3 has been released! MBMLog logs the values of the temperature, fan and voltage sensors of Motherboard Monitor and shows them in several diagrams. New in this release: added passive mode selection for FTP upload, added HDD usage to system usage diagram, history saving is now optional.

[08.09.2002]CPUCooL 7.1.3 has been released! New in this update: new Intel Hub added, SIS chipset 650 added, minor bug fixes.

MemWatcher 4.2 has been released! The program's logging feature now also logs CPU usage.

[07.09.2002]MEMORyAL 3.2 has been updated! Information on changes is unavailable.

[06.09.2002]RealStorm has released the updated version of the ResultBrowser 1.41 for RealStorm Benchmark. The program's results database has also been renewed.

FreeMeter 2.7.4 Build 131 is available for download! It fixes problems with the startup of the email reading plug-in.

[05.09.2002]AIDA32 has been updated to version 2.31! It contains several improvements and fixes some bugs. In particular, this update solves a problem caused Symantec Norton AntiVirus virus database "20020903-005-xxx" to misidentify AIDA32.MEM file as a virus.

StatWin Professional 5.3 Beta has been released!

[04.09.2002]RightMark Audio Analyzer 4.0 has been released! New features of RMAA 4.0 include: test of supported modes, up to 192 kHz, 4 slots for result comparing, User's Manual updated, better stability, etc.

FCPUID 0.00 Beta 24 has been released! This version includes several bugfixes and improvements.

[03.09.2002]RealStorm Benchmark, a program that calculates processor speed and memory performance, has been added!

[02.09.2002]Since the next version of Resource Patrol (4) is at the development stage, RP3 is now free of charge! To register your copy use the following data:
USER: FREE LICENSE
KEY: 0001D89E-0004EB07


PassMark Performance Test 4.0 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements. Some of them are as follows: advanced disk testing with graphing,exporting and CPU utilization, advanced CD/DVD testing with graphing, exporting and CPU utilization, advanced 3D graphics testing for full screen and windowed modes, advanced network bandwidth testing with graphing exporting and CPU utilization, advanced memory bandwidth testing and step size testing with graphing and exporting, replacement of the standard 3D graphics test using DirectX 3 with three new DirectX 8 tests, a new standard test for CD / DVD drive benchmarking has been introduced, much of the internal code has been rewritten to support foreign languages (French, German, Japanese), and more!

[01.09.2002]Hot CPU Tester has been updated to version 3.4.1! The only changes is that now the program not require Windows Accessibility feature installed (OLEACC.DLL).

Nero CD Speed 1.00 has been released! The most notable innovation is that CD Speed and DVD Speed combined into a single program. Besides, the new version includes: Database to load and compare multiple test results, CD-R Info: displays ATIP information of CD-R(W)'s, export results to HTML, full support for 90/99min CD-R's, and more! Learn more about this release at the official homepage.

[30.08.2002]NikNak has been updated to version 7.1.2! This is a minor update to help prevent the NikNak taskbar button staying displayed.

StatWin Standard 5.3 Beta has been released! New in this version: new statistics ("Network: Files" and "Network: Users"), new database format, bugfixes, etc.

[29.08.2002]CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 305! It contains some minor improvements.

ScienceMark 2.0 Beta version 160802 is available for download! Some interesting new features include a new layout for BLAS - renamed DGEMM and SGEMM (Double Precision GEneral Matrix Multiply and Single Precision GEneral Matrix Multiply).

MemTest 1.2 has been released! At the moment we have no information on changes.

Business Winstone 2002 has been released! Highlights of the new release include Office XP applications and increased workloads. To learn more about this release read a Benchmark Insider story.

[28.08.2002]Since the last news update new versions of the following programs have been released:
AIDA32 2.30! What's new: INI-format report, DRAM timing information, AC'97 audio controller information, AIDA32 CPUID, improved memory benchmark and ADO database handling, full support for AGP 8x VIA chipsets, components database expansion.

Dacris Benchmarks .NET. This is the final version. Further details are available at the official page.

CPU-Z 1.14. What's new: new interface, including processors logos, CPU support : Cyrix M1 & M2, VIA C3 (Samuel, Samuel2, Ezra, Ezra-T), chipsets support : SiS645, SiS735, nVidia nForce series, Intel i440FX/LX, i810/E, i845E, i845G, Extended Family and Model display, Bus Speed display, Southbridge vendor and name, memory modules information, Windows version, debugging tools (About tab).

Nero InfoTool 1.02. It has a couple of bugfixes, plus Driver information, improved DVD Region Control detection and DVD+RW feature detection.

Techfacts XP 2.60. New features are: added list of Loaded Modules, list of Running Tasks, custom report now exports to XML.

Motherboard Monitor 5.2.0.0. New in this release: IDE and SCSI HDD temp support, Dashboard Transparency, and more!

Ativa Net Meter 4 has been updated to fix a host of bugs. More information is available at the program's page.

VCool 1.8 Beta (Build 9). Here's what's new: "official" KT333 support, display temps as mini windows, smooth throttling, beep temp, fan monitoring, etc.

FreeMeter 2.7.4. It fixes a couple of bugs.

Analyzer XP 2.21. This version contains several improvements (e.g. improved multilingual support) and bugfixes.

Memory and CPU Observer 2.3. Information on changes is unavailable.

FreshDiagnose 4.80. This version adds a new module: Windows Appearance.

Stay tuned for more news since our news updates will as frequent as before from now on!

[16.08.2002]WCPUID 3.0g+ (Test version) has been released! We have no information on changes at the moment. You can also download XCPUID for Linux from H.Oda!.

[15.08.2002]ClearInfo 0.49 Stable has been released! This version fixes a host of bugs and adds Service pack & .NET detection.

CDCheck 3.0.1.43 is available for download! This version is stable.

[12.08.2002]The Plasma Benchmark, another application that lets you test the performance of your system online! This applet creates an animated display by continuously summing four sine waves into an array and drawing this array in the applet window. Use it to measure the graphics and CPU performance of your Java virtual machine.

[11.08.2002]It's time sum up the results of our poll! Here they are:
What chipset is installed in your system?
  1. VIA (42.61%)
  2. Intel (26.67%)
  3. AMD (13.91%)
  4. SiS (8.1%)
  5. nVidia (5.81%)
  6. ALi (2.11%)
  7. Other (0.79%)
These results are available on their permanent page. Our new question is as follows: which type of monitor do you have?

[10.08.2002]SpeedFan 4.06 has been released! This version includes: completely rewritten configuration file, support for SIS645DX, full support for SIS650, full support for Intel ICH-4, full support for NVIDIA SMBus on nForce chipsets, and much more! Further details are available at the program's page.

ASTRA 4.03 has been released! Here's what's new: added detection of Platform ID (socket and package processor type), added detection of Intel Celeron (Willamette), Intel Celeron Mobile (Northwood), AMD Athlon XP/MP/4 (Thoroughbred), VIA C3 (Ezra-T) processors, added detection of processor original (not-overclocked) frequency based on Intel Pentium 4 core, SPD information reading on Intel ICH4 hub, detection of DDR SDRAM PC2700/PC3200 memory modules, numerous bugfixes and improvements.

[09.08.2002]Tech-PC have just posted a review of Corsair XMS3200 CAS-2 DDR Memory! Here is an extract from the review: "In a nut shell, if you are out to get the best overclocking memory money can buy I can't see how you would be disappointed with the CORSAIR XMS3200 CAS2, the speed is excellent, it's rock solid, well packaged, comes with free heatspreaders and a lifetime warrenty, I can't see a bad point about it, it really is that good."
Corsair XMS3200 DDR Review

Nero InfoTool 1.01.2 is available for download! We have no official information on changes, but it is easy to notice a new tab - "Drivers".

CPU Grave 1.73 has been released! New in this version: memory usage monitor, CPU cache information, CPU model, stepping and family information, minor improvements and bugfixes.

[08.08.2002]Another interesting program that will work with your Motherboard Monitor 5: MBM Saver, a screen saver based on MBM 5 to display the temperatures and the fan speeds of the motherboard. Download MBM Saver (209Kb).

[07.08.2002]IBM has released the updated version of its Drive Fitness Test (3.10)! The utility provides a quick, reliable method to test IBM SCSI and IDE hard disk drives. Version 3.10 includes the support for the latest IBM drives.
OpusWare Enterprise, Inc. ("OpusWare"), the author of Hot CPU Tester, and 7Byte Computers, Inc. ("7Byte") are merging together to form a solid company (www.7byte.com). Moreover, the company has announced that it is developing a new product - Hot Bench, a complex benchmark designed for newest CPUs. We have no details about this program at the moment, so stay tuned for more information.

[06.08.2002]Winpulse 1.0.4 has been released! Information on changes is unavailable now.

[05.08.2002]CDCheck 3.0.0.42 Beta is available for download! New in this beta: Korean translation, several bugfixes and improvements.

HostMonitor 3.22 is available for download! Here's what's new: new test "Count Files" implemented to check number of files in the specified directory, new test "Trace" allows you to trace route to the specified host and start alert actions when route changed, etc.

Hot CPU Tester 3.4 has been released! New in this version: Improved modules: QuickSort and Peripherals, New eSellerate engine v2.1, minor tweaks & bugs fixed. [04.08.2002]ClearInfo 0.49 Beta 4 has been released! New features and fixes are: Download / Upload speed display, Laptop battery status module, fixed ClearType problem, ability to have multiple instances.

System Analyser 5.2r has been released! It has a wealth of new features and improvements, such as: AMD Hammer recognition, support for IDE High Point controllers HPT343/5/6,HPT363, HPT370A, HPT368, HPT366, HPT371, HPT374, a host of videocards and PCI/AGP devices, SMBUS support for VIA 8233CE, 8233A, 8231, 686A, and more! Visit the program's official page for more information.

Belarc Advisor has been updated to version 5.1g!

Drive Temperature 1.00 RC8 Build 34 has been released! It fixes a bug with unabling to read configuration from registry.

[03.08.2002]Just for your information, a couple of words about the developer of KribiBench. Adept Development, founded in 1988, is an italian company with operations in Italy and Switzerland. Adept Development is active mainly in computer software and hardware development. Its primary markets - located in european countries until now – were mainly industrial projects and consumer products. Its new orientation is to sell software tools for developers with a worldwide scope. For more information, visit the company's website.

[02.08.2002]KribiBench, a CPU benchmark based on a highly optimized 3D rendering engine has been added! It is published on BenchmarkHQ with Adept Development special authorization!

Belarc Advisor 5.1f has been released!

[01.08.2002]MEMORyAL 3.2 is available for download! At the moment we have no information on changes.

Drive Temperature 1.00 RC7 Build 33 has been released! It fixes a host of bugs, now DTemp keep configuration in registry in "Current User" section, new version of Report Tool included, etc.

A bug release of CPUBENCH is available for download! This version's number is 3.3.0.1.

[31.07.2002]AIDA 1.70 has been released! New in this version: support for Celeron 4, Pentium 4M, Xeon MP, Celeron 4A, Xeon-A MP, a lot of new videocards, DRAM timing information.

Winpulse 1.0.3 has been released! This version has some minor improvements. Besides, Winpulse translationas are available at winpulse.com!

CDCheck 3.0.0.41 Beta is available for download! It fixes some bugs.

CPUBENCH 3.3.0 has been released! It has some nice extra features like placing the results in the eventlog, extra info in the About window etc.
Thanks to Cor van Wandelen!

[30.07.2002]Drive Health, a program that monitors your HDD health and allows to prevent data losing, has been added!

The next version of Cache Burst 32 is now at the development stage! According to the author of the utility, Vladimir Afanasiev, the forthcoming release will include: english help file, support for the latest CPUs, bugfixes, etc.
Another program by Vladimir Afanasiev, System Speed Test will also be updated in the near future.

[29.07.2002]Advanced Administrative Tools, a multithreaded network diagnostic tool that includes 11 utilities, has been added!

[28.07.2002]CPUCooL 7.1.2 has been released! New in this version: ASUS ASB 100 now working, PLL's added, Mainboards added, bug fixes.

CDCheck 3.0.0.40 Release Candidate 2 is available for download! It fixes a couple of bugs.

[27.07.2002]Monitor Asset Manager, an NT and multimonitor enabled update to DDC Test, has been added!

CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 288! Information on changes is unavailable at the moment.

CDCheck 3.0.0.39 Release Candidate 2 is available for download! This release includes some minor font-related improvements.

[26.07.2002]According to AnandTech, AMD has joined BAPCo, the developers of SYSMark 2002. Hopefully, this will make the benchmark more accurate. Read the full story at AnandTech.
For your information: BAPCo stands for Business Applications Performance Corporation and its current members include Cnet, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, InfoWorld, Intel, Microsoft, VNU Business Publications Limited (UK) and ZDNet.

CrazyMemTester, an utility that measures the speed of information interchange between CPU and RAM, has been added!

[25.07.2002]FreshDiagnose 4.60 has been released! New in this version: Busses module added, this module shows information on system bus.

HWiNFO 4.86 and HWiNFO32 1.20 have been released! Most of their new features are common for both applications. Some of them are as follows: enhanced detection of Intel 845E, 845G, 845GL and 845GLL chipsets, added report of GPU and Memory clock for later nVidia, Matrox, ATI and 3Dfx cards, recognition of SiS Xabre GPU, detection of ATI RV250, Radeon Mobility M9 and M9-GL, recognition of VIA CLE266, P4N333, P4X600, KT400 and K8HTB chipsets, detection of 3DLabs P10 VPU and various Wildcat VP cards, recognition of Matrox Parhelia, detailed information for VIA KT266/333/400 and VT8231/3/5 components, bugfixes.

Belarc Advisor, an utility that builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser, has been added! The utility is pretty handy, so be sure to try it out.

RightMark Audio Analyzer 4.0 Beta 2 is available for download! This version features more precise measurements and it should be more stable.

[24.07.2002]A pretty interesting program for MBM5 users has been released! MBMLog 1.8.2 logs the values of the temperature, fan and voltage sensors of Motherboard Monitor and shows them in several diagrams. A running MBM 5.1.9.1 is necessary. CPU and RAM usage are logged, too. The diagrams can be automatically saved as an image after a specified time and then be uploaded automatically via FTP to a web server.
Download MBMLog 1.8.2 (487Kb).

ClearInfo 0.49 Beta 3 has been released! New features and fixes are: ability to detect Windows shutdown, fixed IP address updating bug, added copy IP Address to menu, added copy CPU name to menu.

[23.07.2002]GLExcess XSMark 1.2 Full is available for download!

PassMark BurnInTest 3.0 Build 1007 has been released! It includes a couple of improvements and bugfixes (plus Memory Torture Test in the Professional version).

Hnet Info 1.44 has been released! Information on changes is unavailable.

[22.07.2002]Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. and Ziff Davis Media Inc. have announced an agreement for Lionbridge to acquire eTesting Labs Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis Media that provides research, analysis, development and testing services to technology vendors, ISPs, IT organizations and publications. Lionbridge will integrate eTesting labs with VeriTest, the company's global testing division. Read the full press release.

A patch for GLExcess XSMark 1.1a is available for download! This patch updates GLExcess to version 1.2. It fixes some bugs and prevents (as much as possible) cheating on results. GLExcess 1.2 stand-alone version will be available later.

[21.07.2002]Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks 4.92 Update! To update your existing version 4.91 you just need to download this file (494Kb).

[20.07.2002]Techfacts XP 2.51 has been released! New in this update: added proxy information to the Internet Explorer Info function, added Import/Export .REG files to the Registry Browser, bug corrections and additions to help file.

BenchMarX 4.0 has been released! Among its innovations: Registry Scan tool, Disk Wash tool, Duplicate Files Finder tool, bugfixes.

[19.07.2002]CDCheck 3.0.0.38 Beta is available for download! It fixes a couple of bugs.

PassMark Monitor Test 2.0 Build 1001 is available for download! Obviously, this build fixes some bugs.

NikNak has been updated to version 7.1.1! This is a minor update to help prevent the "QuickStart" buttons from occassionally staying highlighted.

English version of Dr.Hardware 3.5.0 has been released! It is available for download from BenchmarkHQ.
Dr.Hardware 8.0 for DOS has also been released! New features include: AMD XP processors (including Thoroughbred), VIA CX3 Samuel 2, Via CX3 Ezra, Pentium 4 Xeon, IA64, new Pentium III, Celeron and Duron types, Athlon MP/Athlon 4 Mobile detection, detection of memory type on numerous new mainboards, several hundreds other PCI devices, core stepping on newer Intel CPUs, DDC analysis: improved vendor and model detection, bugfixes, etc.

[18.07.2002]German version of Dr.Hardware 3.5.0 has been released! Here's what's new: AMD XP processors, Via CX3 Ezra, Pentium-4-Xeon, IA64 CPU's detection, support for new AMD, VIA and Intel chipsets, detailed information on Intel 830MP, 845E, 845G/GL, 860, E7500, AMD 760MPX, EIDE analysis, SMBios analysis, and more! Further details are available at the official site!

PowerLeap has announced a new web-based utility that can read your computer's vital statistics. Using an ActiveX control it shows information on your CPU type, speed, form factor, stepping, clock settings, mainboard, chipset, BIOS version, AGP version and settings, video adapter brand and model, memory type, size, and timings. Try it out!

CDCheck 3.0.0.37 Beta is available for download! This release fixes some bugs and improves some features (such as large fonts should be displayed properly, etc.).

[17.07.2002]FCPUID 0.00 Beta 23 has been released! This version includes support for the latest processors, extended informations, bus type and speed information, AMD PowerNow! detection, and more!

The UNIX edition of SPECviewperf 7.0 is available for download! It is a little bit smaller than its Windows version - "only" 289 Mb... Click to download.

Memory and CPU Observer, a program that monitors your CPU activity, memory and pagefile, download/upload speeds, etc., has been added!

[16.07.2002]Webserver Stress Tool 5.34 has bee released! Here's what's new: Download Frames also works for IFrames now, Login- and Logout-Sequences can now be tested using the URL pattern "all users use first x URLs, then random, then last x URLs".

[15.07.2002]ScienceMark 2.0 Beta has been released! Features of the new ScienceMark 2.0 include a visual molecular dynamics simulation, a visual Primordia simulation, MemBench with cache latency testing, CipherBench with support for AES (Rijndael) speed testing, and BLAS benchmarking. This release of ScienceMark 2.0 should be considered a beta product; there will be some bugs that will crop up.
And once again I want to thank QUICKBENCH for this information!

Alexander van Kaam has released an update for Motherboard Monitor 5.1.9.1 that will add support for HDD temperatures! Future versions of MBM will support this feature by default. But now you'll have to download this zip-file (73Kb) and follow the instructions stated on the program's page.

Winpulse 1.0.1 has been released! This update fixes several bugs and introduces new prices. The details are available at winpulse.com.

[14.07.2002]ClearInfo, another system monitoring program has been added!

[13.07.2002]CPUBench2002, an efficient application that will test your CPU-Motherboard-Memory subsystem performance, has been added! Please note: this is a beta version.
Thanks to QUICKBENCH!

[12.07.2002]CDCheck 3.0.0.36 Release Candidate 1 is available for download! This release merely fixes some bugs.

FreshDiagnose 4.40 has been released! New in this version: Scheduled Task module added.

[11.07.2002]AIDA32 2.20 has been released! As always, it has a wealth of new features and improvements, including: sensor information, audit filter, extended audit statistics, extended system summary, extended chipset information, chipset bus information, integrated graphics controller information, better support of Win95 and WinNT, support for MediaGX, MediaGXm CPUs, Russian language module, and more! AIDA forever! :-)

Analyzer XP 2.16a is available for download! This release fixes some bugs.

[10.07.2002]Techfacts XP 2.50 has been released! The only change is a new DLL Orphan Manager.

[09.07.2002]MCS CPU Benchmark, a CPU benchmarking utility with a number of additional features, has been added! Be sure to try it out!

[08.07.2002]Winpulse 1.0 has been released! This is a final and stable release. From now on the program is shareware.

CPU Grave, a program that benchmarks your CPU, has been added!

[07.07.2002]AbpMon, a new monitoring program by Igor Arsenin, the author of TaskInfo, has been added!

[06.07.2002]Drive Temperature 1.00 RC6 Build 32 has been released! The only change is a fixed bug with temperature icons black background in Win9x.

[05.07.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.35! This release fixes some bugs.

Cache Burst 32, a program that tests the read/write performance of your memory (cache and system RAM), has been added! Check it out!

[04.07.2002]X-ATA 1.40 has been released! It has a wealth of new features and improvements. Most notable is that X-ATA is "the first and only software" that bypass W9x/Me I/O trapping from a 'Real Mode' application. Now X-ATA can access ATA/ATAPI device through direct I/O access in Win9x/Me environment. Now you can check the hardware setup of your ATA/ATAPI devices in Win9x/Me. The rest of innovations include: new command 'Detect Hard-Disk RPM' for compatible ATA device, new command 'HardDisk Explore' (this command view any available sector on the current Hard-Disk using CHS or LBA addressing mode), new command 'Erase first cilinder' for ATA devices, new command 'Execute SMART diagnostic', a host of bugfixes, and more!

Techfacts XP 2.40 has been released! New in this version: WinNT/2k/XP ROM/BIOS Dump, Registry Browser with last modfied date for keys.

[03.07.2002]Drive Temperature 1.00 RC5 Build 31 has been released! Here's what's new: Fahrenheit temperature scale support added, option to enable or disable AutoScan feature, option to enable or disable Automatic Acoustic Management and to manage AAM levels, removed background color in icon, minor bugfixes.

Analyzer XP 2.16 is available for download! This version includes: improved interface, more detailed help, some bugfixes and improvements.

[02.07.2002]HostMonitor, a network monitor program has been added!

[01.07.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.34! New in this release: French and German languages, results window is now resizable (and size is saved), bugfixes, etc.

NetInfo 4.4 (Build 701) has been released! It includes improved proxy server support and other additional features.

VCool, a CPU temperature monitoring and cooling utility, has been added!

[30.06.2002]Active SMART Monitor 1.11 build 142 is available for download! New in this version: label formatting fixed, additional attribute codes added, temperature support added.

Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks .NET Release Candidate 1! Presently it is available only for beta-testers.

CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 261! It has some text changes to some dialogs.

[29.06.2002]Resource Patrol 3.00 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements, such as: CPU load detection under Windows XP, FSB speed detection, CPU benchmark, report creation, and much more!

[28.06.2002]BenchMarX, a program that shows system information and allows to benchmark some components, has been added!

[27.06.2002]FRAPS 1.8A has been released! This build has additional OpenGL support. More games are working, most notably Neverwinter Nights.

[26.06.2002]DIAG 4.53 has been released! New in this version: new menu entry "Extended CPU information" with additional information, increased standard benchmark accuracy, more steppings for Pentium III and 4, detects Athlon XP, more information about capabilities of CD-ROMs and inserted CD (for example track information), a lot of new hardware supported, etc.

NikNak has been updated to version 7.1.0! It includes some minor improvements.

IP-Tools, 15 TCP/IP utilities in one program, has been added!

[25.06.2002]Heart Beat 1.3.5 has been released! This version includes a 'Clear Values' button in the test window, improvement of the disc test feature and several tweaks to the interface and bug fixes.

CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 260! This release corrects some minor drive problems.

[24.06.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.33! The detailed information on what's new in it can be obtained at the author's website.

DU Meter 3.02 Build 76 has been released! This build fixes a couple of bugs.

Winpulse, a system resources monitor has been added!

Monitor Test has been updated to version 4.5! Information on changes is unavailable. Obviously, this version fixes some bugs.

[23.06.2002]MadOnion.com has announced 2 new Performance Analyzers, again specially for all gamers out there! The Empire Earth Performance Analyzer and Nascar Racing 2002 Performance Analyzer have been developed in conjunction with Sierra, Gateway and Intel. They enable gamers to quickly and accurately analyze their current computer system components in order to determine if it meets the minimum system requirements needed to play Sierra's titles, Empire Earth and Nascar Racing 2002.

[21.06.2002]Monitor Test 4.0 has been released! The most notable change is an improved interface.

If you need to test your monitor, there's no need to download any special software. Just visit the MonitorsDirect ToolKit homepage! At the core of the MonitorsDirect ToolKit are a series of test patterns and instructions on how to evaluate any CRT or LCD monitor. This web-based application can be accessed from any system and requires no special software other than Macromedia's Flash Player for your Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. So, check it out!

[20.06.2002]Survey.com, the leading provider of eResearch and MadOnion.com, the leading provider of PC performance information and web services, today announced a strategic alliance which will result in immediate benefits for market researchers of products and services relating to PC hardware and software. By utilizing MadOnion's expertise in PC information collection and processing, Survey.com now offers its clients the ability to conduct "variable flow" market surveys, depending on respondents' individual PC configurations. While conducting online surveys, MadOnion's technology enables real-time capture of respondents' hardware and software configurations, including important variables such as type and speed of processor, Microsoft® operating system used, available memory and installed display cards and drivers.
Read the full press release.

[19.06.2002]NikNak, a multifunctional monitoring program has been added!

Q3Bench 3.00 Beta has been released! This version adds support for the newest version of Q3, which is version 1.31. This version also has a second EXE for running the same scripted benchmarks in Return To Castle Wolfenstein.

[18.06.2002]Heart Beat 1.3.4 has been released! This version allows you to choose which volume to use for the disc test.

Sandra 2002 SP1 Standard (2002.6.8.97) is available for download at BenchmarkHQ! Be sure to download it!

[17.06.2002]Dr.Hardware 2002 3.5.0 is at the beta testing stage now! If you want to participate, head on to the official page for more information on this (in german).

CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2 has been updated with build 225! This build incorporates some speed improvements, bugfixes, etc.

[16.06.2002]Active SMART Monitor 1.11 build 140 is available for download! Here's what's new: free space error fixed, tray icon hint added, additional alert messages added.

FRAPS 1.8 has been released! New in this version: customisable hotkeys for screen captures and framerate logging, bubfixes.

It's time for a new poll! But first let's take a look at the last poll results. The question was: How much RAM do you have?
  1. 256 Mb (43.59%)
  2. More than 512Mb (36.55%)
  3. 128Mb (15.89%)
  4. Less than 64Mb (3.97%)
These results are available on their permanent page. Our new question looks like this: What chipset is installed in your system? Please, cast your vote!

[15.06.2002]Sandra 2002 SP1 (2002.6.8.97) has been released! It contains a wealth of new features and improvements, most notable being a new benchmark, benchmark result saving, and 6 new modules. Most known issues with the previous version have been resolved in this version. Here's a breakdown: full compatibility with Windows XP/.Net, support for advanced SMP and SMT/HyperThreaded hardware with multiple chipsets, 80 Total; 6 New Modules (Cache/Memory Benchmark, Modules Info (NT/200X), Installed Programs/Applications, Registered File Types, Event Log), dynamic data refresh, fixed various issues with detection. Professional version users can update their copies immediately using the WebUpdate Wizard module. Standard version users will have to wait a little bit until the new version become available. Stay tuned for more news on this.

[14.06.2002]CD Winbench 99 CDs are back in eTesting Labs' stock and shipping now! The company took this opportunity to upgrade the CD to version 3.0, but the only change made to the software is the inclusion of the latest version of the common PC benchmark user interface (common for major eTesting Labs products). Note that scores may change with this new version.

LSoft Testbild, another monitor tester has been added!

[13.06.2002]MadOnion.com has released a new version of 3DMark2001 Second Edition (Build 330)! The new version ensures more reliable functionality with new hardware that was released after the launch of 3DMark2001 SE in February 2002. New in this version: future DirectX version support, AGP 3.0 (AGP 8x) support, support for the latest hardware, some minor corrections. Please note: this patch is for 3DMark2001 SE (build 300) released in February 2002, and not for the original 3DMark2001 (build 200) released in March 2001!
You can download the patch (2.7Mb) locally from our site!

Hnet Info, a large system product intended for detection, benchmark and hardware diagnostics, network analysis, etc. has been added!

[12.06.2002]Analyzer XP 2.12 is available for download! This version includes: a couple of new Internet connection tweaks, bugfixes, etc. Besides, a limited version of the utility called Quick SystemInfo Limited can now be downloaded for free.

Techfacts XP 2.30 has been released! The only new feature is "Cookie Manager".

[11.06.2002]AIDA32 2.10 has been released! New in this version: extended CPUID info, extended Direct3D device info, extended EIDE device info, GPU information, FSB information, memory bus information, support for 6x86, 6x86MX, MII, Celeron 4, Pentium 4M, Xeon MP, Xeon-A MP CPUs, scheduled command-line report creation, language support optimizations, and more!

CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.32!

HCPUid 1.0.0.7, a free add-on for HMonitor, is available for download! This little add-on really worths a look.

[10.06.2002]PassMark ModemTest 1.2 has been released! Here's what's new: added field for user defined modem init string, correction of a serious bug that caused random packet errors with some modems (particularly soft modems).

CDCheck 3.0.0.31 is available for download! This release includes the following innovations: added show results button, added print and save to result window, added option to recover only files missing in the output directory, bugfixes, and more!

[09.06.2002]Motherboard Monitor has been updated to version 5.1.9.1 to fix a bug needed to be fixed right away!

Motherboard Monitor 5.1.9.0 has been released! Changes from the previous version include: 32 Temperatures, 16 Voltages and 16 Fans are now supported, Asus P4B533 supported, added advanced features, bugfixes, and more. Further details are available at the official site.

[08.06.2002]CPUBENCH 3.2.0.0 has been released! New in this version: a new test (the number of kilo pixel write operations per second, KPPS), results database, improved interface, some bugfixes, etc.

FableMark, a benchmark program from PowerVR Technologies has been added! The company has also released 4 new technological demos. They can be found here.

[07.06.2002]MadOnion.com has announced the latest Performance Analyzer specially for all gamers out there! The Half-Life Performance Analyzer, developed in conjunction with Sierra, Gateway and Intel, enables gamers to quickly and accurately analyze their current computer system components in order to determine if it meets the minimum system requirements needed to play Sierra's award-winning game, Half-Life. The service also gives options to enhance your PC's gaming performance and image quality!

RAMexam, a complete memory tester has been added! The authors of RAMexam are very pleased to have been a participant in the historic Mir Space Station adventure in 1997. RAMexam went along having been selected by the Mission Operations Directorate Stealth Labs at NASA for use on the Mir Space Station.
More information on Mir can also be found here.

[06.06.2002]Active SMART Monitor 1.11 build 135 has been released! This version fixes some bugs, including: free space calculation, help file, 'Worst' tab, etc.

Monitor Test 3.0, a monitor adjustment tool has been added!

[05.06.2002]A couple of announcements. In the very near future we are expecting the following programs to be released: Dr.Hardware 2002 3.5.0 and StatWin Professional! Unfortunately, there's no information on changes available at the moment.

[04.06.2002]MBAPCo® and MadOnion.com® today announced the release of MobileMark™ 2002, a new benchmark to evaluate notebook user experience by measuring both performance and battery life at the same time. Performance and battery life are among the top purchase criteria for notebooks users, yet no method existed for evaluating both criteria with the same workload. More information on this new product can be obtained from the official press release! MobileMark™ 2002 is available for 249.95 USD.

MobileMark 2002


CPU Hi-t PE 2.0 has been released! Here's what's new: improved interface and the algorithms of some tests, new additional test, CPU load indicator, etc.

WCPUID 3.0g has been released! This version supports new processors and chipsets (more detailed information is unavailable at the moment).

[03.06.2002]Our Benchmark Tools section has been categorized, so now you can easily find a necessary program! I hope now this section is much more useful and efficient!

If you're seeing unreasonably high WinBench 99 Disk CPU Utilization scores when testing a large-capacity drive (e.g. 160GB), read the latest Benchmark Insider story for explanation and workaround.

PNY Technologies announced that it is providing consumers the ability to access MadOnion.com's Performance Analyzer FREE on PNY's website. This service enables PNY website visitors to quickly analyze their current computer system components and evaluate how they can easily enhance their PC's performance. Each customized performance analysis is based on a dynamic database of over 4 million benchmark results from MadOnion.com's proprietary 3DMark2001 benchmark software. Read the full press release.

[02.06.2002]System Analyser 5.2q has been released! As usual, it has a wealth of new features, including: AMD Athlon Thoroughbred added, VIA C3 Ezra and C3 Ezra-T added, info on VIA C3 improved, Intel 850E, Intel 845G/GL, Intel 845MP/MZ Intel, Intel Montara GM added, plus a lot of new monitors, PCI/AGP devices and videocards added.

MemInfo, an utility, which shows you information about your current resources and memory, has been added! Thanks to Quickbench!

[01.06.2002]Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks .NET Beta 3! The final release is coming August 17.

[31.05.2002]Fresh Diagnose 4.20 has been released! New in this version: Snapshot-Heaps module added, all reported bugs fixed.

[30.05.2002]CPU Speed, a program that measures and displays the speed of your CPU (in MHz) in a real time, has been added!

[29.05.2002]VAR Memory Benchmark, a simple memory benchmark program designed to benchmark AGP and video memory write speeds, has been added!

[28.05.2002]Yesterday Tweakers Australia posted an article entitled 'PC1066 RDRAM vs. DDR SDRAM'. Today they have updated the article with the SiS645DX and Intel 845G chipsets, which included a comparison against DDR333 for the PC1066 RDRAM. So, check it out - PC1066 RDRAM vs. DDR SDRAM!

HD_Speed, a program that measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, cd/dvd-roms and floppy drive, has been added!

[27.05.2002]ToolStar*Windows 1.01 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements, plus now the program is distributed by ToolHouse DV-Systeme e.K.

CPUCooL 7.1.1 has been released! New in this version: PLL's included, bug fixes.

[26.05.2002]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility has been updated to version 4.61 to support the latest Intel processors!

[25.05.2002]Network Activity Diagram, an application that monitors your computer Internet activity has been added!

[24.05.2002]Intel has released Active Monitor, an alerting utility available exclusively on Intel Desktop Boards. It works with specialized sensors to constantly monitor the system's temperatures, power supply voltages, and fan speeds. If temperatures become extremely hot or a system fan or power supply fails, the user is immediately notified. In addition to displaying cooling information, Intel Active Monitor makes it easy for a user to identify the processor type and speed, look up desktop board, chipset, and memory information, and customize the alerts that may be generated and their thresholds. The latest version of Intel Active Monitor 1.17 is now available for download (7.1Mb).

[23.05.2002]Quick Bench, a small utility to check that your disks are configured properly by benching them and getting the average sequential read speed as well as the CPU load, has been added! This program is 200th one on our site!

[22.05.2002]Memtest86 3.0 has been released! This release contains mainly some bugfixes and improvements, such as testing of more than 2gb of memory, LinuxBIOS support, code cleanup, etc. More information can be obtained at the official page.

Analyzer XP 2.09 is available for download! It includes several new tweaks and settings, reduced resource usage, bugfixes and more. English version of the program is not yet available.

Monitor Tester has been updated to version 1.05.2!

[21.05.2002]Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks .NET Beta 2! This beta fixes some bugs.

PassMark BurnInTest 3.0 has been released! New in this version: new advanced memory test allowing RAM testing beyond the 4GB barrier in Windows 2000 and XP, ability to test printers using a raw printer command file, basic sound testing with Midi and wave playback, testing of up to 20 hard and floppy disks simultaneously, testing of up to 20 CD/DVD drives simultaneously, improved logging, and more!

HWiNFO 4.85 and HWiNFO32 1.10 have been released! As alsways, most of their new features are common for both applications. Some of them are as follows: added support for AMD Thoroughbred, enhanced support for VIA C3 Processors (Samuel 2, Ezra, Ezra-T), added identification and support for Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M), detection of AMD-8100 Hammer, VIA P4X333, KT333 and KT333A, Intel 845G, E7501, E7505, E7205, Montara GM and P4300-M Odem chipsets, and more!
HWiNFO32 1.10 additionally includes the following innovations: support for Windows 95, reduced memory usage, enhanced USB information, some bugfixes, etc.

[20.05.2002]IDEdrive, a program that interrogates your IDE-drives and displays some information about them has been added! IDEdrive is written by the author of TestCPU, Robert Smid.

[19.05.2002]MemStat XP, an utility that monitors physical memory, runs memory benchmark, etc. has been added!

[18.05.2002]Resource Patrol 3.0T2 (beta) has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements, such as: CPU load detection under Windows XP, FSB speed detection, CPU benchmark, report creation, and much more!

After a long beta-test period Active SMART Monitor 1.11 has been released!

[17.05.2002]Tweakers Australia has put 5 sticks of high quality DDR333 and DDR266 to the test in their latest article, DDR Memory Performance Roundup. The article explores the performance each stick has to offer in synchronous 133MHz and 166MHz as well as asynchronous 166MHz modes. A few days earlier they also posted a short article on ATA100 vs. ATA133 hard drive performance. Both articles worth a look.

xHDDSpeed, a HDD performance test has been added!

[16.05.2002]Heart Beat, a multi platform system performance test program has been added!

[15.05.2002]BeMark 2002, an accurate and reliable OpenGL diagnostics tool by Beyond3D has been added!

Analyzer XP 2.09 Beta has been released! It fixes some bugs and adds multilingual support. The final release will support english language. The beta can be downloaded here.

[14.05.2002]SIGuardian 1.51 Beta has been released! New in this release: new function – immediate system hibernation in case of overheating, some minor improvements and bugfixes.

HDD Temperature 1.1 Beta (Build 73) is available for download! This build fixes some bugs.

Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility has been updated to version 4.6 to support the latest Intel processors!

[13.05.2002]AIDA software family has been updated! AIDA 1.60 now supports ATi R200W, S3 Twister, S3 Twister-K, SiS 315 video chipsets, some new videocards, including Abit, Gigabyte, ATI Fire GL 8700, Fire GL 8800, Matrox Marvel G550 eTV.
AIDA32 2.00 includes the following innovations: 2D video benchmark, SPD memory modules list, SMBus support, support for 486 & 5x86 CPUs, full Pentium 4 support, AGP information, report printing, extended system summary, extended printer info, extended Direct3D device info, MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle databases support, advanced report engine, XML-format report, and more!

[12.05.2002]CPUCooL 7.1.0 has been released! New in this version: fan speed regulation started, PLL's added, bug fixes.

Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks .NET Beta 1! This is the first public beta version, the final one is expected in July. To check if your system is ready to run the benchmark you can download this file.

FreeMeter 2.7.2 has been released! This version includes the following innovations: statistics summary dialog now includes current CPU activity, the Windows 95/98/ME Resource meter can now display either the amount of free resources or used resources, and more.

[11.05.2002]CPU-Z 1.13 has been released! Here's what's new: new CPUs support : Athlon Thoroughbred (0.13µ), Celeron P4, Pentium 4-M, Pentium 4 socket designation revisited, Mobile AMD processor detection enhanced, BIOS release date, Refresh button.

CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.30! This update fixes some bugs.

[09.05.2002]HDD Temperature 1.1 has been released! New in this version: immediate system hibernation in case of overheating, due to changes in MotherBoard Monitor 5.x fixed MBM integration code.

[08.05.2002]Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation has released SPECviewperf 7.0, a new version of its popular OpenGL performance benchmark! Read the press-release and don't forget to look at the screenshots.

eTesting Labs has revealed its plans concerning some release dates! According to the schedule, we will see these new benchmarks at the following dates:
[07.05.2002]Jonathan Schwabe, the author of CpuIDMax has released a new utility called TrayCPU! It sits in the tray and show current CPU speed.

The promised CpuIDMax Build 112 has been released! Its new features include a better cache support and support for AMD Thoroughbred CPU, etc.

RubyMicro Software will release DriverMAGIC Pro within a week! The Pro version has the following features:
  • Everything DriverMAGIC Lite has and...
  • Supports SFX and compressed driver bundles
  • Supports Official, WHQL and Beta drivers
  • Includes an EXE driver installer, and multispanning disc support
  • Much better documentation
  • Local and internet driver scanner
  • Comprehensive driver information
  • Powerful driver backup and removal feature
  • Complete coded multilingual support
  • CD Key, Product Registration



[06.05.2002]A new version of CpuIDMax is expected within the next few days! It will feature a better cache support and support for AMD Thoroughbred CPU, etc.

Analyzer XP 2.04 has been released! This version fixes some bugs and has an improved interface.

[05.05.2002]Hot CPU Tester 3.3 has been released! This version includes: new DefectTech v1.2 with heuristic algorithm, added Burn-in feature in the options menu, redesigned module Complex Matrix, improved modules: Chipset, L1 Cache, MMX, SSE, 3DNow!, minor tweaks & bugs fixed.

Ativa Net Meter 4 is available for download! New features include connection logging (for dial-up connections), full compatibility with Windows XP, transparent window, revised screen layout for easier reading of connection statistics, and more.

[04.05.2002]Webserver Stress Tool 5.32 has been released! It's a minor update, it has more reliable report export to MS Word.

[03.05.2002]eTesting Labs has released the latest upgrades of Business Winstone 2001, Content Creation Winstone 2002, and Business Winstone 2001 BatteryMark! These point releases fix bugs that underlie a number of troublesome error messages; they also make the benchmarks more compatible with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. In addition, the company has released a stand-alone upgrade to the testing framework, which is referred to as the common user interface (UI), for the eTesting Labs' PC benchmarks. If you choose to install any of these PC benchmark updates, all of your desktop PC benchmarks will get the new UI automatically, and so you won't need to update your UI separately. Click the links below to download the appropriate update.
[02.05.2002]TechFacts XP has been updated to version 2.20! Here's what's new: Memory Defragmenter, Dhrystone and CPU benchmark tests.

HMonitor 4.0.4.2 has been released! New in this version: support for Intel 82801DB (ICH4) southbridge, VIA 8233A southbridge, ADM 1026 sensor chip, ASUS "ASB100 Bach" sensor chip, ALI M5879 sensor chip support enhanced, ASUS A7V333 support verified.

[01.05.2002]Overclocked Cafe has posted an interview with C. Adrian Silasi of SiSoftware! The interview is pretty interesting, so you just can't miss it. Head on to Overclocked Cafe!

[30.04.2002]CPUCooL Unicode version is available for download! Additionally, it supports Chinese and Russian languages. Note, the Unicode version will work only under Windows NT/2000/XP.

Analyzer XP 2.0 Final has been released! Since this version is final and official, it should be stable and bugs-free.

[29.04.2002]Performance Tester 2002, a program developed to test the performance of several hardware components in your PC, has been added!

[28.04.2002]And once again, Analyzer XP 2.0 Beta 2 has been released! This beta has some bugfixes and minor improvements.

[27.04.2002]Analyzer XP 2.0 Beta has been released! New in this version: revised program code, a new tab called "Tweaks", a few bugfixes and minor improvements.

[26.04.2002]MetaScream CPU Testing, a small utility assisting to measure speed of operations of your processor, has been added!

[25.04.2002]Our friends at Tech PC have posted an article called Ultimate GeForce 3DMark score tweak guide! "This tweak guide is by no means a way for you to tweak for gameplay. It is strictly to increase your 3DMarks score to its absolute max. This guide will show you how to dumb down the IQ of the test to achieve the best score your computer can possibly achieve." Check it out!

SoundCheck, a suite of helpful test utilities for testing the audio functions on your PC, has been added!

[24.04.2002]MyCPU2!, a Russian MyCPU analogue, has been added!

[23.04.2002]RightMark Audio Analyzer 3.4 has been released! This version's new features include: test of supported modes, stereo test of frequency response, User's Manual updated, Test Description updated, better stability.

[22.04.2002]SpeedFan 4.05 has been released! New in this version: added full support for SIS635, SIS645, SIS735, SIS740 and SIS745, added support for FSB changing (currently there are only a few motheboards and PLLs that are supported), added context-sensitive help, added preliminary ADM1024, some other bugfixes and improvements.

CPUCooL has been updated to version 7.0.16! It includes: Duron(Morgan) fix, performace monitoring fix (XT), PLL's added, bugs fixed.

[21.04.2002]BenchmarkHQ introduces a new section - Program Lookup! A kind of a wizard that will help you to find a proper program even when you don't know exactly which one you need. Sounds a little bit complicated, but you really should try it!

Dungeon Siege game demo has been released! The 183 MB file contains the first 10% of the game in either single player or multiplayer mode. The author of FRAPS, in his turn, reports that for certain graphics cards this game does not call the flip function, which FRAPS uses to calculate the framerate. This means that FRAPS won't work. However, you can try to get it working with the game. If you have recent drivers for your card you can use the following command line to start the game: dungeonsiege.exe bltonly=false, and FRAPS will appear as normal!

[20.04.2002]DriverMAGIC 1.0.0.2 has been released! This version fixes a whole bunch of small issues releating to older operating systems, like 98, 95 and Nt, and also supports driver date and version finding, with a few little improvements as well. More information is available at RubyMicro.

Media JuGGLer has released an update for EVA Bench, which updates the latter to version 1.1! Click to download the update (1.2Mb).

[19.04.2002]CD Speed has been updated to version 0.85e! There's no information on changes available at the moment.

DIAG, a diagnostic program, which detects, tests and benchmarks you entire hard- and software, has been added!

[18.04.2002]FreshDiagnose 4.00 is available for download! It includes the following innovations: registered libraries module added & reported bugs fixed.

TechFacts XP 2.10 has been released! New in this version: Parse Local & Web HTML pages to see all links, View source of local/web HTML pages.

[17.04.2002]Our reviews section has been replenished with a new review! This time we've reviewed SpeedFan.

TuffTEST, a PC diagnostic software product that can automatically test the major hardware components of any Intel-based, or compatible PC, has been added!

[16.04.2002]Disk Bench, a program that tests your hard drive speed in a real life situation, has been added!

[15.04.2002]NetScanTools, a collection of specialized utilities that will help you diagnose a network, has been added!

[14.04.2002]It's time for a new poll! Our last poll ended like this:
How fast is your CPU?
  1. 500 - 1000 MHz (35.24%)
  2. 1 - 1.5 GHz (29.34%)
  3. 1.5 - 2 GHz (18.99%)
  4. < 500 MHz (12.92%)
  5. > 2GHz (3.51%)
You can look at these results any time you want at their permanent page. Now, here's the new question: how much RAM do you have? Cast your votes!

Analyzer XP has been updated to version 1.66! It includes: improved DLL Manager and GUI, plus a few minor changes.

[13.04.2002]Do you remember the program called SysId? The project was closed. But recently it has been made open to the public, so now everyone can download SysId Source Code (3.8Mb). A bit more information can be obtained from the author's website.

[12.04.2002]TaskInfo2002 4.0.0.51 has been released! New in this version: Process Type (Con/GUI) in State field for WinNT/2k/XP, support for new Intel and AMD CPUs, plus a few bugfixes.

Analyzer XP 1.63 is available for download! This version contains a new utility to change OEM information, some minor improvements and bugfixes.

[11.04.2002]Serial Device Tester, an utility designed to assist in analyzing the communication between a PC and a device connected over the serial port, has been added!

[10.04.2002]X-ATA, an utility that gives you the possibility to retrieve and display large amount of information, which is managed and internally stored by ATA/ATAPI devices, has been added!

[09.04.2002]DVD Speed 0.53 has been released! Changes from the previous version include: support for DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW, improved CPU usage detection (system CPU usage is reported).

Quick SystemInfo has changed its name to Analyzer XP and its version 1.59 has been released! Here's what's new: the program is now available only in Russian, a Windows Tweaking utility added, DLL Manager added, bugfixes, etc.

[08.04.2002]SpeedFan 4.04 has been released! New in this version: fan speeds can now be changed by hand in the main window, added full support for VIA8233A SMBus, ALi M1535D/D+ fan control, AMD768, and much more! More information can be obtained from the SpeedFan Homepage.

Read our new review of one of the best temperature monitoring programs - Motherboard Monitor!

Active SMART Monitor has been added!

[07.04.2002]CPU RightMark 1.01 is available for download! Here's what's new: off-screen rendering by default, minor bugs fixed.

Hot CPU Tester 3.2 has been released! This version includes: improved core, improved modules: Pi test, Memory, Chipset, fixed bug: AMD 3DNow Benchmarks, minor tweaks. To learn more about Hot CPU Tester read our review.

[06.04.2002]System Analyser 5.2p has been released! New in this version: support for Intel mobile Pentium 4 - M, Intel Xeon-MP (Prestonia), Intel SpeedStep detection, AMD PowerNow! detection, SMBus support for Intel 82801CA/CAM and 82801E, support for Promise MBFastTrak133 Lite EIDE Controller, plus it supports more new videocards, PCI/AGP devices, and more!

Tweakers Australia has posted a short article and image gallery on the free testing utility from nVIDIA - ChameleonMark, which I mentioned a few days ago! Here's a little snip: "A lot of you would already know that ChameleonMark - a performance analysis utility for the Geforce3 GPU - was recently released by NVIDIA, and is freely available for download at their website. I thought it would be interesting to see how the Chameleon is rendered on a non-NVIDIA GPU, so we choose the ATI Radeon 8500 (R200) card with 64MB of memory." Read the full article.

Codecult has released a new 3D graphics benchmark based on their CodeCreatures 3D engine. The game development system was recently presented at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.The Codecreatures benchmark is written with Microsoft's DirectX 8.1 API and incorporates the use of Vertex and PixelShaders popular on next generation 3D accelerators. The benchmark plays a photo-realistic nature scene and calculates the performance of the graphics adapter by measuring the fps that it can display at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions. The score is a geometric mean of those three resolutions called the Codecreatures number. Head on to Codecult to see some screenshots or to download the benchmark (39Mb).

[05.04.2002]Mi32, an utility intended for memory testing has been added!

MEMORyAL has been updated to version 3.1.1! It fixes some bugs.

[04.04.2002]CDCheck 3.0.0.29b has been released! This version has a few bugfixes and improvements.

PC Information 1.40 has been released! Here's what's new: the program became compatible with Windows XP, new detecting features for Win98/Me/2K/XP: system model and manufacturer, processor's external clock frequency, memory slots, motherboard socket, service and asset tags (for brand PCs only), now you can send the reports via e-mail, secondary hard disk drive detection is available now, and more. The detailed list can be found at MVsoft's website.

[03.04.2002]CPU RightMark, a benchmark meant for objective performance measurement of modern and future CPUs in various computational tasks such as computational modeling of physical processes and solving of 3D graphics problems, has been added!

[02.04.2002]HWiNFO 4.84 and HWiNFO32 1.06 have been released! Most of their new features are common for both applications. Some of them are as follows: added detection of ATI A4 (RS200, RS200M) and R300 chipsets, identification of nVidia GeForce4 420/440 Go and Quadro4 500 GoGL, support for Intel E7500 chipset, identification of ATI RADEON 8800 and Fire GL 8700/8800 cards, detection of Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor - M, support for 533 MHz QDR Pentium 4 bus, recognition of Intel Xeon Processor MP, etc. Additionally, HWiNFO32 1.06 has a support for PCI-X bus, enhanced CD/DVD drive information (reports R/W capabilities), and so on.

MemTach 0.93 Alpha has been released! This version adds two new experimental tests: RASum Double and RAPSum Double - these tests traverse memory backwards in order to disable automatic prefetch lookahead in Athlon XP processors. This version also adds file consistency checking in order to prevent corrupted test results.

[01.04.2002]MEMORyAL has been updated to version 3.1! It has some minor improvements.

Show Me The Colors! 4.0 has been released! It has some new features, including better test information and a Check for Update feature.

[31.03.2002]nVidia has released ChameleonMark, a performance tool for measuring pixel shader performance for a variety of shaders. It is based upon the popular "Chameleon" demo released by NVIDIA with the introduction of the GeForce3 line of GPUs. The benchmark (49.5Mb) can be downloaded at the company's website.

[30.03.2002]Off topic. Tweakers Australia has posted part two of the Case Cooling Guide that I mentioned two days ago! So, head on to Tweakers Australia to read the sequel!

MEMORyAL 3.0 is available for download! This version includes memory write and read speed monitoring, disk(s) write and read speed monitoring, improved interface, and so on.

AIDA32 1.30 has been released! New in this version: antivirus software list, installed fonts list, DirectShow filters list, NetEye, customization of (M)HTML report look, and more!

[29.03.2002]A new review has been added to our Reviews section: Hot CPU Tester!

Dacris Software has revealed the name of its forthcoming benchmark codenamed "Dacris Benchmarks 6": it will be released under the name of "Dacris Benchmarks .NET"! The program uses the latest .NET technology available from Microsoft. The beta version (for testers) is coming out in July. More information on this can be obtained from the developer's website.

[28.03.2002]Off topic. Tweakers Australia has posted an article on Case Cooling! It will show you how you can tidy up your case to maximise cool air flowing to your CPU and components, and hot air out of your case, etc. Check it out!

HMonitor 4.0.4.1 has been released! New in this version: nVidia nForce chipsets SMB support added, ITE 8705/8712 support enhanced, "KeepOnscreen" option added into System menu, and more.

[27.03.2002]IDE/ATAPI Bus Utilization Monitor has been added!

[26.03.2002]Cachemem, an utility that tests the read/write performance of your memory (cache and RAM) has been added!

[25.03.2002]ASTRA 4.02 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements. Among them: added detection of processor serial number, added detection of Intel Xeon MP, Intel Xeon (Prestonia), Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood), Intel Pentium 4-M, Intel Pentium III-S, Intel Celeron Mobile (Tualatin), AMD Athlon XP, AMD Athlon (Palomino), AMD Duron (Palomino), AMD Duron Mobile (Palomino), AMD Duron Mobile (Spitfire) processors, added detection of clock multiplier of AMD Athlon (Palomino), AMD Duron (Morgan), VIA Cyrix III (Samuel) and VIA C3 processors, added detection of new processors features: Pending Break Event and AMD Multiprocessing Capable, bugfixes, and more. The full list can be found at the program's official page.

CPUBENCH has been updated to version 2.2.3.0! It includes some minor improvements.

[24.03.2002]CPUCooL 7.0.15 has been released! Here's what's new: new AMD chipset support, ITE87XX sensor fix, minor bug fixes.

NOVALOGIC has released the Comanche 4 benchmark demo! It represents a real-world gaming experience. It contains the single player "Eagle's Talon" mission from the game as well as a detailed cinematic. This DirectX 8.1 benchmark demo will measure your system's performance in the standard frames per second format. Click here to download the file (57.3Mb).

[23.03.2002]Another update in our reviews section: PCMark2002 review!

FreshDiagnose 3.75 has been released! What's new: OLE Objects module enhancement.

[22.03.2002]CD/DVD Capabilities Viewer has been added!

[21.03.2002]Memory Optimizer, a memory monitoring and managing tool has been added!

[20.03.2002]CPUBENCH 2.2.2.0 has been released! This version has some minor interface improvements and bugfixes, plus a new option "Execute all tests".

PC Pitstop has made some updates to the ActiveX control to improve accuracy of its online tests.

[19.03.2002]SPD Tool has been updated to version 1.2! New in this release: changed command line arguments, added "save SPD to file" command, VIA 8233 Southbridge support, DDR support, bugfixes, etc.

[18.03.2002]One of my personal favourite benchmarking sites - Quickbench - is back! Be sure to visit the site, it worths a look!

tecCHANNEL Benchmark Suite has been added!

[17.03.2002]If you want to be sure that you're safe surfing the web or you just want to check the efficiency of your firewall, then you really should visit the following sites.
[16.03.2002]CD-ROM Productions, the developer of CD-R Diagnostic, has changed its name to Arrowkey! Plus, they have released CD-R Diagnostic 1.7.2! Changes from the previous version include: improved handling of device interface for Windows 9x/Me, fixes for access violations in UDF disc handling, additional checking for corrupted UDF VAT tables, etc.

[15.03.2002]SPD Tool, an utility that will identify your DIMM modules, has been added!

[14.03.2002]Off topic. Our friends at RubyMicro Software have released their new product - DriverMAGIC! This is an unique and innovative solution to almost all driver problems experienced by PC hardware consumers. DriverMAGIC gives you total control over your hardware drivers, including the ability to automatically update them off the internet. The program has the following features:
  • automatically updates the latest drivers via the internet
  • extract and re-create drivers
  • advanced driver removal feature
  • comprehensive help and online support
You can download DriverMAGIC (5.8 Mb) from the official site. And be sure to visit the site itself!

FRAPS 1.7A is available for download! This version fixes a few things. You can find the details at the author's website.

TechFacts XP 2.00 has been released! New in this version: configurable system monitors, Hex/Ascii File editor, Disk Sector viewer.

[13.03.2002]A little CPU benchmarking program called CPUBENCH has been added!

[12.03.2002]MadOnion.com has released its new benchmark - PCMark2002! It is available for download locally from BenchmarkHQ!

SiSoftware has published the list of known issues with Sandra 2002. Thus, the program now has some problems with VIA KT333 Chipset, VIA 8233A SouthBridge, Intel E7500 Chipset, Intel Xeon 4 CPU, Ali Chipsets/SouthBridges. More information on this can be obtained from the official page.

Nero InfoTool 1.01 has been released! New in this version: DVD+R support, log function added, CD-RW write detection, DVD-R/-RW/+RW read detection, write speed detection, blank DVD disc detection, bugfixes.

[11.03.2002]MadOnion.com has revealed the name of its new product - PCMark2002! The release is scheduled for tomorrow. So, stay tuned!

[10.03.2002]CPUCooL 7.0.14 has been released! Here's what's new: KR7A (RTM560-266R) PLL added, VIA KT333 chipset support, ITE87XX sensor fix, Dell notebook monitor added, minor bug fixes.

As I already wrote, the next version of Sandra will debut in both ANSI & Unicode (x86 & IA64). Now SiSoftware has once more stressed its intention to deprecate the support for Windows 98/Me. The company says, that the ANSI version will be phased out in due course.

FreeMeter 2.7.1 has been released! This version fixes all known bugs.

[09.03.2002]MadOnion.com is about to release a "completely new benchmark" on Tuesday! There's no any information on what it will be exactly. So, the only way to find out is to wait. Any guesses?

[08.03.2002]New versions of a few programs are expected to be released in the near future! Among them there are Nero InfoTool 1.01 and DVDSpeed 0.53 from Erik Deppe; CpuIDMax from Jonathan Schwabe!

[07.03.2002]DiskSpeed32 3.0 has been released! The detailed information on changes is unavailable now. But be sure to look at it, because it has a totally new interface and support for Windows XP!

SCSITool, a diagnostics and benchmarking tool for SCSI (storage) devices, has been added!

[06.03.2002]TechFacts XP 1.80 has been released! Here's what's new in this version: added "Custom Report" option to Reports section, corrected bug where zero length data was causing report generator to crash, plus some minor improvements.

[05.03.2002]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility has been updated to version 4.5 to support the latest Intel processors!

[04.03.2002]According to SiSoftware, the next version of Sandra will debut in both ANSI & Unicode (x86 & IA64)! At the same time the company has once more postponed the release dates of its two other products. Now "Samantha" is expected in Q2 2002, and "Jemima" only in 2003.

NetInfo 4.3 (Build 303) is available for download! It includes improved user interface, a completely rewritten, vastly improved printing support, and improved Scanner tool.

[03.03.2002]TaskInfo2002 4.0.0.45 has been released! This version corrects a bug caused the program to hang with Norton System Doctor under Windows 9x/Me.

RightMark Audio Analyzer 3.3 has been released! Major changes include:
  • new levels setup interface featuring realtime THD monitor;
  • option for saving graphs in PNG format from the spectrum graph window;
  • standardized dithering algorithm (standard TPDF dither);
  • better Win2K, WDM compatibility;
  • increased stability (several minor bugs fixed).

Quick SystemInfo 1.29 is available for download! Here's what's new: more information, improved File Information utility, clipboard viewer, modem detection, some minor improvements, and more.

[02.03.2002]Memtest86 2.9 has been released! New in this version:
  • The memory sizing code has been completely rewritten.
  • Testing of more than 2gb of memory should now work.
  • Memory is divided into segments for testing. This allow for frequent progress updates and responsiveness to interactive commands. The memory segment size has been increased from 8 to 32mb. This should improve testing effectivness but progress reports will be less frequent.
  • Minor bug fixes.

[01.03.2002]Just as it was promised, Motherboard Monitor 5.1.0.7 has been released! This version includes the new MBMIO driver, support for a load of new sensors, new southbridges and more! The detailed information can be obtained from the official website.

An update for Dacris Benchmarks 4.9 has been released! Click here to download it (800Kb).

AIDA 1.56 and AIDA32 1.20 have been released!
AIDA 1.56 has a support for GeForce4 chips from MX 420 to Ti 4600, including GeForce4 440 Go, plus Quadro4 family. The detailed list can be found on the program's page.
And here's what's new in AIDA32 1.20: audit using AIDA/DOS reports, customizable statistics, extended statistics, navigation buttons, physical info for SCSI hard disks, video adapter manufacturer info, remote system information!

Webserver Stress Tool has been updated to version 5.3! New in this version: even more enhanced cookie handling, all settings are now logged into the detailed logfile, and some minor improvements.

[28.02.2002]FRAPS 1.7 has been released! It has the following innovations:
  • Fraps now draws the counter for all DirectX and OpenGL games using simple polygons to ensure minimal overhead. The performance hit of running Fraps with your game should be under 1% in all circumstances.
  • Because of the above change, some older games (DirectX7 or earlier) that used to crash now work fine.
  • Advanced options have been added. It is now possible to disable the hotkeys for Screen Capture and Manual Logging.
  • For the hardcore benchmarkers there is now the option to save the framerate to file every second.

[27.02.2002]The release of Motherboard Monitor 5.1.0.7 is pretty close. The forthcoming version will have the new MBMIO driver, it will support a load of new sensors, new southbridges and more! The detailed information can be obtained from the official website.

Advanced PCI Info utility has been added!

[26.02.2002]MBProbe 1.31 beta 9 is out with some more fixes: AMD 768 SMBus host support, fixed VIA VT8231 voltages, workaround for some boards failing to do SMBus word read for LM75s, and more!

TestMem4 - the fourth generation of the TestMem project has been added!

[25.02.2002]TaskInfo2002 4.0.0.44 has been released! New in this release: added GraphBar with Graphs of Physical Memory/Virtual Memory/CPU/CPUs Usage, toolbar, CPU Usage Graph as a variant of Tray Icon Animation, plus a few bugfixes.

CPUCooL 7.0.13 is out! Here's what's new: SIS 735 more stable, KT266(A) cooling, SDRAM refresh corrected, PLL's added, Verax silent fans added.

[24.02.2002]It's time to sum up the results of our current poll and to start the new one! Well, here's which type of RAM our visitors have installed in their systems:
  1. SDRAM - 58.68%
  2. DDR - 33.07%
  3. Rambus - 7.27%
  4. Other - 0.97%
You can always check these results on their permanent page. Now, here's the new question: "How fast is your CPU?". Cast your vote!

[23.02.2002]Another stress-test utility, called Toast, has been added!

[22.02.2002]A little updated Nokia Monitor Test is available for download from BenchmarkHQ! This version includes special tests for LCD.

[21.02.2002]Hot CPU Tester 3.1 is out! New in this version: DefectTech v1.1 can detect a wider range of errors and illegal instructions, improved modules: QuickSort and Chipset, some minor bugfixes and improvements.

FreshDiagnose 3.50 has been released! What's new: Snapshot-Threads module added, system report enhancement, and all reported bugs fixed.

CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.28b! Changes from previous versions include: added popup menu to report window, improved behaviour of report window (works faster), improved auto compacting of error messages to improved .crf file loading and error reporting, plus some bugfixes.

Quick SystemInfo 1.18 is available for download! This version includes information on fonts, as well as some bugfixes and code improvements.

[20.02.2002]StatWin Professional, a program intended for versatile system monitoring, has been added! Recommended for everybody!

[19.02.2002]At last, after a long pause, there's an update in the Reviews section! Check out the latest AIDA32 review!

Speed-O-Meter, a program that measures the TCP/IP speed of all interfaces on your machine, has been added!

[18.02.2002]PassMark Software has updated some of its products.
The company's flagship PerformanceTest has been updated to version 3.5.1002! It fixes some bugs and adds the HTML Export function, which now exports system information for logging and inventory purposes.
ModemTest 1.1.1002 has some minor bugfixes and improvements.
MonitorTest 2.0 has the following innovations: display of additional system information: number of monitors, number of video adapters, adapter names and monitor names; new font test, master screen, printer color calibration, LCD persistence test; monitor refresh rate is now displayed for Windows 98 and Me; and more!

[17.02.2002]CPUCooL 7.0.12 has been released! New in this revision: KT266 should work now, small bug fixes.

[16.02.2002]CPU Hi-t, a CPU stability tester, has been added!

[15.02.2002]HARDiNFO 2002 version 3.01 has been released! Here's what's new in this release: added German Language Support, fixed the Make Reports option and the System Services start and stop options.

[14.02.2002]Show Me The Colors! has been updated to version 3.9.1! Information on changes is unavailable at the moment.

[13.02.2002]NEC Monitor Test has been added!

MadOnion.com has released 3DMark2001 Second Edition! Just as it was expected, it has the following innovations:
  • Support for Microsoft DirectX 8.1
  • Fully compatible with Windows XP
  • A new DirectX 8.1 feature test, utilizing Pixel Shader 1.4
  • Updated 'System Info' which can display additional system configuration info, including installed hard drives and AGP settings.
  • The usage of compressed textures has been optimized.
  • Support for the latest AMD and Intel processors.
  • All reported compatibility issues fixed.
  • Benchmark results from the original release of 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2001 SE are comparable.

[12.02.2002]Finally, CDCheck 3.0.0.27 has been released! This is a final, stable release.

Quick SystemInfo, a system information utility for your Windows XP system, has been added!

[11.02.2002]Intel Corporation has released Chipset Identification Utility, which provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard. Click here to download it (104Kb). More information is available here.

CPUCooL 7.0.11 has been released! Here's what's new: KT266(A) bug fix, "administrator login" bug fix, small bug fixes.

[10.02.2002]Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks 4.9! And concurrently the company has announced a major revision to its flagship product, which is now code-named "Dacris Benchmarks 6"! This entirely new product will integrate the best features from Dacris PC Designer and Dacris TweakWiz into an application service framework. Read the full press-release.

[09.02.2002]System Analyser 5.2o has been released! New in this version: writing speed of CD-writers, support for several new Promise IDE cards added, network drive share names added, etc. Plus a lot of improvements and bugfixes. You can learn more about it here.

Motherboard Monitor 5.1.0.6 BETA is available for download! This is only a beta release, so please remember that it can be unstable and can cause some problems. If you want to try it, please, head here.

[08.02.2002]CPU-Z 1.12 has been released! This version supports VIA KT266(A), Apollo Pro 266 and P4X266(A) chipset, plus new CPU features, including the full features flags.

[07.02.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.26 Beta! It contains numerous bugfixes.

SIGuardian, a HDD health control tool, has been added!

[06.02.2002]SMARTUDM 1.32 has been released! It has a new command line parameter /R (report), now it also returns exit codes, detects disk size, etc.

[05.02.2002]FRAPS has been updated to version 1.6A! It fixes a few minor bugs, plus now it has OpenGL support for non MS implementations (WickedGL, CosmoGL, 3dfxGL), the OpenGL state is now saved correctly, better support in DX8 and OGL for games running in windowed mode.

HWiNFO and HWiNFO32 have been updated!
New in HWiNFO 4.83: added support for Clock Multiplier and Max. Allowed Freq. for Northwood, detection of SiS 315 video chipset, updated detection of GeForce4 and Quadro4 family (based on NV17 and NV25), support for ATI graphics cards, etc.
HWiNFO32 1.05 has the following changes: added support for Clock Multiplier and Max. Allowed Freq. for Northwood, detection and support for Intel SpeedStep technology, detection of SiS 315 video chipset, updated detection of GeForce4 and Quadro4 family (based on NV17 and NV25), support for ATI graphics cards, updated IDE/ATAPI drive detection, detection of SCSI devices, and more.

[04.02.2002]After a long pause, Hot CPU Tester 3.0 has been released! This version has a wealth of new features and improvements. Here are just some of them:
  • Uniquely designed DefecTech technology for more accurate diagnostic
  • New modules: QuickSort and Peripherals
  • Logging feature added
  • New LiveSupport feature with full technical support
  • AutoUpdate feature added
  • New libraries & instructions set added for Intel Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon XP
  • Support for Microsoft Windows XP
  • New interface & look

Webserver Stress Tool has been updated to version 5.2! This is a maintenance release with some minor bugfixes.

[03.02.2002]SynthMARK 2002 Final has been released! This version has plenty of new feature, results browser, and more! Everything that was expected! So, check it out!

[02.02.2002]Resource Patrol 2.10 has been released! This version's new features include: determination of an operating system's support for MMX, SSE, etc., ability to unload a DLL, extended information on the swap file, a few bugfixes, and more.

CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.25 Beta!

[01.02.2002]Techfacts XP, a powerful system information and diagnostic tool, has been added!

[31.01.2002]You may experience problems running eTestingLabs' benchmarks on a system with a processor faster than 2GHz. A solution for this and other problems can be found here.

AIDA 1.54 and AIDA32 1.10 have been released!
Here are some of the new features of AIDA32 1.10: CPU manufacturer info, motherboard manufacturer info, chipset manufacturer info, monitor manufacturer info, CD/DVD device manufacturer info, SCSI/RAID adapter manufacturer info, memory benchmark, and more!
AIDA 1.54 has some minor improvements.

[30.01.2002]S.M.A.R.T. Vision, a S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utility, has been added!

[29.01.2002]FRAPS 1.6 has been released! The main innovation is a support for OpenGL. Besides, this version has some bugfixes.

[28.01.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.24 Beta!

CPUCooL 7.0.10 has been released! Here's what's new: KT266A cooling rework, minor bug fixes.

Motherboard Monitor 5.1.0.5 BETA is available for download! Since this is only a beta release, it can be unstable and can cause some problems. So, if you want to try it, please, head here.

[27.01.2002]FreeMeter 2.7.0 has been released! New in this version: ability of Copy the Drive Space meter data to the clipboard, some minor improvements and a few bugfixes. And much more new features in the Professional edition. You can learn everything here.

[26.01.2002]Resource Patrol 2.10 Beta Test is out! Among this version's new features: determination of an operating system's support for MMX, SSE, etc., ability to unload a DLL, extended information on the swap file, a few bugfixes, and more.

CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.23 Beta!

[25.01.2002]Show Me The Colors!, an utility designed to test and adjust the monitor, has been added!

[24.01.2002]SiSoftware has restored the WebUpdate service for users of the professional version of Sandra! Now they can update their copies to version 2002.1.8.59.

[23.01.2002]GL_EXT_reme, a small OpenGL benchmarking utility, has been added!

[22.01.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.22 Release Candidate 2! It has some minor improvements and a few bugfixes. Besides, this Release Candidate 2 version should be more stable.

TaskInfo 2002 4.0.0.39 has been released! Here are some of its new features: "Show Processes Icons" item added to the "Preferences" menu, corrected bug with hanging in WinNT4/2000/XP, and more.

[21.01.2002]CPUCooL 7.0.9 has been released! New in this version: KT266(a)/SIS635/NForce 420/AMD760 chipset bugfixes, new cooling server for KT266(A)/AMD760, Spanish language added, bug fixes.

[20.01.2002]FreeMeter 2.7.0 is now in beta testing stage for Professional users! This means that in the near furure we can expect a release with a number of new features and bugfixes.

[19.01.2002]Resource Patrol 2.10 release is delaying! But there are some details on the new features of the forthcoming version. Among them: determination of an operating system's support for MMX, SSE, etc., ability to unload a DLL, a few bugfixes, and more.

[18.01.2002]3DMark2001 Second Edition has been announced! The release date is not set. 3DMark2001 SE will have the following innovations:
  • Support for Microsoft DirectX 8.1
  • Fully compatible with Windows XP
  • A new DirectX 8.1 feature test, utilizing Pixel Shader 1.4
  • Updated 'System Info' which can display additional system configuration info, including installed hard drives and AGP settings.
  • The usage of compressed textures has been optimized.
  • Support for the latest AMD and Intel processors.
  • All reported compatibility issues fixed.
  • Benchmark results from the original release of 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2001 SE are comparable.
The updated version will be distributed as a full install only! No patches will be available.

AMD N-Bench 2 is now available for download! This version has been rewritten from scratch and now supports SSE, SSE2, Enhanced 3DNow!, and 3DNow! Professional.


[17.01.2002]FreshDiagnose 3.25 is out! New in this version: a Snapshot Modules module added.

[16.01.2002]Off-topic. Our friends at EXHardware have posted up a review of some really nice studio microphones from Oktava, a Russian manufacturer of fine studio microphones. These mics are perfect if you're on a tight budget but want performance without paying too much. Be sure to check this review out!

Drive Temperature, a HDD temperature monitoring utility, has been added!

[15.01.2002]A new edition of RightMark Audio Analyzer has been added! RightMark Audio Analyzer Acoustics Testing Edition is intended for acoustic systems testing.

RightMark Audio Analyzer 3.2 has been released! Windows 2000 and Windows XP are supported correctly now! Some minor bugs were fixed. Antialiasing for spectrograms was added (only for HTML reports).

[14.01.2002]HMonitor 4.0.3.4 has been released! Information on changes is unavailable now. Obviously, this version has a few bugfixes.

[13.01.2002]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility has been updated to version 4.0 to support all the latest Intel processors, including Intel Xeon Processor and Pentium 4.

[12.01.2002]Dacris Software has revealed some release dates! According to these dates, Dacris Benchmarks 5.0 built upon the architecture of Dacris Benchmarks 4.9, adding numerous new features and usability enhancements, is expected to be released on 5/15/2002. Alpha-version should be released on 3/5/2002.

[11.01.2002]CpuIDMAX Build 100 has been released! It's most notable new feature is a support for Intel Pentium 4 "Northwood".

FreshDiagnose 3.00 is out! This version has a new module - Display Adapter Benchmark.

[10.01.2002]MadOnion.com, together with Westwood & NVIDIA, have announced a new application of MadOnion.com's Performance Analyzer! This new online service allows gamers to automatically have their computer's performance measured and then determines if it meets the minimum system requirements needed to play Westwood's new Command and Conquer Renegade™ game. Full Press Release can be found here.

[09.01.2002]A long-awaited version of Sandra Standard 2002 (2002.1.8.59) has been released! It contains a wealth of new features and improvements, most notable being enhanced database, queue delivery support and HyperThreading. Plus almost all that have been added to the Professional version earlier. Sandra Professional 2002 (2002.1.8.59) has also been released! But, it seems, that all the professional users will have to wait until the WebUpdate service will be put in operation again.

CPUCooL 7.08 has been released! New in this version: Slovenian and Swedish languages added, NForce 420 chipset added, SIS735 chipset PLL readout error fixed, minor bug fixes.

Motherboard Monitor has been updated to version 5.1.0.4! It has a few bugfixes and improvements. The detailed list can be found here.

[08.01.2002]SiSoftware has disabled the WebUpdate service for users of the professional version of Sandra temporarily due to the large number of requests which have overloaded the Update Server.

HWiNFO and HWiNFO32 have been updated!
New in HWiNFO 4.82: updated support for DDR SDRAM modules, added detection of ATI A3 chipset, recognition of ALi M1671 Aladdin P4 chipset, detailed information about nForce chipset components, detection of AMD-760MPX chipset, nVidia NV17M and S3 Twister video chipsets, Intel 845D chipset, etc.
HWiNFO32 1.04 has the following changes: updated support for DDR SDRAM modules, added detection of ATI A3 chipset, recognition of ALi M1671 Aladdin P4 chipset, enhanced system summary sheet, detailed information about nForce chipset components, detection of AMD-760MPX chipset, nVidia NV17M and S3 Twister video chipsets, Intel 845D chipset, and more!

[07.01.2002]Dacris Software has released Dacris Benchmarks 4.9 Release Candidate 1! Final version is expected on February 1.

[06.01.2002]WCPUID 3.0f has been released! It supports the latest CPU's and chipset.

One of our readers made an important addition to the description of SpeedFan. The fact is that the program can control the speed of the fans either automatically or manually. The list of motherboards that support this feature can be found here. Anyway, SpeedFan deserves a closer look!

[05.01.2002]CDCheck has been updated to version 3.0.0.21b! This version has plenty of bugfixes and a few improvements.

FreshDiagnose 2.75 has been released! New in this version: snapshot module added (it will take a snapshot of your system's activity), and reported bug fixed.

[04.01.2002]SynthMARK 2002 Final release is expected by the end of this month. And now you can look at the latest screenshots.



[03.01.2002]Another OpenGL test, called MaxBench, has been added!

[02.01.2002]One of the creators of 3DMark, Markus Mäki has been interviewed at devArticles.com! The talk was about the 3DMark series, Max Payne, etc. So, take a look.

[01.01.2002]First news of the year 2002! Resource Patrol 2.10 release is expected on 20.01.2002! There's no information available on any prospective features or changes at the moment.

[31.12.2001]I'd like to wish you a Happy New Year and all the best for 2002! Thank you for your support throughout the year, I hope you enjoyed visiting BenchmarkHQ in 2001. I will do my best to make this site even better and wish to see you in 2002!