Computer Assembly - How To Assemble A PC
Computer Tests - SiSoft Sandra Benchmarks
The SiSoft Sandra benchmarks provides a good test since they can verify the computer is performing within expectations. It also serves to provide a lightweight stress test.
There are four tests I chose to run. Since the last one benchmarks the hard drive it will be necessary to Disable GoBack. I'm always a little reluctant to disable GoBack, but there's not many hard drive changes now compared to what there will be as time goes by, so now's a good time to do it. GoBack should be disabled with the hard drive is Defrag'ed, and a Defrag should be done now anyway for two reasons - first because it will optimize hard drive performance after the Windows XP install and second because SiSoft Sandra will give best results on a Defrag'ed hard drive.
Disable GoBack (it does not need to be uninstalled, just set to Disabled) and perform a Defrag on the hard drive (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter).
Download SiSoft Sandra Standard Edition. It's a free download, but it took me a while to puzzle out exactly what to download. It seemed to go by different names on different pages so let me share them with you to help you narrow down the field. Naturally the version and varieties may change somewhat by the time you read this. The download with 2.3MB in size and came as a Zip file.
SiSoft Sandra Standard 2002 SP1
Package 2002 (2002.6.8.97 aka san897u.zip).
Windows 32-bit x86 (Intel Compatible) Platform - Unicode Character Set
The version I downloaded installed like this. Double-click on the downloaded file to invoke the Zip utility. Extract the files into a directory, but this will not be the install directory. One of the files extracted is named Setup. Double-click the Setup file to install SiSoft Sandra Standard. I used whatever default installations options it offered.
Here are the results of the processor test with the AMD Athlon XP 1800+. Right on target with expectations! Look at how the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor is nip and tuck with the Intel Pentium 4 running at 2.0GHz!
Here are the results of the memory test with the the Crucial PC2100 memory. Great! Looks like the BIOS tweaks are helping to edge out the "typical" expectations. And these numbers are substantially better than what you would get if you went with the BIOS "Failsafe Default" values!
And to round out the "raw" motherboard performance benchmarks in SiSoft Sandra, let's take a look at the CPU Multi-Media Benchmark. Another bulls-eye!
Here are the results of the hard drive test with the the IBM 120GXP 80GB hard drive. Wow! Much better than the typical 7200rpm hard drive!
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