I tend to obsess about details. This makes me a pretty good journalist (and an occasionally irritating husband). But instead of using my powers to annoy, I prefer to use them for good--the good of my PC, that is. And when I want to get into the nitty-gritty details of my computer, I use SiSoftware's Sandra.

SiSoftware just released Service Pack 2, an update to the 2004 version of its venerable software, whose friendly sounding name is an acronym for System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. There's not much in the way of additional tools in this update, but among other things the company added support for Intel's 64-bit extended processors, optimized its support for Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit chips, and included support for DDR-2. Cool.

Best of all, the company continues to offer a free version of the software to personal and educational users. (You can download a copy from PC World.) The standard version lacks a few features you'll get in the $35 download of the Pro version, but it still offers up plenty of details on your PC's hardware, software, and performance. In fact, there's enough data there to keep me up nights.

Details, Details, and More Details

I built my home PC, so I know all the intricate details of that beauty. (If you show me your BIOS, I'll show you mine.) But my work PC was largely a mystery, configured and delivered by PC World's hardworking IT staff with no input from me.

Instead of prying open the system to see what was inside, I turned to Sandra 2004 to peer under the hood. The app is chock full of Information Modules that help you track down details on everything from your motherboard to your sound card to which version of Direct X you're running.

You can access these modules individually, or you can have Sandra complete a basic system summary for you. I used the latter feature and found out that Norm in IT set me up right when he ordered this system a while back. In addition to a speedy Pentium 4 processor and a decent sum of memory, he included an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. Hey, that's better than my card at home!

While Microsoft Windows can give you the same data, Sandra brings everything together in one place, then heaps on details like these:

Processor Model: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz
Processor Name: P4N (Northwood) Pentium 4C 130nm 1.6-3.4 GHz 1.475-1.575V
Processor IO Que Depth: 12 requests

Huh?

Yes, Sandra can get pretty darn specific. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I used the "Create a Report" wizard to get an in-depth listing of not only my hardware, but also all my apps. Sandra output the results into a text file, which I copied and pasted into a Word document. The end results: a 2264-page document loaded with every conceivable bit of minutiae contained in my PC. The file contains everything from the motherboard specs to the ins and outs of my keyboard to a play-by-play of each and every system event.

That's a lot of detail. Thankfully, I didn't hit Print before looking at the page count.

Benchmark It

Once you tire of perusing the descriptions of each and every font that resides on your PC, it's time to get down to the business of benchmarking. Here at PC World we take benchmarking very seriously. In fact, we produce our very own benchmark suite.

Right now the PC World Test Center is putting the final touches on the first batch of reviews based on the brand-new PC WorldBench 5. (The new test debuts in our September issue; if you're curious about what we've been using till now, read "A Field Guide to PC World's PC WorldBench 4.") It's one of the coolest benchmark suites you'll ever see, and it gets its magic from using real, everyday programs.

Sandra doesn't work that way. Its benchmark tests simulate heavy workloads using special programs that stress a PC's various hardware components. There's nothing wrong with that, but it is different from app-based tests, and SiSoftware makes that clear in its tips section, which notes: "The benchmark is synthetic and measures one aspect of system performance. It is not meant to indicate real-life performance, whatever the latter means for you."

Synthetic benchmarks can be useful, though. Interested in how your processor stacks up against the competition? Run the CPU Arithmetic Benchmark. (My P4 was a hair faster than the same processor's average as listed in the software.) Interested in measuring your chip set's RAM throughput? Run the Memory Bandwidth Benchmark. (My Dell motherboard, based on Intel's 875P chip set, was a little sluggish compared to SiSoftware's average for that chip set.)

Sandra offers additional benchmarks that test everything from your flash storage to your network connections to your optical drives. You can run them one by one, or you can use the program's Combined Performance Index wizard to get the big picture. Concerned about system stability? Try the Burn In wizard, which repeats the benchmark suite over and over, stressing your system to see if anything breaks.

Tune It Up

And finally, if you're interested in not only finding out how your system stacks up, but also how to make it run better, you can use the Performance Tune-Up wizard, which runs the various tests and then offers tips to improve your PC's performance. The tips aren't always super helpful: "Turn off screen savers," is one example. But some tips are useful; and some even contain a nugget of Zen-like truth, such as "A mouse with wheel is recommended for better control."

If you obsess about details the way I do, you'll probably enjoy trying Sandra 2004. Better yet, your PC may just end up working better when you're through.

Just remember, you don't have to work your way through all 2000-plus pages of your system details in one sitting. Save some of the fun for another day.

Tom Mainelli is currently obsessed with the number of times he used the word "obsess" in this column. Feel free to e-mail him your count.