Dr. Hardware

If you're a hardware geek who absolutely must know every bit of information about your PC and attached hardware, including performance statistics, then Dr. Hardware may well be for you. This program gives you an almost mind-boggling amount of data, including very in-depth and detailed benchmarking of your CPU, memory, video subsystem, hard disk, and more.

For a start, Dr. Hardware offers a comprehensive list of your PC's base hardware, listing the capabilities of each, including vendor name, when available. There's also a CPU performance monitor that tracks your CPU's performance. If you have a multi-core PC, it shows the performance of each individual core.

All that is just the beginning, though. Dr. Hardware then offers more in-depth looks at each piece of hardware, track system resource usage, display information about your software, and more. Many people will also welcome the benchmark section that runs a series of tests on your hardware, and compares its results to other hardware. Note that not all features are enabled until you register. For example, the trial/demo version won't measure your system's temperature, fan, and battery voltages.

There's really only one drawback to Dr. Hardware: its price tag of $30. True hardware geeks may want to pay, but casual users who just want to get a better understanding of what's under the hood of their PC will probably find the price too steep.

--Preston Gralla