Download of the day: SiSoftware Sandra

[sincity]

SiSoftware Sandra can diagnose almost any aspect of your computer's hardware, providing an invaluable tool if you want to tweak or overclock your PC.

Why you need it

If you're looking to keep a close eye on the internal workings of your computer's hardware, SiSoftware Sandra can tell you exactly what's what. Its diagnostics service and huge range of tools provide a wealth of information on more or less anything you need them to, giving you an excellent insight into what's working well – and what's not.

That makes it useful for a range of different scenarios. Whether you're looking to replace old hardware or overclock your system, knowing how well your computer's components are performing is essential.

So to that end, Sandra takes a detailed look at pretty much any aspect of your PC's innards, including its memory, hard drive, motherboard, processor, BIOS, network, Windows internals, peripherals and a whole lot more.

You can use its benchmark tools to see how your hardware compares to other components on the market, while the Performance Tune-Up feature analyses your system and suggests improvements you could make to boost its performance. Sandra looks at so much – using 60 different tools – that it should probably feature in everyone's PC toolkit.

Key features

• Works on: PC
• Versions: Lite (free), Personal ($49.99; about £33.09), Business ($199.99; about £132.34), Tech Support ($299.99; about £198.52), Tech Support Plus ($349.99; about £231.61), Enterprise ($2,195; about £1,452.71)
• Diagnostic tools: There are about 60 different tools in Sandra to help you work out what could be improved in your system
• Improvement advice: Sandra doesn't just show you the state of your hardware, it actively suggests improvements you could make to get even more out of it

You'll also like

• Glary Utilities
• CPU-Z
• WinDirStat
• FurMark
• EVEREST Home Edition