Sandra 101: A Primer - www.sysopt.com

Analyze and Diagnose Your PC With SiSoft Sandra

If you like Norton Utilities, Quarterdeck's diagnostic utilties, etc., SiSoft's Sandra will blow you away! Sandra stands for the "System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant." Sandra includes 48 information, benchmarking, listing & testing/diagnostic modules that give you tons of detailed information about your Windows 95/98 PC.

But the best part of all is that it includes detailed information that PC tweakers and enthusiasts can definitely appreciate, such as what bus speed your system is operating at, clock multiplier settings, motherboard manufacturer and board ID No. string, etc. It will definitely prove useful in helping to keep your PC running at peak performance.

Instead of a general summary, I thought I'd give you detailed information about each one of Sandra's modules, or at least about the most major ones. See the screenshots from the various diagnostic modules and read all about the features below, or Download Sandra if you want to jump right in and give it a try.

New Features for Sandra '99!

New CPU Multi-Media Benchmark module, with MMX, 3DNow! & SSE (Streaming SIMD) support. Here you can see how the new multi-media extensions would speed up a typical graphics application, in both integer and floating point mode.
New Network Benchmark module. Test the response and transfer rate of hosts on your network.
Enhanced Memory Benchmark module. Now tests both CPU (integer) and FPU (floating point) to memory bandwidth.
2 report formats: SMS to allow easy importing to a Microsoft SMS management system; HTML for Internet compatibility. The current .TXT and .RPT format have been slightly enhanced also.
Support for Intel Pentium III, Xeon III, Celeron 400+; AMD K6-III, K7; Rise mP6; Cyrix MediaGXm and other processors (TBA).
DIMM memory analyser (by SPD). Now you can get all the information (manufacturer, serial no, timings, CAS, parity) about your memory modules.
DirectX 6.1 support (inc. SSE & 3DNow!), including the new DirectMusic interface as well as support for older versions.
Support for Intel ZX, ZX66; SiS 530, 600; VIA Apollo Pro chipsets. Resolved issues with ALI Apollo chipsets.
System monitoring support for Super Socket 7 systems and Celeron Socket 370 boards.
Enhanced AGP support (4x) and video card detection.

System Information Modules

System Summary

Computer Manufacturer
Processor
Performance Rating
L2 CPU On-board Cache
System Bus(es)
System BIOS

System Chipset
Installed Memory
Monitor Name
Video Adapter Name
Installed Drives and other devices, etc.

Motherboard Information

Basic Information
- Manufacturer
- Motherboard Name/Model
- System Version
- Board ID No.
Memory Controller Information
- Error Detection Method
- Error Correction Capability
- Supported Memory Interleave
- Current Memory Interleave
- Number of Memory Slots
- Maximum Installable Memory
- Maximum Module Size
- Supported Memory Speeds
- Supported Memory Types
- Supported Memory Voltages
Physical Memory Banks
- DIMM1 Memory Bank
- DIMMx Memory Bank
Chipset Information
- System Chipset
- Memory Bus Speed
- CPU Speed Multiplier

Logical Memory Banks Information

Memory Bank 0
Memory Bank x

AGP Bus Information

AGP Bus Version
AGP Bus Speed
AGP Data Transfer Rate
AGP Currently Enabled

PCI Bus Information

PCI Bus Version
PCI Bus Speed
PCI Speed Multiplier

USB Bus Information

USB Bus Version
USB Bus Speed

Expansion Slots Information

Port Connectors Information

Performance Tips

Even lists the ID No. String - Useful for identifying unknown boards.

CPU & BIOS Information

BIOS Information
- BIOS Manufacturer
- BIOS Version
- BIOS Date
- Plug & Play Version
- DMI Version
- BIOS ID No.
- ROM Size
- System BIOS Properties
CPU(s) Information
- Motherboard Type
- Processor
- Processor Type
- Performance Rating
- Pentium Performance Rating
- Co-Processor
- CPU Class
- CPU Revision
- CPU Model
- CPU Stepping
- Internal Code Cache
- Internal Data Cache
- L2 CPU On-board Cache
- CPU to L2 Cache Bus Speed
CPU Socket Information
- Socket Type
- Upgrading
- Maximum Speed
- Supported Voltages

CPU Monitor Information
- VCore Voltage
- Vaux Voltage
CPU Feature Flags [all are yes/no]
- Co-Processor (FPU) Built-in
- Virtual Mode Extensions
- Debugging Extensions
- Page Size Extensions
- Time Stamp Counter
- Model Specific registers
- Physical Address Extension
- Machine Check Exception
- CMPXCHJG8B Instruction
- APIC Built-in
- Fast System Call
- Memory Type Range Registers
- Page Global Enable
- Machine Check Architecture
- Conditional Move Instruction
- Page Attribute Table
- 36-bit Page Size Extension
- MMX Technology
- FXSAVE/FXRSTOR Instruction
- AMD 3D Technology
Performance Tips

Lots of useful info about your BIOS.

Correctly identifies the CPU model, revision, etc. Impressive.

Other System Information Modules:

APM (Advanced Power Management) Info (Prof.Only)

PCI & AGP bus & devices Info

Video Information (monitor, card, video bios, caps, etc.)

Video 3D Information (Prof.Only)

DirectX (Draw, 3D, Sound, Play) Info

Keyboard Info

Mouse Info

Sound Card (wave, midi, aux, mix) Info

MCI Devices (mpeg, avi, seq, vcr, video-disc, wave) Info

Joystick Info

Printers Info

DOS Memory Info (base, HMA, UMB, XMS, EMS, DPMI, VCPI)

Windows Memory Info

Windows (& DOS) Info

Font (Raster, Vector, TrueType) Information

Modem/TA Information (Prof.Only)

Network Information (Prof.Only)

WinSock (Internet) Information

Drives Information (HD, CDROM, Memory, etc.)

Ports (Serial/Parallel) Info

Remote Access Service Connections (Dial-Up)

OLE objects/servers Info (Prof.Only)

Processes (Tasks) & Threads Info

Modules (DLL, DRV, etc.) Info (Prof.Only)

DOS Device Drivers Info (Prof.Only)

SCSI Information (Prof.Only)

Troubleshooting Modules

Processes

Sandra displays all of the processes that are currently running in order to help you identify possible software conflicts. When you hit "Ctrl-Alt-Del", Windows pops open a window that lists all of the processes, and gives you the option to abort them. But that's about all it does. Sandra goes into many details about each process, so you can better understand what it is (if that is not obvious), and to determine if it is the cause of a particular problem.

I/O and IRQ Settings

Few things can be more frustrating than trying to eliminate IRQ and I/O conflicts. Sandra helps simplify the task by displaying the names of the devices that are assigned to each and every IRQ and I/O address.