Tommy Nation

A few months ago, Futuremark announced their next generation benchmarking tool 3DMark Vantage. Today it has finally arrived.

I like 3DMark because it gives good indicators on where you could improve your system if its not quite up to par, and because its easy to compare your system performance with the performance of other systems like it.

The tests are all new based on DirectX 10, and take physics more seriously than earlier incarnations - which means owners of an Ageia PhysX card could see a boost in their score. I don’t have one, and I doubt you do either, but I still managed to get a score of P5308, which I hope is good. There was only one similar system to mine, not enough to get a detailed report! Time will tell as more results tick in …

Head on over to the 3DMark Vantage website for more information about Futuremark 3DMark Vantage.

When getting into overclocking your rig - whether you just want more frames per second out of your old 6600 GT in Call of Duty 4, or to be able to brag about a score above 20k in 3DMark06 - you’ll need the right tools for the job.

Here’s an introduction to some of the most used overclocking and monitoring tools!

RivaTuner

Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista (incl. 64-bit)
This application lets you overclock your NVIDIA graphics card. It was originally just a registry tweaking application for NVIDIAs old Riva TNT graphics card, but has since evolved into a much more useful tool. The most common use of RivaTuner is to set higher clock speeds on the core, shaders and memory of your graphics card(s), as well as letting you control fan thresholds and other settings. The registry tweaking is still an option however, shall you feel tempted.

ATITool

Windows XP / 2003 / 2000 (incl. 64-bit)
You guessed it - ATITool was made to overclock your ATI graphics card. However, today this application also works with NVIDIA graphics cards. If you have problems with RivaTuner, try this little bugger instead.

Prime95

Windows (incl. Windows 3.1) | Linux | FreeBSD | OS/2
This number crunching application lets you push your CPU to its limit of stability. The latest version supports multi-core processors using multiple threads. Tip: If you want to test only your CPU for stability, choose the “Small TTFs” torture test, and select “Round off checking” under the “Advanced” menu. This test uses the least amount of system memory, reducing the likelihood of your RAM being the culprit in case of failure, (but it will still be a factor).

External link: Guide to using Prime95 effectively.

SpeedFan

Windows 9x / NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP (incl. 64-bit) / Vista (not listed on the homepage)
This handy tool lets you monitor temperatures, voltages and fan speeds, and can even monitor hard disks with S.M.A.R.T. enabled. As a bonus feature it can adjust the FSB speed on some motherboards, but primarily I use SpeedFan to monitor the temperatures and voltages when overclocking. Tip: Disable SpeedStep (Intel) or Cool’n'Quiet (AMD) features in the BIOS to get accurate readings after OC’ing.

Core Temp

Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista (incl. 64-bit)
A simple, yet useful utility that lets you monitor the temperatures of your processor cores. A nice feature of Core Temp is that all CPU core temperatures can be displayed in your system tray at all times.

CPU-Z

Windows
One of the most widely used tools for overclockers. CPU-Z gathers information about your CPU, motherboard and memory timings (including SPD values).

GPU-Z

Windows 2000 / XP / Vista (incl. 64-bit)
As the name suggests, this tool is much like CPU-Z, only for graphics cards. GPU-Z gives you detailed information about your accelerator card, from make and model to clock speed and driver version. If you click the “Sensors” tab, you can handily monitor the GPU and PCB temperatures, fan speed (in per cent and RPM), and current core and memory clock speeds.

The first Beta version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 has just been released publically.

Improvements include default mode interpreting web pages much more correctly according to W3C standards. A button to “Display as IE7″ is available for debugging.

The big news that MS is touting is something they call Webslices. Essentially Webslices are like RSS feeds - small subscription services, except they can go both ways - output and input. An example of output would be a weather service, while input could be a task manager.

A crash recovery feature is also in place, to recover crashed sessions.

Oh, and it passes the Acid 2 test with flying colors. The Acid 3 test however…

Click here to download the Internet Explorer 8 beta client
(only works on XP SP2, Vista and Server 2003).

PS! I don’t recommend you install this on your main system, as it is beta software and could be unstable.

The Mozilla team has released Firefox version 2.0.0.9. This update fixes a serious Java issue on Windows Vista where Java applets don’t work like they should after Firefox crashes. Four other bugs that were preventing add-ons from working after a successful upgrade of Firefox have also been squashed.

The official release notes for Firefox 2.0.0.9 (external link).

Download Firefox 2.0.0.9 from Firefox.com.

If you already have Firefox installed, click on ”Help” and “Check for Updates…” to upgrade immediately.

You just formatted your Dell laptop and popped in that nice little Recovery CD, only to find your computer full of all kinds of crap you never asked for?

Maybe you will like PC Decrapifier - a handy little app that picks up the trash and takes it out for you too.

PC Decrapifier scans your computer and presents you with a list of highly lightly candidates for removal. You select what you want to remove and what you want to keep, and just like that - the crap is gone!

Click here to download PC Decrapifier (external link).