The first thing that I’m doing after I bought a computer, be it used or retail, is to check if the components installed are indeed the components advertised. I personally think this is essentially because I witnessed more than once that a computer that was sold did not contain the components that the seller claimed it would.
Some had hard drives with lesser storage, some slower RAM and another one only onboard graphics although it was advertised otherwise. While some components of a computer are easily analyzed some require a little more knowledge. Thankfully applications exist that help us determine exactly what is installed in a computer.
I start by starting a software called System Info which displays heaps of information about every installed hardware in the computer. This allows me to check the amount of RAM, the memory type and speed of it.
It reveals detailed information about the motherboard, the storage devices, CPU and graphics card. If everything seems to be alright up to this point I begin to check the hard drives and memory for errors. Checking the hard drives can be done with Scan Disk which I use.
Testing the RAM however requires a more versatile software. I do use Memtest86+ for it which takes some time to complete but tells me exactly if the RAM installed is faulty by any means.
You could go on and check if the CPU or Graphics Card have been overclocked. Check System Info again and compare the Original
Clock, Original System Clock and Original Multiplier with the System Clock and Multiplier setting. They should be identical.
You could use a software like Rivatuner to check if the Graphics Card has been overclocked. Some manufacturers like MSI also display these information in the Display Properties.
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Hey Martin, thanks for sharing all the tools. Btw have you heard about CPU-Z? It is also a great tool to check your system spec.
Nice, very clever. I use Everest Ultimate Edition for information about my hardware and Memtest86+.