Q: You responded to a question I sent to you back in November 2009 about my 5 year old PC that I wanted to upgrade and your response was greatly appreciated. I had the CPU, RAM and Hard-drive all upgraded and the whole system in now much faster and more efficient than what it was therefore it should last at least another 3 years.
I was wondering if you could help me out some more. I would like to know the exact name and model of the various parts inside my PC – the type of processor, graphics card, motherboard, all of the organs of my PC’s body that make it run. I am not a expert with computers – I have knowledge and experience with basic word processing and video/music editing software, but as far as the insides of my PC go, I’d rather let an experienced technician take me on a guided tour. I have managed to find some basic information about the hardware and software on my computer, just by going into “Help and Support” and typing in “My Computer Information – General” which presented to me a Specifications list that came from the systems folder on the C: drive, however the information provided on each individual item is very limited.
Do you know if there are other ways of getting more detailed information from my PC or would I need to use a special program that would get the information for me?
A: What you need is a system information tool. There are a number of different programs around that can get you the details you require. Take a look at Speccy or HWiNFO32. Or for a more comprehensive program that can reveal details of your hardware and allow you to run some benchmark and performance tests try SiSoft Sandra.
A system information tool like Speccy can reveal more in-depth details of your machine’s hardware
Originally featured in PCU125