Overclocker`s Software - 3DMark
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Futuremark's 3dMark allows users to benchmark their computer for gaming ability. It mainly stresses the graphics card and CPU. Futuremark comes out with a new version every year or two. The current version is 3DMark06 with a rumored 3DMark07 coming out this year with support for Direct X 10.
This program shows in-game-like scenes and computes how quickly your computer renders them. This is used as a way to compare different systems, but ti is also a very good program to use to stress and make sure the computer is stable. Running this program in a loop for an hour will make sure it is stable for daily gaming.
Stress Prime 2004
This is a simple GUI for Prime 95, a program that stresses the CPU for stability. If your computer isn't stable you may experience crashes and freezing. There is no hard line as to how long you have to run this continuously before you can assume the CPU is stable, but you should give it a good hour of continuous running to make sure it is stable. Some people like to run it for 24+ hours to tell whether the computer is stable.
Super Pi
This is a simple program with a simple description. It calculates digits of Pi. How does this benefit your computer? It helps in a few different ways. First it is a stress tester for the CPU. It isn't as great as Stress Prime, but it will do sufficiently for a quick test. Second, it measures the efficiency of the CPU. It's generally better to have a CPU that is more efficient at crunching numbers than one that is faster clocked. This will show how efficient a CPU is; the more efficient, the lower time. For example, the new Intel Core 2 Duo at the same clock speed as a Pentium 4 will spank the Pentium 4 hard.
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