Sandra 2012 SP5 v18.58 released

Published 2012-08-05 09:02 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

SiSoft Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility which has been updated to revision SP5 v18.58. SANDRA will provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, ODBC Connections, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

SiSoftware Sandra, the latest version of the award-winning utility, includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks.

At SiSoftware from version to version we focus four key areas of software development to make sure we give our users the best software experience. Quite simply our four drivers are:

Inclusion of new technologies that ensure our tools remain current.
Increased hardware and software support for existing modules.
Improving the user interface to make it a richer easier user experience.
Filling gaps in the product line in response to our customers' needs.

This release contains a few changes you should find useful:

Change-log:

Information Engine: Sandra now tells you when newer versions of BIOS, firmware or drivers have been released for your hardware. (version, date of release, URL of download)

Even enthusiasts may not keep up-to-date with *all* firmware and driver updates and may be interested to know when such updates exist.

System BIOS: newer system BIOS for the mainboard.
Video BIOS: newer video BIOS for the video card.
Hard disk/SSD firmware: newer HDD/SSD firmware.
CPU Microcode update: updated microcode (MU) for the CPU, updated through system BIOS.
CPU newer stepping: just as an FYI for those looking for the latest CPU to overclock.
Video driver: updated driver for the video card.
GPGPU run-time: updated run-time for OpenCL, CUDA.
Controller/RAID driver: updated driver for the disk controller/RAID.

For less-experienced users, Sandra will also provide the URL of the manufacturer's download page where they can download the above BIOS, firmware or driver update. Sandra will not update them itself though.

Windows 8 Metro-inspired theme* (commercial versions): We have re-skinned controls to give it a Metro-feel and also re-done the icons to match the Metro-theme. You can naturally use this on Windows XP, 2003 or 7 if you so wish, though they may not look best.

* Work-in-Progress: As Microsoft has stated that Windows 8 RTM will have newer styles for desktop applications, we will have to wait and see how it will look on RTM, but rest assured it will be updated to match. So watch this space.

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