Ever since the second computer was built, the urge to figure out who had the hardest drive has been an inevitable and predictable extension of those feelings of technological inadequacy inherent to mankind. Things were easy back then, though, as there really weren't all that many abstraction layers in a single machine, and a computer's speed was linearly related to its main components' power. A modern PC, on the other hand, is a nightmare of interlocking hardware and software functionality layers, and the measure of how fast a machine is varies wildly according to the uses its hardware is put to. A killer gaming rig may crumble under the drive bandwidth demands of a simple video editing job, and a virtuoso sound meister PC will most likely not have the graphical clout that Maya requires.

Luckily, if things got more complex, so did the tools at our disposal for their evaluation. Futuremark's PCMark05 is one such tool, a complete benchmarking suite designed to provide a one-click measurement of a computer system's prowess that is both balanced and fair to its various components.

The main application is free to download and install, and it almost offers all the basic functionality a single user may need to benchmark their machine, and compare it to others online - the Windows Media 9 Encoder is not included in the package, but the application will happily direct users to its webpage, so that it can easily be installed in minutes. Advanced and Professional commercial versions are available as well, with more complete configuration information and online browsing facilities, such as those that might come in handy when benchmarking multiple machines, or multiple configurations of the same PC (overclocking, anyone?).

PCMark05 definitely delivers on its promise of providing a one-click benchmarking solution for personal computers - after installation and startup, the user is presented with a clean and well-organized interface dominated by the main 'Run PCMark' command button. From the same main panel one can also view details of their machine and previous tests, as well as personalizing the battery of tests to be carried out. The Advanced and Professional flavours of the application also allow the creation of custom benchmarking regimes, to test specific hardware configurations.

The basic PCMark05 score is provided by the System Test, a balanced battery of tests that stresses the average multimedia PC's components, from hard drive performance to CPU-intensive calculations, through web page rendering and multithreaded tests.

System Test Suite HDD - XP Startup Physics and 3D 2D - Transparent Windows 3D - Pixel Shader Web Page Rendering File Decryption 2D - Graphics Memory - 64 lines HDD - General Usage Multithreaded Test 1 - Video Encoding and Audio Compression Multithreaded Test 2 - Text Editing and Image Decompression Multithreaded Test 3 - File Compression, Memory Latency, Virus Scanning and File Encryption

It is this score that will be compared with people the world over, to scratch that supremacy itch, and teach humility, the world over. More detailed tests are also available, to probe the inner workings of a specific set of components: the CPU, Memory, Graphics and HDD Test Suites do pretty much what their names imply, with a series of generic hardware tests that do no rely on any one specific real-life application.

The final System Test score is calculated by means of a weighed geometric average of the various individual tests, studied to average out the effects of overly powerful components in an otherwise weaker machine, effectively providing a performance index for the entire PC for everyday use. The algorithm is calibrated so that a more powerful CPU will, for example, raise the CPU Suite results by 700 points, while the System Suite will only go up by 450 points, since it's not measuring the CPU alone, but the rest of the components as well.

PCMark05 is at heart a synthetic benchmark, and therefore those who prefer real-life application results will be fairly vocal in opposing its methods and results. Real-life application benchmarks are however hard to reproduce on different machines, due to the myriad of complications that arise on different installations, and while they provide no indication of a machine's real objective power, synthetic benchmarks can be extremely useful when comparing machines amongst themselves, as they provide a solid and tried series of tests that will remain pretty much stable across a variery of configurations. In that realm, PCMark05 stands supreme over its competitors, with its well thought-out and configurable batteries of integrated and interacting tests. Most other competing products offer a confusing myriad of small testing environments that can be hard to compare with each other, even on different machines: no such issues with Futuremark's latest.

The version on review was 1.01, which runs smooth and stable, with the single exception of an odd CPU overload of the Windows Management Instrumentation (wmiprvse.exe) while the application itself loads, which brings even powerful machines down to a crawl for 15-20 seconds before resuming hassle-free operation. No crashed or lock-ups occurred during testing, however, which dumps the issue on Windows' doorstep, rather than PCMark's.

Everyday users looking to figure out where to go next with their PC upgrade plans, and professional fiddlers, such as overclockers, will find a priceless friend in PCMark05 and its excellent Online Results Browser search and compare functions. The Advanced features can be priceless to both overclockers and custom system builders, with their personalized Test Suite creation tools, as well as the ability to create and maintain a veritable machine and configuration database with the Advanced Online Results Browser. PCMark05 is a solid, reliable system testing base that does not let glittery hardware blind its judgment. Don't take our word for it, though - find out exactly how hard your drive is right here, from TechConnect's official PCMark05 mirror.