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How we test PCs and laptops

Posted on 29 Jul 2009 at 16:43

Find out PC Pro tests and scores the PCs and laptops that enter our labs

We test desktop PCs and laptops with our own independent benchmarks, custom-built to our specification. We split the results into four categories: Office, 2D graphics, Encoding and Multitasking, with the Overall score being a straight average of the four.

The overall 2D result is relative to a score of 1.00 from our reference PC – a dual-core 3.2GHz Pentium D 840 system with 1GB of PC3200 RAM, a 10,000rpm Western Digital Raptor hard disk and Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT graphics. If a machine scores 1.50, it’s 50% faster than our reference machine overall.

Performance

We put each machine through tests using real-world applications such as Word, Access and Photoshop, using the same tests for all types of laptops and PCs (see the Real World Benchmarks PDF in the Editorial section of our cover disc for more).

With almost all of the machines on test sporting powerful graphics chipsets, and two including CrossFireX, we needed to break out our most strenuous gaming benchmarks. The low and medium-quality Crysis tests are run at resolutions of 1,024 x 768 and 1,280 x 1,024 respectively, and our high and very high quality benchmarks run at 1,600 x 1,200. If a laptop can cope with the two latter ordeals, then it’s a fair bet they’ll cope with most modern titles with the minimum of fuss.

Battery Life

We run two battery life tests. For our light use test, we run a simple timer application until the battery runs out, and for the intensive test we push the processor to its limit with our multitasking benchmark. This gives us a minimum and maximum battery life. In both cases, we use the power-management settings most suited to longevity and performance respectively.

Features & Design

Here we look at an array of objective measurements, such as the range of ports and connectors, networking capabilities and hard-disk capacity as well as features such as Blu-ray drives and high-resolution displays. We factor in software bundles but, more importantly, points are given for the amount and type of warranty, as well as each company’s performance in our Service and Reliability Awards (see issue 160).

The rating also includes subjective points, decided by two members of the PC Pro staff, for items that can’t be measured objectively, such as the build quality, looks, and the quality of speakers and any accessories.

Value for Money

The Value for Money score is based on a weighted average of the Performance, Battery Life and Features & Design scores; we then factor in exactly how much each machine costs (including delivery) for a bang-per-buck result.