Super Pi

Have you wondered how fast (or slow) your computer was?

There's a small program that lets you test your computer's overall performance. Well, actually it tests CPU and ram.

It's called Super Pi. Do you remember pi? That's ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter.
It's such an odd number that never ends. It goes like 3.1415926..... and keeps going and going and going.
There's algorithm that calculates this never-ending-number's digits down to 32millionth below decimal point. 32 million digits. That's quite a lot.

Then it measures how long it takes to calculate that many digits, and you can compare this time to gauge your computer's speed.

This is where you can download Super Pi: http://www.superpi.net/

This is what you'll see when you visit their site. Download the second one with smaller size.

It's a zipped file, so you should unzip it. Once unzipped you'll find "super_pi_mod.exe" file.
Run it by double clicking it, and you'll see a window looking like the next picture.

Click "Calculate" and choose 1M or 32M.

The above picture is my record. 10.185 seconds to calculate 1million digits. Not bad. I guess it's typical for my CPU. If you're in that 10second neighborhood, your computer is fast enough for pretty much anything. My old computer took more than a minute to calculate it and I don't miss it.

32M option is another one people use to test speed and stability of the system. If something is wrong with your calculation (like when error occurs in calculation) the calculation won't reach 32millionth digit and the program will let you know something went wrong.

There are limitations and criticism regarding SuperPi, but this is certainly one way to measure your computer's speed.

What's your 1M time?