Computer Dashboards

Computer Dashboards

Not one of us would drive our cars if the dashboard was not functioning. Correct instrumentation is an essential part of road safety and provides the driver with confidence.

And yet, many of us drive our computers blind with little or no instumentation to inform us what is happening within the computer engine (CPU) or how much memory is actually in use at any given time. We have all sat waiting for the computer to respond and believe it to be slowing to unacceptable levels.

Here is a little free program "Win Ram Turbo Free" which I have used with great success with both Win 98 and Win XP. The program is only 481 Kbs and uses very little in the way of resources once installed.

Settings may be altered to suit your computer specifications.

"Trigger Level" will initiate an automatic memory recovery at that value. "Memory to Free" is the amount of memory the program will attempt to recover. All other settings are self-explanatory.

Once you have your settings the way you want them, you must "Apply Changes".

You can manually optimize your ram usage at any time. I placed a shortcut within C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, in order that the program automatically starts during the boot sequence. In this way I have a "Real Time" record of my computer's start times, and can see with accuracy the time it takes and therefore judge its performance. The link to download this program is at the bottom of this page.

Here is another little free program "Net Meter" which I have used with great success. This Program provides a graph in real time of your modem usage. The program is only 601 Kbs and uses very little in the way of resources once installed.

This is an example of the "real time" graphical display.

This is a screen shot of bandwidth totals, including tabs for totals, projected, daily, weekly and monthly reports. This will provide a record of the bandwidth you have used. This program works well with my broadband modem, but I have no experience of it with a "Router". I would suggest you try it. The link to download this program is at the bottom of this page.

Here is another little free program "Speed Fan" which I use with great success. This Program provides a a method of monitoring temperatures within your computer. Monitoring of specific temperatures and fan speed depends upon the instrumentation within your hardware. Many computers slow their performance with excessive internal temperatures, especially Laptops. Therefore, it is essential that I know my internal temperatures.

The program is only 1.38 Mbs and uses very little in the way of resources once installed. These are screen shots of the program in use on my computer.

This screen shows my hard-drive temperatures and CPU usage.

This screen shows the various parameters within my Maxtor hard drive.

This Screen displays a graph of the temperature changes within both my hard drives.

I have mine configured to start minimised, and I placed a shortcut within C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, in order that the program automatically starts during the boot sequence. This provides a temperature display on the taskbar all the time that my computer is switched on.

WARNING ... Unless you are "Expert" in computer hardware, you should not alter your fan speeds or "clock" your CPU. You could seriously damage your hardware if you change settings without understanding the effect.

Please Note ... Once installed, all of these programs can be uninstalled by using the Add/Remove programs within the computer control panel. I suggest you right click on the link below and select "Save Target As"

Netmeter home page can be found at http://readerror.gmxhome.de/

Speed Fan home page can be found at http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Enjoy