AIDA64 Extreme Review
Conclusion
A year ago when I moved from news-hound to reviewer for OC3D my first review was of the newly released Everest v5. It’s quite apropos that todays review is the the latest version, rebranded and upgraded.
At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking very little has changed. FinalWire have wisely kept a familiar interface so that long-term users can knuckle down straight away without being baffled on how to get things how they used to be.
As anyone who regularly uses an application or utility will attest it doesn’t take very long at all for you to become comfortable with the interface and the slightest change can have a big effect upon the smoothness of your work-flow. Without question when it comes to a great interface the adage that if it isn’t broken you shouldn’t fix it holds as true today as it ever has. Many companies (hello Microsoft) could learn a great deal about leaving well alone and so FinalWire deserve great credit for keeping things stable.
That isn’t to say for one moment that the under-the-hood side of AIDA64 isn’t a great improvement upon the program from which it’s derived.
The addition of a cryptographic benchmark in these modern times where nearly every program has some encryption going on somewhere is a welcome addition. Also very welcome are the many optimisations in the performance of the benchmarks themselves. They take less time to perform and produce, as we saw with the zLib test, a much higher result too.
With the prevalence of SSDs in the marketplace the larger focus upon them is also highly desirable and as welcome as finding £50 in the pocket of your winter coat.
So as you can see AIDA64 is bursting at the seams with usefulness and is an absolutely essential purchase if you have even a passing interest in PC Hardware.
FinalWire are also being extraordinarily generous with their pricing until the 20th of October too. Normally the Extreme Edition is available for $40, but to celebrate the release it’s currently available at half price. $19.99 for a regularly updated, insanely useful program is a steal. Just in case you’ve only just splashed out on a copy of Everest and are now gnashing your teeth, FinalWire are also temporarily offering a free upgrade to AIDA64.
To make your life even easier OC3D Downloads has just gone live, just so happens you can download many of your favorate applications including AIDA64 from your favorite review site!
If a program can be judged upon its ability to do what you want with the minimum of fuss, then AIDA64 is truly the gold standard and easily wins the Overclock3D Gold award.
    
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Thanks to FinalWire for providing AIDA64 for todays review. Discuss in our forums.
