How We Test

How We TestThe PC World Test Center uses a variety of rigorous performance tests and tools to conduct a fair and impartial analysis of major products under review.Ramon G. McLeod, Editor, PCWorld.com

PC World does two major forms of testing of all products under consideration for review: hands-on testing by editors and writers who are experts in the product category, and formal lab testing by the PC World Test Center.

In the near future we will publish all of the methodology we use for our hands-on testing, which, like lab testing, follows rigorous guidelines to ensure fair and impartial analysis.

Following is a synopsis of the tests that the PC World Test Center performs for major product categories. Other major categories will be added soon, including our procedures for testing televisions.

Desktops and Notebooks

We test or retest all desktop and notebook systems under our WorldBench 5 suite, and we put them through graphics testing as well. Notebooks also undergo battery-life tests.

WorldBench 5 is an applications-based benchmark that runs various tests using 12 applications selected for their mass-market appeal, stability, market share, and variety. PC World has always believed that application-based benchmarking is a better way to quantify computer performance than esoteric, synthetic methods. WorldBench 5 runs--albeit in an extremely compressed way--many of the same tasks that average users perform on their PCs every day.

WorldBench 5 uses the following applications: ACD Systems ACDSee PowerPack 5.0

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1

Adobe Premiere 6.5

Ahead Software Nero Express 6.0.0.3

Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (DirectX)

Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (OpenGL)

Microsoft Office XP with SP2

Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0

Mozilla 1.4

Musicmatch Jukebox 7.10

Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator 1.5

WinZip Computing...