OCCT

If overclocking has ever piqued your interest, you're probably aware that some testing must be in order after tampering with the base clocks of your components. Only after that has concluded — and a favorable result — can you truly claim that you have indeed successfully overclocked your machine.

Perhaps you do indeed intend to overclock — either now, or some other day. Or maybe you want to see how your parts stack up against others while testing what their thermal thresholds are. OCCT can satisfy both needs: check your overclocked machine's performance, find out what's going on via the detailed graphs presented, and compare your results. It's all within one app.

One could label OCCT more of a power-user software than anything else. And that might be true, but even a novice can find their way around this software after a cursory glance.

You can benchmark your CPU's single and multi-threaded capabilities, as well as your memory's read and write speeds. The assessments only run for a couple of minutes, and what are especially useful are the leaderboards that show up afterward — users can better gauge the performance of their system that way.

Users also have the ability to stress-test their components in the app. Before the operation commences, they can change the parameters in the "Test" tab. OCCT provides thorough graphs and tables throughout the test, keeping its users informed about the status of their computer during the process.

If you merely wish to monitor your PC's harware, this app can provide that as well. Without any prior testing, users can see the temperatures of their CPU, GPU, as well as their clockspeeds and power draw, among other data — all in real-time. The graphs provided are especially useful here, because they're very easy to read and comprehend.

In conclusion, OCCT is a quite popular app in the overclocking communities, and that is not without reason. It is not difficult to use and understand, and thanks to its portable quality, it's an easy recommendation.