System Mechanic 8.5
System Mechanic 8.5 is more than just a disk and registry cleanup tool.
Pros
- One-touch optimisation, lots of tweaking possibilities
Cons
- DriveSense works only with storage that's not part of a RAID array or virtualised
Bottom Line
The focus on utility and choice makes System Mechanic 8.5 useful, and it presents itself in a way that's as clutter-free as you wish. If you want one-touch optimisation, this is your path to happiness. But if you can't keep yourself from tweaking everything that's tweakable, you'll be a very happy geek. System Mechanic remains the best bang for the buck, even at its full price. Norton Utilities pales by comparison.
-
Price
$ 79.95 (AUD)
System Mechanic 8.5 is more than just a disk and registry cleanup tool. It aims to tune your entire system for peak performance. It will let you optimise just about everything else on your system.
System Mechanic 8.5 uses a dashboard that offers a high-level view of your overall system health. The test system, with its years of debris, was rated as being in fair condition, a reasonable assessment.
If you prefer fit-and-forget, you can tell System Mechanic 8.5 to take over and clear up the problems it finds. Or, you can control each detail and tell it exactly what you want optimised.
When defragging, in addition to viewing the level of fragmentation in a graphic, you can also choose to see a report that gives you a better view of the graphical representation, and a list of fragmented files and the extent to which they suffer fragmentation. With System Mechanic 8.5 you can choose not to defragment some files if you wish.
System Mechanic 8.5 also gives you control over what the package does automatically. Its ActiveCare function lets you select each function you want done automatically. For most users, this is a valuable choice. And because you can decide how much you want it to do, it's also a real time-saver.
There are some areas in which System Mechanic 8.5 duplicates what's in Windows. The System Details feature gives you the same information you can get from Windows.
Registry Tools performs the same tasks as other products, but not in the same way. We had it perform a registry cleaning, and it found about 850 of the 1,200 or so problems that Norton Utilities had found. We cleaned and ran it again, and it found another 350, making the total number about the same after two tries.
There are functions that only System Mechanic 8.5 could perform, such as memory defragmentation. It also claims to optimise your network connection. While it doesn't explain how this is accomplished, System Mechanic did report that our internet connection was able to deliver about 25Mbit/sec, which isn't bad, since our link delivers only 6Mbit/sec.
However, there is one area where System Mechanic 8.5 shows its limitations. System Mechanic includes a utility called DriveSense that reports on the health of your disk drives, warning of impending failure. But it works only with storage that's not part of a RAID array or virtualised in any way. In this test, it was unable to perform this function on the terabyte RAID 1 array in the test system, although when the original EIDE drive was attached, it worked fine.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- Microsoft’s universal ‘One Outlook’ client just leaked out
- Microsoft reveals a new Windows Game Bar built for controllers
- Microsoft tests a limited VPN for Microsoft Edge
- Audacity developer puts the ‘proper’ version on the Microsoft Store
- How to pin an extension to Chrome’s toolbar
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?