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**David (PassMark)** · Feb-17-2006, 11:05 PM

On the contrary. Most of our customers are companies, not home users.

We wouldn't make 64bit software in 2005 just for home use

Even today probably less than 0.1% of home users are running a 64bit O/S.

Our biggest customers are Intel, Dell, HP & Symantec.

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David

**robbwk** · Feb-20-2006, 09:28 AM

64bit

Thanks for that, and I respect your authority, but my question has not been answered.

Let me make it clear that my posting was not meant to be a criticism. I have already downloaded your 64bit version, and I have no problem purchasing it.

However, I have a responsibility to make sure, as best I can, that what I use in my job is effective. That's it really.

Thanks again for your kind reply.

**David (PassMark)** · Feb-20-2006, 09:42 AM

>but my question has not been answered.

I thought the answer was fairly clear. But let me restate the answers.

> it seems that your software
> is really aimed at home-users/PCs?

No, this is not the case. And especially not the case for 64bit software.

> will I get reliable and sensible data back?

Yes. (but realistically, what software developer is going to say you are going to get unreliable and nonsensical data as an output?)

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Regards
David

**robbwk** · Feb-20-2006, 10:30 AM

64bit

Look, I accept your answer.

I thank you for your time and interest in taking the trouble to respond.

You are, of course, correct in your assertion that no developer is going to pan his creation.

I guess what I want to hear is that I will get something useful from using the software.

Right now, I don't have much choice. I am supposed to be writing up the testing plan for the engineers. I have decided to use your software as there is nothing else (I will use Iometer for the iSCSI storage) available at the price which does anywhere near as much as your's does. i am going to write uop each test and make it meaty and technical. That way it's unlikely that I will be questioned too much. If you have any docs that might help me, please let me know.

The corp I work for, here in the UK, is a FTSE 100 company and as such I can't make mistakes. I have no doubt that your software works, but you can understand that the dev/testers are using Load-Runner (�34,000) at their end, and I am proposing to use your software at this end. Now, maybe, you can see why I am asking these simple and inocuous questions. It's not any kind of slight to you, just me trying to be comfortable.

Is there anything else I should know about, any hints, tips advice and such like, that may help me make the most of the testing etc?

Thanks again.

Hope this makes it clearer.

**David (PassMark)** · Feb-20-2006, 07:50 PM

If you are writing up a test plan, we have another product for that. See,
http://www.testlog.com/

> ...but you can understand that the
> dev/testers are using Load-Runner (�34,000)

This is an easy problem to solve. We can just send you a bill for �30,000, if this is what is required to give a comfortable feeling about the software

The answer really depends on what you are trying to test. Load-Runner is a expensive load testing application to test software applications. It will give you answers to questions like, 'how many users can the system support while maintaining a 2 sec response time'. BurnInTest will not answer this type of question.

A better question for BurnInTest would be, "How can I be sure the server hardware is reliable & stable before deploying the hardware in the field".

Load-Runner is good for testing your software. BurnInTest is for your hardware.

BurnInTest will not detect a memory leak in your software or a software bug that corrupts your database. But Load-Runner won't test the entire surface of the hard disk and won't fully load all the components of your system.

Also for the benchmarking aspect you should look at our PerformanceTest product.

> ...a FTSE 100 company and as
> such I can't make mistakes

On the contrary a major stuff up might knock a few percentile points off the share price but do no serious damage

. In an small company (like ours) we might bankrupt ourselves.

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David

**robbwk** · Feb-23-2006, 11:04 AM

64bit Testing

Hi, sorry for the delay in responding, been at a three day 64bit symposium and lab at Microsoft (you have no idea how tedious these events are - only beaten into second place by the Gartner gigs).

Thank you for your reply. All points taken.

I am going to go with your software and will ask our accounts to register for the 64bit BurnInTest Pro today. Is there anything else we should purchase from you to make the job pukka?

I would like to reciprocate the help you have given me by sending you a report and review of your software used in anger here at Helphire Group Plc (www.helphire.co.uk), maybe this might be of some PR use? If not bin it, no offence will be taken.

I have been asked to write up a spreadsheet for the engineers to tick the test and performance levels. Do you have any input to this?

Thanks again for your patience and time taken to respond to me

Best regards

Robb

PS Our DBA Lead is a an Ozzy, but we're learing to live with it

**David (PassMark)** · Feb-25-2006, 08:58 PM

> Is there anything else we should
> purchase from you to make the job pukka?

It really depends on what you are trying to test. You might want some hardware. See,
http://www.passmark.com/products/hardware.htm

Or if you are trying to benchmark the server, PerformanceTest,
http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

> by sending you a report and
> review of your software

Sure. Make sure you are using V5 of BurnInTest which was released last Friday and not V4.

> Do you have any input to this?

Maybe break it up on hardware componets.
e.g.
Tests for hard drive #1
- Surface read write test (12 hours various patterns)
- SMART values checked
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
- Benchmark throughput (Expecting 50MB/sec read, 40MB/sec write)
etc..

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David

**robbwk** · Feb-26-2006, 09:51 PM

Purchase Made

Okay, so here we are having purchased the 64bit BurnInTest, the 32bit BurnInTest, the Performance Test and TestLog.

I'm pretty pleased with the test plan and I must thank you for the tip. TestLog makes building a test plan very much easier.

My Ops Manager is trawling through the test plan this weekend and downing the Chianti I bought him, (he lent me 200 quid last week, so it was the least I could do and has absolutely nothing to do with encouraging him to sign my doc off! How could you even think such a thing?

)

I hand over to the engineers next week and look forward to hearing how well it went.

Thanks for all your kind help and interest.

I'll et you know how things progress and I will write a review.

I'm putting a link to Passmark on my tech site this weekend (www.1techguy.com

).

Happy trails.

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