Interested in buying a new PC, building a custom one with all the bits and bobs, or simply wanting to upgrade an existing computer? If the answer is yes, and you want a clear comparison, then getting your hands on a solid benchmarking tool is a good start.

Hardinfo2 is one such tool capable of running benchmarks on most Linux systems. The "2" in its name is because Hardinfo2 is basically a reboot of the original Hardinfo - a reliable tool, but since it was released over a decade ago, it was getting a bit long in the tooth.

What's interesting about this app is that it doesn't perfectly fit in the "benchmarking tools" category. To be more precise, Hardinfo2 is part system profiler/system info tool and part benchmarking app.

The whole premise of the app is to offer users an efficient (albeit a bit old-school-looking) GUI for viewing information (for both hardware and basic software) and benchmarking systems.

Hardinfo2 is a 100% community-developed and maintained app, and it's also free and open-source. It doesn't impress in terms of features, but the fact that it can generate reports both in HTML and plain text is worth noting. Another feature that is worth mentioning is that it can compare your machine's performance against other machines (meaning it uses online benchmarking).

I found Hardinfo2 to be a pleasant app to use, and the fact that it can display information about your computer and system and perform benchmarks recommends it for users who, for instance, never used this type of app before.

Speaking of the information it displays, the app has a ton of sections and categories, including main components such as CPU, GPU, Motherboard, RAM, Storage, Hard Disk, Printers, Sound, Network, and USB. The Operating System sub-menu is also useful, just as long as you don't expect it to provide as much information as Neofetch or Fastfetch, for instance.

Even though I feel that this app is decently good for beginners, the building and installing process is not exactly "streamlined."

In short, it requires a bit of Terminal/command-line work and it involves having to copy-paste more than 10 commands in order to make it work on a Debian-based system. While more experienced users won't have many problems, a true beginner might throw in the towel and look for something that can be installed with a few mouse clicks.

Even though I prefer command-line-based apps for this sort of thing (benchmarking, I mean), I found Hardinfo2 to be surprisingly cool. It works just as advertised, and the information it provides is decent (and so are the benchmarks it performs). The GUI also made me feel a bit nostalgic, and really reminded me of those Windows XP-era looks.