For buyers of used machines
Three and a half minutes in the seller's browser. Before the money changes hands.
A used machine looks fine for the first thirty seconds. SystemCheck runs from a tab with nothing installed, and shows whether it holds up once it is warm.
What the report tells you
Three figures, each with its reading.
Decay
%
The loss from the first five seconds to the last fifth. A well-kept machine loses a few percent. A neglected one loses twenty and slides the whole way.
Cooling verdict
plain words
The report's first screen says whether the cooling is good, in words, so you can read it standing in someone's hallway.
Path tracing
samples/s
A real ray-traced scene, timed per sample over a fixed clock, that shows whether the graphics card still does what its class should.
The diagnosis
The shape of the curve, read for your case.
01Held
The cooling is healthy and the machine is what it says. Negotiate on age, not on condition.
02A steady slide
Dust or dried paste. Cheap to fix on a desktop, awkward on a laptop. Price it in or walk.
03Erratic
Something is running that should not be. Ask what, or assume the machine needs a clean install.
Every class comes with a stated confidence and the measurement’s own noise floor. How the shape is read
Where a browser stops
What it cannot tell you.
- No confirmation of the exact processor or card: the browser hides both. Check the model in the operating system's own settings.
- No storage health: a worn SSD is not something a browser can read. Ask for the drive's wear figure from a disk tool.
- No battery wear: the report reads the charge used during the run, not the cell's capacity.
Which run
Standard, 3 minutes.
Standard is under four minutes and enough to show a slide or a step. Save the deep run for a laptop you are serious about.
Both kinds are free. The choice is on the set-up screen.
Questions
Asked in these words.
- How do I test a used laptop before buying?
- Open systemcheck.live/benchmark-test in the seller's browser, plug the laptop in, close other windows, and run the standard test. Read the first screen: is the cooling good, and what is the machine good for. A slide or a large decay figure means the cooling needs work.
- Can I run it without installing anything on their machine?
- Yes. It runs entirely in the browser tab, stores nothing on the machine unless you ask for a saved run, and leaves nothing behind when the tab closes.
- What decay figure is acceptable on a used machine?
- Under about 5% is normal for a healthy machine. Between 5 and 15% is a laptop doing what laptops do, or a desktop with a modest cooler. Above 15% with a sliding curve, the cooling is the limit and the machine will need attention.