if you want to find out what chipset / mainboard your PC / Laptop / Notebook is using and other details about the hardware.

unfortunately this is not a straight forward task… and works better / worse depending on the hardware.

command line / bash

su - root
apt update
apt install inxi; # apt-get on older debian

output example: ( in this case it is a Dell Notebook and fails to identify the chipset )

the chipset of the Dell Latitude E4310 is according to this screenshot: intel “havendale clarkdale host bridge”

inxi -b
System:    Host: DebianLaptop Kernel: 3.16.0-4-686-pae i686 (32 bit) Desktop: MATE 1.8.1  
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8 
Machine:   System: Dell product: Latitude E4310 v: 0001 serial: XXXXXX 
           Mobo: Dell model: N/A serial: /XXXXXX// Bios: Dell v: A06 date: 02/15/2011
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5 M 520 (-HT-MCP-) clocked at 1466 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           tty size: 227x53 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Network:   Card-1: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 driver: iwlwifi
           Card-2: Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 128.0GB (60.1% used) 
Info:      Processes: 180 Uptime: 1:13 Memory: 1262.1/3914.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28 

 apt-cache show inxi
 Package: inxi
 Version: 2.1.28-1
 Installed-Size: 496
 Maintainer: Unit 193 <unit193@ubuntu.com>
 Architecture: all
 Depends: bash (>= 3.0), gawk, pciutils, procps
 Recommends: dmidecode, file, hddtemp, iproute2, lm-sensors, mesa-utils, module-init-tools, net-tools, sudo, usbutils, x11-utils, x11-xserver-utils
 Description-en: full featured system information script
 Inxi is a system information script that can display various things about
 your hardware and software to users in an IRC chatroom or support forum.
 It runs with the /exec command in most IRC clients.
 Description-md5: 13277f07e950aaf291de2de69ab2684c
 Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/inxi/
 Section: misc
 Priority: extra
 Filename: pool/main/i/inxi/inxi_2.1.28-1_all.deb
 Size: 130596
 MD5sum: c03b47ffdb415019134729578ce47d7c
 SHA1: b95e84490d58fd7957901923a7f1ef66559c0c86
 SHA256: 64f303215275c8388bfd04c001cd4388b3b5d34137ae5b34ed202ad62199c86c

X-GUI tool

# it has a gui but also works on command line
apt-get update;
apt-get install hardinfo; # install
hardinfo; # run the thing
# in the gui you could choose to bench cpu
# it can generate html reports about your system and also has a benchmark section

benchmark system:

you can boot a knoppix to perform those benchmarks…

BUT DO NOT BOOT KNOPPIX ON SYSTEMS WITH NTFS AND LSI RAID ADAPTERS!!! (you might lose your partition table)

harddisk benchmarks

hardware info as html

lshw -html > genarte_report.html; # additional report as html

details about harddisk

# get details of first harddisk like serial number, model, firmware
# does not work for NVMe drives
hdparm -i /dev/sda
# for NVMe use smart
smartctl -H /dev/nvme0n1
smartctl -i /dev/nvme0n1

Get Vendor and Hardware Device IDs

lspci -v; mostly enough info 
lspci -vvv; maximum detail
lspci -n; # show vendorID:hardwareID as numbers
00:00.0 0600: 8086:0a04 (rev 09)
00:02.0 0300: 8086:0a16 (rev 09)
00:03.0 0403: 8086:0a0c (rev 09)
00:14.0 0c03: 8086:9c31 (rev 04)
00:16.0 0780: 8086:9c3a (rev 04)
00:1b.0 0403: 8086:9c20 (rev 04)
00:1c.0 0604: 8086:9c10 (rev e4)
00:1c.3 0604: 8086:9c16 (rev e4)
00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:9c26 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 0601: 8086:9c43 (rev 04)
00:1f.2 0106: 8086:9c03 (rev 04)
00:1f.3 0c05: 8086:9c22 (rev 04)
02:00.0 0200: 10ec:8168 (rev 07)
lspci -nn; # resolve vendorID
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller [8086:0a04] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0a16] (rev 09)
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller [8086:0a0c] (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB xHCI HC [8086:9c31] (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 8 Series HECI #0 [8086:9c3a] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller [8086:9c20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:9c10] (rev e4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:9c16] (rev e4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB EHCI #1 [8086:9c26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 8 Series LPC Controller [8086:9c43] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 8 Series SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] [8086:9c03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 8 Series SMBus Controller [8086:9c22] (rev 04)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 07)

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