Bob,
I didn't have to go through all that "trouble" (even though it takes less then 30 seconds to accomplish) to get a score over 6k. I did however notice a marked improvement in heat dissipation. It was one of those, "I'd like to try that" situations. I attempted the latter half to see if it would add a marked improvement on my score, and I got a whole whopping 6 extra points (like 1/10 of a frame added). So besides just keeping my XPS nice and cool, the little experiment (if you would call it that) serves no performance advantage asofar seen in Doom3, Half Life 2 and Benchmarking.
On a side note: I have a de-humidifier in my living quarters, as I have a lot of electronics, and moisture isn't a good thing. Although, too dry is not very good, so it's pretty stable. Plus, when it gets hot here, it gets too hot and the humidity kills me - double purpose. It's not for my laptop; however, my home setup and various other "goodies" wouldn't do well with all that moisture.
One last thing, you did mention that the 75.xx drivers are running too hot, and are piss-poor for you system. The highest my temp spiked was 76C during Doom3 after about 2 hours. I decided to stay a little cautious after you mentioned that heat issues are problematic with those drivers, but I have yet to have a problem. Nor, have I heard of people having a major heat problem with them as well. It is, however, more then likely that one's system will run much hotter with them installed compared the the WHQL cert ones.
Pip,
I'm pretty sure that when you download Coolbits from Guru3d.com that it will self install and you won't have to go through the REGEDIT. But, you really don't need to download Coolbits because you can create it in REGEDIT if that doesn't work (but, I don't see why it shouldn't). Creating Coolbits in RegEdit is INCREDIBLY simple procedure. If, on the off chance your having trouble. Just ask and I'll tell you what to do.
I didn't have to go through all that "trouble" (even though it takes less then 30 seconds to accomplish) to get a score over 6k. I did however notice a marked improvement in heat dissipation. It was one of those, "I'd like to try that" situations. I attempted the latter half to see if it would add a marked improvement on my score, and I got a whole whopping 6 extra points (like 1/10 of a frame added). So besides just keeping my XPS nice and cool, the little experiment (if you would call it that) serves no performance advantage asofar seen in Doom3, Half Life 2 and Benchmarking.
On a side note: I have a de-humidifier in my living quarters, as I have a lot of electronics, and moisture isn't a good thing. Although, too dry is not very good, so it's pretty stable. Plus, when it gets hot here, it gets too hot and the humidity kills me - double purpose. It's not for my laptop; however, my home setup and various other "goodies" wouldn't do well with all that moisture.
One last thing, you did mention that the 75.xx drivers are running too hot, and are piss-poor for you system. The highest my temp spiked was 76C during Doom3 after about 2 hours. I decided to stay a little cautious after you mentioned that heat issues are problematic with those drivers, but I have yet to have a problem. Nor, have I heard of people having a major heat problem with them as well. It is, however, more then likely that one's system will run much hotter with them installed compared the the WHQL cert ones.
Pip,
I'm pretty sure that when you download Coolbits from Guru3d.com that it will self install and you won't have to go through the REGEDIT. But, you really don't need to download Coolbits because you can create it in REGEDIT if that doesn't work (but, I don't see why it shouldn't). Creating Coolbits in RegEdit is INCREDIBLY simple procedure. If, on the off chance your having trouble. Just ask and I'll tell you what to do.
I'm also curious, what drivers do you find give you the best score?
