Getting my 1530 soon, have some questions on how to check the system to make sure its running good

Hello all,

Getting my new dell 1530 soon and I wanted to know what I should do to check the systems performance as soon as I get it. I know I can look at the system physically to see if their is any damage cosmetically, but what else should I check? Here is some questions I have:

MY SYSTEM SPECS:

Penryn T9300 (2.5ghz)
4gb DDR2 667mhz
200GB 7200rpm
8600GT DDR3 256mb
6 cell battery
1680x1050 resolution

1. What checks should I perform on the system besides benchmark test. Which programs and system checks should I use

2. Which program should I download for a benchmark test and can I get a link please (never did this before on any of my systems and quite new at it)

3. What should my system score with my current specs

4. Please respond to question #1 !!


Thank you very much

 

anyone can help me with my questions? would greatly appreciate it, thanks

 

3DMark06 was all I used. You can download it here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/3DMark06_d4935.html

You should get around 4100 once you update the drivers. I got 4060. You can get beta drivers from Laptopvideo2go.com

Also just check to see how much of CPU is being used while idling. It really shouldn't ever be above 15%. Mine usually never goes above 8% but that because I did a complete reinstall of Vista

 

Hello Gfresh


Thanks for the reply, relaly appreciate it! Could you explain these drivers everyone are talking about? I'm quite new to notebooks and I had some questions about this.


1. What are these drivers updating? hardware? software? vista?

2. How do I check which driver I currently have? (Have vista)

3. Can I get a link on where I download them?

4. whats the difference between a beta driver and an offical driver and which is better?



Need some feedback, thanks guys, also if you can check my other post about monitoring my temperature on the 1530 and whats the appropriate temp for certain activities on the compuer.

 

Is it really necessary to make 2 threads ?

1. A driver is software that makes hardware work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver
2. Don't know about Vista, but in XP Device Control (Hardware properties)
3. Have you even tried the dell site ? Dell.com -> Support & Help -> Drivers & Software
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betaware

 

yeah I went to the dell webpage, can't find that nvidia driver that they release, and is there anyhting im missing on what to check on my new system? thanks appreciate it guys

 

anyone can give me more feedback on the questions I had above?
thanks. And when I go to the dell webpage and enter my notebook model, it doesnt have anything on the drivers for the video card. All I see is other drivers like for the ethernet card, audio drivers etc... are you guys going to another place in the dell site? Thanks