Return XPS 1640? Intended Use: Adobe Suite 4

I recently received a dell xps 1640 with the following specs::confused2:

Studio XPS 16 (1640) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (3MB
cache/2.13GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
Certified Refurbished
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
320 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
15.6 inch Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen WLED LCD (1920x1080)
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
8X DVD+/- RW(DVD/CD read/write) Slot Load Drive
6 Cell Primary Battery
STUDIO XPS 16 - M1640: 1 Yr Ltd Warranty, In-Home Service
after Remote Diagnosis, 24x7 Phone Support (Included In Price)

$749-$112.35 (15%off) = 636.65 +52.43
= $689.08

I am running the Adobe Creative Suite 4, mostly photoshop/ illustrator and after effects, Office and Quickbooks 09, and I think that by the benchmark improvements of the new i5, i7 chips this computer might not be that good of a deal for my use because of it's older intel chip.

I see that dell currently has the xps 16 with:

Genuine Windows 7® Home Premium Edition
NEW 2010 Intel® Core™ i5-430M (2.26GHz, 4Threads, turbo boost
up to 2.53Ghz, 3M cache)
Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1920x1080)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
6-cell Battery
ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card

$1,199.00-$200.00 = $999.00
S&H $12.95 Tax $69.93
= $1,081.88

My question is, should I return my xps and get the new one? My main intended use is multi-tasking with the adobe suite and I know that after effects and photoshop make use of the extra cores.

any advice is appreciated. (Posted in 1640 Owners Thread. )

 

$1081.88 is definitely worth the upgrade. I would say go for it but keep in mind of the throttling which may be fixed in near future.

 

Emphasis on the "may" in chewyeong90's sentence. The "D" in Dell seems to be standing more and more for Disappointment in the recent years.

If you look at the improvements of the second config. over the first what you're getting for the additional ~$400 are: a better processor (also future-proofs your laptop a little better), ~180 more gigabytes of hard drive space (which will be helpful in the long run, but HDD prices are constantly falling), a better graphics card (the 4760 is quite a bit better than the 3670 and is a good upgrade), and the wireless card does change as well but I don't think there's too much of a difference in the two. So....

Are those worth the ~$400? Well as you are using the Photoshop program and multitasking the i5 should help and the 4670 will also give you more longevity (although the 3670 would probably be OK). If you might also game, the 4670 is worth it IMO. So I think for 400 the upgrade is just worth it...only "just". It's not too bad. Now what about that throttling.....

 

Thank for your takes on what I should do. wasn't the throttle issue non existent with the i5 chips? I understand it's with the i7.

my current xps runs fine except the hard drive kicks in with a fair amount of noise on simple tasks like web browsing all the time. it gets a bit hot and battery is not that long. Should I expect an improvement on that with the newer laptop? is my description of the 1640 more or less how it runs for you guys?

I like the screen/ build quality enough that I haven't found another laptop to compare it to, but just want to make sure that springing for the newer model is the right way to go. I've had this 1640 for about a week!