1520 Questions

Hi, I've been looking at buying a new laptop for the past month and have almost settled on the Inspiron 1520. I have a few questions about the machine...

1.) I will change the memory when I get it, 2x2gb. Does changing the memory void the warranty? I want the 2 year warranty since i had a bad experience with my previous dell dying 1 month out of the 1 year warranty period...

2.) On the customization page it lists a few HDDS, I'm only interested in the 7200rpm (I previously had an inspiron with a 4200rpm drive, slow as). It lists a 120GB SATA 7200 and a 160GB 7200. I presume the 160gb isn't SATA, is it worth going SATA instead?

3.) The colour schemes for the laptop. I find the pictures too small to judge properly, but from the tiny images black is the only one that looks nice. Is a gloss finish better than a matte finish? And how about the microsatin finish? I might consider the blue one, but is microsatin really nice looking compared to a black matte? What colour do people recommend?

4.) I've heard about crackling audio. Does the choice you make between the audigy HD software and the base option matter, or can both of the have the crackling audio problem? I assume the one you pay more for is supposed to be superior quality so was going to go for that.

Thanks.

 

Upgrading you memory does not void the warranty. Only the 64 bit versions of Vista will see 4GB of memory. They're all SATA drives. No help on the others as I haven't seen one.

 

On 4) As the audigy upgrade is only software, and the noisy headphone jack is a hardware problem I'm pretty sure it won't help.