Can't decide on specs for Studio 15

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a Dell Studio 15 (I'm from the UK) but am not sure what specifications I should go for.
I am going to use the laptop a bit for gaming (Age of empires 3.. and stuff) uni work and general use (photoshop and I multitask quite a lot)

I was wondering about the following
1) Will there be any noticeable difference between 3 and 4gb of RAM when using Windows 7? I normally like to have a lot of internet tabs and programs open at the same time.
2) Would I notice the difference between an i3-330m and the i5-430m for general photoshop / hd videos and games that are generally 3+ years old?

Basically I can't decide whether to get £520 i5-430m 4gb ram, 500gb hd or £550 i3-330m, 3gb ram, 320gb hd, 1920x1080 screen, backlit keyboard

Also based on the fact I hope this laptop to last quite a few years do you reckon I would be better off getting the slightly better specs (will they make a difference?) or the nice screen/keyboard? I can't really go any more expensive...

sorry if my questions are stupid, thanks for any advice

 

My theory is to buy as much as you can when you get a laptop to extend the life that much longer.

That said, I would HIGHLY recommend a minimum of 4GB of RAM these days as the prices are cheap and the more you have the less virtual memory is used.

As for the processor, again, go for the fastest you can get to extend the life of your laptop.

 

The backlit keyboard is about £30 - the difference between the two specs you've listed - right? So I think you can take that out of the equation. Then it's just a case of 1920x1080 screen vs an extra gigabyte of RAM and faster processor and larger harddrive. Think you'd have to be pretty keen on the hi-res sceen to prefer the former option.

Alternatively, save some cash and get the one at £499 (£475 after discount) with a similar spec to the one at £520, but with a faster harddrive but slower processor. Not sure why that model isn't upgradable, but my experience of trying to get Dell to give me configurations that weren't on the website was not a success.

 

Actually adding the backlit keyboard pushes the price over the £750 mark (before discounts) allowing me to use the 5% off coupon so adding a backlit keyboard ends up as free.

Would a 7200rpm hard-drive give noticeably quicker boot and load times (over 5400rpm)? I was tempted by that one but I wanted a coloured lid...

 

Guys,
I was wondering to buy a laptop with high speed processor and better graphics card, and finally decided to go for Studio XPS1645. 2nd of Feb i received my laptop with core i7(1.6gHz) 320gb HDD(7.2RPM), 1GB AMD 4670, 4GB RAM(1330mHz) and the Screen was 15.6"(1920X1080) and also bluetooth, better WiFi card as well. price was £964.
But i was surprised seeing the Fonts and Icons in this high resolution system. they are so small and tiny that i couldn't ever imagine. compare to Windows7, Vista operating system was having the most smallest font and icon. 96DPI in default setting with native resolution.

well, finally i spoke many times with the technician and they said becouz of hight resolution (1080p) screen the fonts and icons r small. and they suggested me to go little lower resolution. so, i m returning this system and already ordered Studio15 with 15.6in Wide screen High Definition (1366x768) WLED TrueLife, 512MB ATI, else everything is as good as XPS1645 and the price is £794. i placed the order last night.

TIPS: Before going to the high resolution screen be sure of the FONTS and ICONS size. even Internet explorer and mozilla firefox's font, icon everything is small. for everyday computing it is annoying and disturbing.

 

Hi there. I recently bought a Dell Studio 1558 new model with the i5-430m processor. It is just as good, if not better than my desktop processor which has E6750 at 3.2Ghz. The screen resolution I went for was 1366x768 and everything is clear enough for me I wouldn't want to go as small as 1920x1080 on a screen this size.

When playing games the 5400 rpm hard drive is an obvious bottleneck when loading but it does get there eventually and will play most recent games at medium graphics settings. The ATI 4570 graphics card is pretty weak if you want high quality with playable framerates but older games will run just fine. In fact you should take a look at my videos on youtube I recorded using Fraps. It will give you an idea if you care about these sorts of things. And also see this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mElqI3lUTTc to see how well it runs with multitasking.

I've found the backlit keyboard an excellent option and is really good when i'm in uni lectures and any place with poor lighting. The 6 cell battery is quite acceptable and will last up to 4 hours i've found with light use i.e. office apps, playing music and internet browsing.

Downsides are that the fan will get noisy if you play videos or games for any reasonable length of time, but most of the time it stays quiet. Also the lack of CAPS lock light can be annoying, however the quickset program will display an icon on the screen whenever you press it. If you put a CD into the slot load drive it makes a loud disturbing sound but this is normal so don't worry about it. Lastly the laptop attracts a fair bit of dust and fingerprints so keep a cloth at hand.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and would recommend it. Probably give it 8.5/10