Dell Studio 15 Decision Help

Hello guys,

This is my first time posting, and I would appreciate any help. I bought a Dell Studio 1555 yesterday ending a 6 years of misery with my current Compaq Evo n1020v.

These are the specs that I asked for:

Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English
1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
15.6in Widescreen High Definition (1366x768) WLED with TrueLife
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
500GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570
Fixed Internal DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK
English - Documentation Studio 1545 N0553506
1Yr Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
Studio 1555 Order - UK
Studio 1555 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
90W AC Adaptor
Wireless Label (Intel Wireless Cards) - Core 2 Duo
Palmrest Standard
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - European
Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English
No Accidental Damage Support
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year

I got with a good deal £80 off and I found I a 10% off voucher from the internet, but I paid an extra £27 pound for a different layout keyboard.

The total price was £648 roughly $1000

I just ordered the laptop yesterday but I'm having second thoughts about the hard drive.

Do you think I should get the 320GB 7200rpm instead of the 500GB 5400rpm regarding the matter of heating, speed and power consumption. knowing that there is no price difference between the both.

I do require faster speed for programming, photo editing and watching movies but only if it's worth sacrificing 180GB.

Thank you all for your help.

P.S.: if anyone interested in the offer, hurry up it ends on the 13th of may. from www.dell.co.uk

 

As far as I know, faster HD speeds are beneficial for recording, like music, videos, etc. I don't think the things you'll be doing will require a 7200RPM drive. There might be minuscule performance boosts in a few things, but you'll have a little faster read/write time on the 7200RPM.

Your machine looks great as-is, especially for the price. You won't go wrong.

In my opinion, keep your configs. If you do find a necessity to gain performance with a faster hard drive later, buy and upgrade yourself from Newegg. It'll be cheaper than Dell, and you will have 2 laptop hard drives just in case something happens in the future.

Also something to note:

A faster HD speed takes more power, and battery life can expect to decrease a little. Same goes with the increase of heat with a faster HD. However, these might not be too noticeable. I cannot justify my reasons because there is no review on this site yet to describe it, nor myself owning one yet. Hope this helps.