Dell UK XPS1530 - Decision Help!.

So I'm on a budget with this machine: (around £650/$1000)
Right now I got:
Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5450 (1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)
LCD 15.4¿ UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) CCFL Display
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT 256MB
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)


This is gonna be a desktop replacement and, being a light gamer with a weakness for FPS (BF2, HL2 etc), I need something that will run games adequately (I'm not sad *ahem* hardcore gamer). So I certainly want to keep the nVidia 8600m GT, as graphics power is the main reason I'm going for this kit, but that pushes me up to £650. So question is:
1. Model comes with Intel Dual Core T5450 (same as 5500 - 1.6ghz, 2MB Cache). Is it worth busting my budget and going up to T7250 (2.0ghz, still with 2MB cache)?
2. To help me with 1. I could go for a 6 cell rather than 9 cell battery and save £20?
3. Finally, and crucially, I REALLY need this puppy before the end of the month as I'm off to a land where technical support is done by someone dressed in an army uniform. So any advice on UK delivery times REALLY appreciated.

Putting in my order asap so any advice appreciated!

Cheers
Champs

 

The 1.6 will give you good performance for most common computer operations and upgrading the processor will not give you any increase in gaming performance. If you're planning to do video conversion and editing or other graphics editing or other processor intensive work commonly, then upgrading the processor would benefit you. If you're mostly gaming, web surfing and general email and document editing, a processor upgrade will only drain your bank account and battery.

On the battery, I think for £20 it's very nice to have 50% more battery life. How much time do you think you'll be spending on battery? On the other hand, I didn't go for the 9 cell in this case because the 9 cell actually extends out below the notebook making it 3/4in thicker at the back. This is not that big a deal to some people, as it's designed to act as a laptop prop and gives an angle to the keyboard that some people find more comfortable. It could make actual lap usage better by lifting the bottom of the laptop off your lap partially as well. But my preference was to get the 6 cell and I will be buying at least 1 spare for times when I need extra battery usage.

If you check the order status forum above, you can probably lots of feedback on UK delivery times. There's always the Outlet as well, which usually ships nearly immediately. Shipment on US orders have been extremely fast lately, within 7 working days.

 

Cheers sonicw, that's really helpful