HELP PLEASE on purchase of E1505

Hi,
I am planning on buying a Dell E1505 and I have most of the specs decided upon. I do need help with some questions so please help. I believe the most abusing software I will buy will be counter strike (not source) and starcraft 2 if it ever comes out . I have read the review for this laptop on your site and I do realize I will have to reformat it.

I am planning on getting the following. Please advice if there is something that you feel should be upgraded or downgraded.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB)
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™
Integrated Audio

These are my questions

15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™
and
15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
are the monitor options.

Does the wide screen worth the extra $100 price tag?


I have Time Warner wireless 5mb
Please advise on the wireless card

These are the 3 choices from dell

Wireless Card Only: Dell Wireless 1390b/g
Or
Wireless Card Only: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g
Or
Hi-Speed Wireless Card Only: Dell Draft N Wireless


I am planning on getting a wireless connection from Time Warner and I am unsure whether or not they will give me a router or not. If they do not

Which would you recommend for 2 desktops and one laptop?

Which wireless card would you recommend for the desktops?

Both are Dells
1 will use it heavily for games such as counter strike
The other will be for the basics such as internet browsing.

Is the 9 cell worth the $99 price tag over the 6 cell?

As you can see I am looking to get the most value off my buck and with so many experts on this site, I know you guys can help.

Thank you in advanced and any sort of advice would be appreciated.

 

I think any if the wireless cards will work fine. The N card will probaby give you better range if you have a N router. I'd look for the nine cell on eBay.

 

if you can afford it, upgrade the processor to T7200 and the GPU to X1400. you'll benefit from the extra power when playing.

 

if all you plan on doing is working and gaming, then you don't need the t7200 as the gpu will be the bottle neck for your gaming, not the cpu

if you plan on doing lots of media encoding, or compression/decompression get the t7200

upgrade the x1300 to x1400

get the 9 cell from dell, don't get online because lithium battery's life start to shorted right when they're manufactured so best to get one from dell where it was just manufactured

the 9 cell is worth it, almost doubles your battery life

don't bother with the swxga because the x1400 isn't powerfull enough to display most new games at that resolution and still be playable (but not old games such as cs:s)

the swxga also makes viewing text harder, but depends on your preference

get the cheapest wireless, then you can always upgrade later on via ebay