i7 HD5145 Studio 15 vs. i5 HD5650 Studio 17

Hi, I'm trying to choose between these 2 laptops.

The Studio 15 contains:
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Mobile Processor (1.6GHz, turbo up to 2.8GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
Black chainlink
1 year of coverage included with your PC
No Accidental Damage Support
McAfee® SecurityCenter 15 Month Subscription
Computrace LoJack for Laptops, 1yr license - included with your PC
15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920 x 1080) WLED with TrueLife
6144MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x4096 + 1x2048]
500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
Intel® Wireless LAN 6200 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
NO - Dell may NOT telephone me in relation to my order and related products and services
Accessories
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year
Also Includes
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK
English Documentation
N0855806
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Studio 1558 Order - UK
No Carrying Case.
Studio 1558 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
90W AC Adaptor
Silver chainlink palm rest – with Black Chainlink cover only
Wireless Label CI7
Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic

Price = £869 (before discount)

Studio 17

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
Intel® Core™ i5-540M (2.53Ghz, 4 Thread, turbo boost up to 3.06 GHz, 3MB cache)
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
Black chainlink
17.3” High Definition+ (1600x900) LED with TL
1 year of coverage included with your PC
No Accidental Damage Support
McAfee® SecurityCenter 15 Month Subscription
4096MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
Computrace LoJack for Laptops, 1yr license - included with your PC
1TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Dual Hard Drive (2x 500GB)
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Intel® Wireless LAN 6200 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
NO - Dell may NOT telephone me in relation to my order and related products and services
Accessories
No DataSafe Online Backup 2GB (Direct)
Also Includes
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 Graphics Card
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
N0874907
Studio 1749 Order - UK
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
No Carrying Case
Studio 1749 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
90W AC Adaptor
English Documentation
Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic
Wireless Label CI5
1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK
Silver chainlink palm rest – with Black Chainlink cover only
Dell Dock

Price = £889 (before discount)

Both are with 1 year warranty.

Notable differences are the 15 has i7, 6GB ram, full HD screen. 17 has 1TB hard drive (though not really a deal breaker since 500 is fine for my needs) and the 5650 card. I'm a light gamer, I play older Q3 engine multiplayers online (where actually have a higher FPS gives better performance). Otherwise I need it for studies, multimedia (I download a lot) and general day to day usage.

Thanks for any advice,recommendations

 

How much weight do you fancy toting around? There is a huge difference between a 17" and 15" model. I have both an older 1501 and a new 1749, and the 1749 required the purchase of a new backpack for hauling its carcass around. However, that being said, I wouldn't want to go back to a 15 from a 17 screen. I prefer the screen real estate over weight.

As to gaming, the 1749 (mine has the 5650 as well) handles the newer games I've thrown at it: blur, burnout, Serious Sam HD, etc. It's been nice be able to play games with a decent frame rate again.

 

I can't say I'm too bothered about the weight of either system since mostly it'll stay in my room. I've been reading a lot about both systems suffering from heating & fan noise :/ Have Dell fixed this?

 

if it was me, id go with the 1749, as it has a a gfx card thats 50% better. the processor will give comparable speeds, but run much cooler. the bigger screen will be a plus too altho ironically it has less definition lol

can the 2x 500gb drives be run in raid0? i dunno too much about raid but if u can faster transfers always good!