Hard Drive, Processor Decisions?

Could I get some help deciding between these things for a laptop? I need to figure out if these little upgrades are worth the price, or if they wouldn't make much of a difference for me.
(Starting to strongly consider a Dell XPS M1330 for myself, comparing the options, trying to stay in my budget, etc.)

College student, would love a really useful system while keeping the portable, stylish aspect. I'm hoping to be able to support running a couple virtual machines at once in order to do some school related things on my laptop. Beyond that, typical word processing, DVD, music, streaming video, ftp, web surfing, etc. etc.



? Hard Drive: 320GB 5400RPD SATA, or $200 more for a 320 7200RPM SATA with "free fall sensor", which admit it - sounds good, but I am unsure what practical difference this will have for $200?

? Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache), or for $125 more
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache), or for $400 more
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
(Currently thinking for the prices of going with T9300, still bumps the cache up and I'm not sure the $275 difference will make much of a change in processing speeds/etc worth going to T9500 - but I'm extremely open to help/comments!)

 

For $200, i would not go for the upgrade. That's quite a bit for an "upgrade". You can buy them separately for $200, you should go this route if you want 320GB 7200rpm, and then you would have a 320GB drive you can put in an external enclosure.

The processor, I would probably stay wth the T8300 unless you can see a need for the upgrade. I don't feel it is a real big upgrade though for $125.

 

w.r.t all the stuff you will be doing on that notebook, go for the 320GB 5400RPM SATA and T8300..!!
If you can spend the extra $400 (which is impractical, since you can get a new T9300 from newegg for ~ $330), go for it....
Upgrading HDDs isnt that tough, you could probably upgrade it yourself and that would be much cheaper..!!

 

It isn't hard to upgrade a HDD on your own in a notebook? I only have an old crappy one, so ... I've never really tried. If that is the case, I could get the base offering and get a cheaper upgrade elsewhere ...

But in terms of external ... I am really going for internal here, I know I can have a great external drive and will for some things, but in general I want a good internal drive as well, absolutely.

Are the processors easily upgraded for someone like myself, too? I mean, shoot ... I know darn well how to upgrade and save money on desktop things, but it's the notebooks that throw me into a tailspin.

Here is the full list of processor options for the M1330:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2MB Cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB) [Included in Price]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache) [add $75]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache) [add $200]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache) [add $475]

The hard drive options are different, I can't decide if I'd want red or another color, and so both give different options since red is (product)RED and sold differently. (I'd be using a discount link for either setup that both change the options you can choose from for HDDs a little.)

 

The T8300 is within 5% to 6% of the T9300 overall. So no not needed with what you do.
As far as upgrading the HDD? I am not going to pretend to know your software and what it needs. But I will say it is as good as anything on a notebook over a year ago. So consider that at no price beyond a year ago could you get what is the base now? They ran your apps fine? Correct? I would say keep the 320GB @5400 HDD. I don't know the current price of @7200 but it will be under $200 soon enough then you have a 7200 and an external 320GB for less money. Cutting edge is expensive. And unless you are rich not worth playing in my opinion.

Back to CPU other than warranty issues a few weeks back a T9300 was $319 at NewEgg. So you would end up with 2 CPU's one you could sell to offset cost.

If you need more info on the difference between T9300 and T8300? I have posted several times with charts. I will look up or rewrite if needed but takes a little time.

 

I should have clarified that you can buy the 320GB 7200rpm drive for $200 and install it into your system, removing the 320GB 5400rpm drive. You can sell the 320GB 5400rpm afterwards if you do not want it but you can clearly see how you will come out ahead by going this route instead of paying $200 for the upgrade to the 7200rpm version and not having the 5400rpm version at your disposal.

 

Thanks for clarifying I see what you mean, now.

I also just realized if I go for the red one, the best discount option takes away the 7200rpm option anyway. Decision made if I go with red. Good to know later on I can manage an upgrade on my own.