I am looking to buy a new Dell 6400 (E1505) or 9400 (E1705) but would like some advice on a few things.

Basically I want my laptop for internet, music, photo & video editing, multitasking & no gaming & running Home Vista Premium.

I will definitely be going for 2MB ram and was thinking of 120 GB hard drive - is this a good size and is it worth paying extra for the 160 GB hard drive?

Also, I need to decide between the 15.4 inch widescreen 1280 x 800 or the 17" 1440 x 900. I have heard that text/fonts are very small on the larger screen - can anyone advise? Also, is it worth going for the "Truelife" screen considering i will use the laptop for video/photo editing? This is a glossy screen compared to the normal matt screens.

Is it better to go for the 256mb graphics rather than 156mb?

Last but not least, does anyone know if you can purchase an extended warranty with Dell when the year's guarantee is up, or do you have to purchase it when you buy the laptop.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Basically I want my laptop for internet, music, photo & video editing, multitasking & no gaming & running Home Vista Premium.

I will definitely be going for 2MB ram and was thinking of 120 GB hard drive - is this a good size and is it worth paying extra for the 160 GB hard drive?

Well I would consider it if you are going to do some major video editing. Pictures, and music take up a decent amount of storage, but video will bog you down fast.


Also, I need to decide between the 15.4 inch widescreen 1280 x 800 or the 17" 1440 x 900. I have heard that text/fonts are very small on the larger screen - can anyone advise? Also, is it worth going for the "Truelife" screen considering i will use the laptop for video/photo editing? This is a glossy screen compared to the normal matt screens.
Well this is more of a personal choice. Yes the text and other things will be smaller with a higher resolution, but if you are going to be using this for movies and the like, a bigger screen will be nicer. However, consider that a bigger screen sucks more power.

Is it better to go for the 256mb graphics rather than 156mb?

Again it is up to how much you are willing to spend. Because you are running Vista, I strongly recommend it.

Last but not least, does anyone know if you can purchase an extended warranty with Dell when the year's guarantee is up, or do you have to purchase it when you buy the laptop.

Many thanks in advance for any help.
Sorry I dont deal with them often so I dont know this one.