AW Area-51m questions on HDD and GPU 1

[Shohan]

Alright, I am going to be getting an Alienware Area-51m laptop. I have everything all configured but there are 2 things I get stuck on.

The HDD, they offer a 60gb 7200RPM w/ 8mb cache or an 80gb 5400RPM. Is the higher rpm and cache worth losing the 20gb of space? I don't plan on keeping much on it but I would like some leeway(sp). I guess I am spoiled from the 220gb I almost have filled up at home.

Second, the GPU. They offer the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 PRO and the nVidia FX go5600. Now I personally have had better luck with nVidia over ATI, but I've been told for laptops the ATI chip is better. I researched on the net but couldn't find any reviews or comparisons to back this up.

What does everyone think? Anyone with personal experience? Links to reviews?

Thanks for the help.

Shohn

 

[ski]

If the HD is to be used for storage and you're not that interested in speedy reading and writing from and to it, then go with the 80GB 5400RPM unit.
If it's to be used for an O/S and/or you desire speed, then get the 60GB 7200RPM drive.

Here are separate test reviews of the 2 mentioned graphics cards. Since the CPU's and MB's that were used in the tests are different for both cards, it's difficult to determine a clear cut winner. But the site seems to favor the ATI card. And if you like to use AA and AF, the ATI card gives superior performance when these options are enabled, especially at higher resolutions:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030723/index.html

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030806/index.html

 

[Shohan]

Alright, thanks for the speedy reply! I'll probably be partitioning the HDD. 20Gb for OS, and the rest for storage and user files.

As for the GPU, I just found out a friend has a similiar setup as the one I'm looking at but he has the ATI card so maybe I'll borrow it and play some games and movies. See how it handles.

Thanks again!