HDD performancewise: 100GB 7.200 rpm vs. 120GB 5.400 rpm

7200RPM...
It depends what you are using the computer for. If you are just browsing the net, doing word processing, watching porn, etc then go with the 5400. If you are a hardcore user/gamer then go with the 7200.

I would recommend searching the forum... this has been brought up many many times.

Search the forum. That topic has been beaten to death several times over...

<---Pdonket... good one chap!

Haha, my advice is very clear from that smiley face of course . My personal advice is that as others said, if you are going to do simplistic things, don't head for the 7200rpm, if you will be gaming a lot and load times matter, then get the 7200. It's worth the money in my opinion, if you can afford it, if not, it wouldn't make or break a system.

Now if your viewer does not cache thumbnails and your cpu is fast then refreshing 10,000 jpg image thumbnails might be disk-bound I guess

Keep the 120gb 5400 RPM HD, buy the 100gb 7200 rpm HD separately for $100. Stick the 120gb drive into an enclosure. There, two for the price of one.

get the 7200rpm even if you are going to use it for simple tasks. You are getting an XPS system with 2gb ram (assumption) and a 7950gtx, don't let a slow hard drive get in the way. It doesn't matter if you won't be using it, get it. Get it for bragging rights, get it to boot up 1 sec faster, get it to access files 1 sec faster, and get it because you want the fastest, best components. I got a 120gb 5400 rpm on an asus w3v, upgraded to a 100 gb rpm, didn't really notice the speed difference but when opening Itumes and little things that has to get hard drive info into memory, you feel it. Get the best is my advice and only get second best if you have a budget system. Come on now, you are getting a top of the line system, why let the hard drive bottle neck it.

Get the 7200rpm. The extra 20 gig is not going to make or break your storage capacity, but the less rpm will break your performance edge. If your hard drive is that full youre going to have performance issues anyway. And with Visa around the corner I would go 7200rpm for the extra speed. Its not even a question for me. Even if the drive was smaller say 60GB. 5400 rpm internal drives, are yesterday's news.

My recomendation, is get a 7200rpm drive, load all your most run programs onto it and run an external drive for all other crap like mp3s, photos, videos, files, documents, game saves, FILES!!, your windows drivers, downloaded install files. I have an external prtable 100GB Maxtor 5400rpm USB drive I picked up for $80 to store all my files and it works great so if storage is an issue, get an external hard drive. It's small no more cumbersome then say a cd case, and best part of all you can take your data with you as it will plug into your friends laptop to load store and share data easily. But your system drive should be 7200rpm.

If you are stressing over the $100 get a smaller 7200rpm drive. There is nothing that a 60gig drive can't do that a 100gig can, unless you plan on playing 10 different games at once (as in have all installed), do video editing, store mp3s and photos.

Again get a 7200 rpm drive regardless of size and get an external drive for storage later.

My understanding is that Dell considers the HDD to be a user-removable part. Thats why it has its own little cover and two screws to hold it in. However IANAL.