I have come to the conclusion that DELL is clueless when it comes to what drive speed you will get if you ordered an 8600.
According to the DELL forums several people who have received the 8600 (these are not U.S. orders) received the 7200rpm model by default.
I have called DELL twice and have come to the conclusion that nobody at DELL has any idea as to what speed I ordered. According to DELL, "because this is such a new computer the part numbers are either not listed in their computers yet or dont specify the drive spped". I know "Dude you're getting lied to". I was then assured that the 8500 ships with the 5400rpm drive by default and I therefore will definitely not receive the 4200rpm model. I'm not sure what the 8500 has to do with the 8600 but at least it sounds encouraging.
My only option appears to be to wait until my computer gets to me from Malaysia (yes when they say they are boxing it they are actually shipping these from Malaysia) and then figure out what speed it is for myself.
