My Computer's Hard Drive

What options do you have? List the amount/GB, type, speed and price of each option.
On the Studio 16 XPS, I have four hard drive choices:

• 500GB, 7200RPM SATA hard drive, included in price
• 640GB, 5400RPM SATA hard drive [Add $35]
• 128GB, solid state drive [add $154]
• 256GB, solid state drive [add $445]

What are the difference between the two options? 
There's two primary differences between the two hard drives.  The upgrade is 140GB larger, but at the same time, it's slower to access data as well.  The two solid state drives are better for mobile use; they're more durable because they don't have moving parts inside.  Of course, there's a premium for that durability.  Personally, when I travel with a laptop, I'm not that rough on it, and the computer will not be running with the hard drive spinning while it's moving, for the most part.  I really don't need the solid state drive.



Go back and look at the system requirements for the software you need to be able to run? What's the highest recommended processor speed?
Looking at the software I need, either of the two standard options will serve my needs; however, I do use and produce a lot of media: digital video, photographs, movies, screencasts etc.  So the larger the hard drive the better.  Of course, I could always use an external hard drive for extra storage if needed.


Which option are you going to select? Why do you only need the included processor option and not need one of the upgrade options? or vice versa, why do you need to upgrade? 
As I mentioned with the processor and motherboard, I consider price breaks quite closely - if I have several upgrade options, how much does the price increase each time?  If there's four options, and they increase in the amount added to my purchase by +$50, +$100, +$300, +$350 - I'm really only deciding between two options.  If I'm going to spend any money to upgrade, it makes since to go ahead and spend the $100 rather than the $50, that's a small difference.  And, if I can afford $300, I might as well add another $50 to get that last option.  Of course, that all depends on the difference.

In this instance, I'm going with one of the standard hard drives - not steady state.  For the standard drives, there's only a $35 difference for the upgrade listed on Dell.com.  Given that it offers an additional 140gigs of storage space, there's really not much of a decision to be made, for me.  I upgrade to the 640GB.