Hi Dmitry

>I will probably get either 250 Gb or 160 Gb hard drive. And these, I think, are fairly standard now. At least when you specify a Dell pc you have a choice of sizes and speed on the same processor and BIOS.


Read the writing from Anandtech about SSD Drives that Al Doman gives you.
Than go searching for an OCZ 120 GB Vertex SSD.
That gives you a lot more Power than an CPU upgrade.

Here is a Link for the Drive:
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-OCZSSD2-1VTX120G-120GB-Vertex-Solid/dp/B001NPCTBO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1245047188&sr=8-3

Another manufakturer who uses the same controler as zhe OCZ Vertex does, is Super Talent Ultradrive ME. They are cheaper as the OCZ but have the same Power.

You can replace the Notebook drive with the SSD and put the Notebook Drive into an external USB Box.


Regards
Christoph