[astroglide]

memory is ever so slightly cheaper at crucial (like $244 at crucial.com, it's $250 at dell). you'll end up with a 256mb ddr2 sodimm which you could keep around to play musical chairs if dell busts you on having a non-standard config if you need warranty service or you could sell it for a few bucks on ebay. i'd just take it from dell.

7200rpm is definitely worth it if you care about speed

bigger battery is up to you. most people will probably use these as desktop replacements and have it plugged in a lot.

the x300 is an adequate but far from stellar card. if you care a lot about gaming the geforce go 6800 is a good bet, but i recall the upcoming ati pcie card smashing it in several benchmarks. since the laptop is pcie you should be able to upgrade the video later so i'd go with x300 64mb and see how it goes.