Inspiron 9300 Questions - Help Appreciated

[Toddster18]

Hi Guys-

Sort of an interesting situation here, and i'm hoping for some advice from some people who have more knowledge than I do on the inspiron 9300.

So I was recently about to purchase myself a 9300 and either 1 or 2 2001FP's for some 8-tabling before stumbling across a recent (pleasant) surprise.

I just received an Inspiron 9300 as an unexpected gift from a relative (long story). It's quite a nice machine, but theres a couple problems:

-The included hard drive is the standard 40gb hard drive - I've heard the 7200rpm one is quite a major improvement.

-The display is not the WUXGA with truelife display, its just the standard widescreen XGA+ display.

-The video card is the standard 64MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300. It appears that the best resolution I can achieve is 1440 by 900.

So, basically, this is my machine as of right now, and I have opened it up and used it to post this. I want to have a machine that starting in the fall I can 8-table with (no overlap) with either 1 or 2 2001FP's, and it appears that I can't currently do that.

My questions:
1. Can i acheive higher display 1600 by 1200 with this display, with a new card or something?

2. My ram is good, but the hard drive isn't so hot, just the standard 40gig stock one. Is that going to be good enough?

3. If I'm stuck, there isn't a chance in hell Dell would "upgrade" the existing machine at whatever cost, is there?

4. If in my position, what would you do here?

Sorry for being long-winded, but that's how I tend to be. Please help me out if you've got time for a quick response. And feel free to ask any questions about info I didn't include. Thanks!

-Todd