Rebuilding a Studio 1558 PP39L

Hi All,

My 13 year old daughter's older step-brother has a 1558 PP39L which failed. They took it to a local laptop repair shop and they claim it's just the hard drive. He is getting a new laptop and they thought if his old one just needed a new hard drive then she could receive the old one for Christmas. I offered to buy a new drive for the unit so she could use it for school and personal use, but they aren't crazy about re-installing everything.  So because I've worked in IT for almost 20 years I offered to do it if they shipped it to me.

The unit has already been shipped and I haven't received it yet, so I don't know the specific hardware included. I've read of some reliability concerns related to the i7 CPU though. I'm looking for insight into any reliability problems I may encounter with this unit and known resolutions. I don't want my daughter to end up frustrated with lockups and data loss. I'd rather spend more money for a reliable new model.

If the hardware is reliable, then I plan to upgrade all BIOS/firmware, install Windows 7 Pro 32-bit, upgrade the RAM to 4GB if it currently has less, and install a OCZ OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G drive. If that drive has an issue, then I'll probably use the 200GB 7200RPM Travelstar I used prior to the OCZ I use in my laptop. I know they won't get the full 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS, but it's close enough for what she should be using it.

Any thoughts or concerns regarding this process are appreciated, thanks!

Jim