Is this a good laptop?

[Game_boy]

DOATS1 said:
core duo is basically dual celeron processors, core 2 duo is 2 pentium 4 processors. so yeah, core 2 duo is better.

That's complete rubbish. Core itself is an architecture completely seperate from Pentium 4, based on Pentium III.

Core Duo is the predecessor of Core 2 Duo.  You want Core 2 Duo; it's 1.5-2x faster at the same speed.

 

If it's a Core 2 Duo, the CPU is fine; you won't notice much of an improvement by spending more. If it's a Core Duo, look elsewhere.

The RAM is fine, unless you are planning to run Vista in which case you might want more if you are going to use memory-intensive applications such as Photoshop.

The HDD doesn't affect performance.

The graphics card is sort of OK: it's much better than integrated and better than all the cheap Nvidia ones 8200-8500. Is it a "Radeon" or a "Mobility Radeon"? You want Mobility; if it doesn't say that then it's a desktop card and will drain all your battery power. If you're planning to run the latest games on high quality, you would want a better graphics card like the Mobility Radeon 36xx or higher series.

The price looks high, but as Australia tends to be as much as a rip-off as the UK it's probably the best you'll get.