- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Hm...depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to get a laptop meant as a desktop replacement, you can get far better deals than that on laptops.
The laptop itself seems to be a pretty good deal aside from the processor. It's got adequate expansion room, such as the 4 USB ports, Tru-Brite screen, and Firewire (although that's sort of becoming outdated). The CD drive seems good for general purposes, but if you have the money, see if they offer a Blu-Ray DVD drive or maybe a DVD burner. Of the two, the DVD burner will likely be more practical.
The Mobility ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (which happens to be the same as I have) is an adequate chipset...it'll let you handle Halo in full glory, assuming you have enough RAM to support it. You should ask the dealer for upgrades on the RAM, since that 512 will actually be reduced to only 380 avalible when running apps like Halo. The Integrated chipset borrows RAM from the primary RAM installed on the computer, meaning actual avalible RAM will be less than the physical amount.
I would check to see if they offer an upgrade on the processor. Most important is to pay attention to the clockspeed of the processor. Dual-core processors are snazzy, but they're not exactly practical as of right now, since XP doesn't support it too well. When Vista comes out, it might be a different matter, but as of now, it shouldn't have any bearing on your choice of processor. A clockspeed of 1.6 GHz should be adequate to handle a toned-down version of Halo, anything higher, however, is definitely preferred. Beware, though. Intel processors are known to list clockspeeds higher than their actual performance. In other words, a 2.0 Intel might perform the same way as a 1.7 AMD, since the AMD manages processes more efficiently than does the Intel.
Hope this all helps...if you need clarifying, just say so.