The Ideal Law School Laptop Forum
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:14 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
I'm a Mac person, but my school has some issues with Macs. I know about Boot Camp, but...one computer just for school isn't the worst idea.
Got a Dell XPS 1330. It's light, fast, and Dell is desperate for your cash so i got a pretty good deal. It's compact and with a little tweaking, Vista really isn't bad at all. I don't really need to call support much so i might reconsider if i ever have trouble, but...I'm happy with the thing. Also, the battery life is pretty good...lasts three hours on one charge without much trouble.
Since i expect Zombie Steve Jobs and his legion of Apple fanboys to show up at my door, don't worry, i still have an iPod and a Mac desktop.
Got a Dell XPS 1330. It's light, fast, and Dell is desperate for your cash so i got a pretty good deal. It's compact and with a little tweaking, Vista really isn't bad at all. I don't really need to call support much so i might reconsider if i ever have trouble, but...I'm happy with the thing. Also, the battery life is pretty good...lasts three hours on one charge without much trouble.
Since i expect Zombie Steve Jobs and his legion of Apple fanboys to show up at my door, don't worry, i still have an iPod and a Mac desktop.
- vut
- Posts: 53
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 9:35 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
Because they meet the MIL-SPEC (military specification), which means they are used by people in law enforcement, construction, etc. Basically, we're talking about machines built specifically for professionals on the go. Machines from HP, Dell, Apple, and even the IdeaPads are too shiny and pretty in comparison; they refuse to get dirty, and cannot take a beating like the Thinkpads.SK714 wrote:So whats the deal with everyone being all into the Thinkpads? Why not an HP or something? Costco.com has some great deals on refurbished laptop.
- enygma
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:03 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
I just put in my 120 GB OCZ SSD last night. I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it, but so far the speed difference is pretty damn noticeable. Safari and firefox open pretty much instantly. it's pretty damn sweet.
I also noticed something funny: they must calculate the space different than most hard disk companies. Most guys do it so that 1k, 1M, 1G, etc. aren't actually 1024 times larger than the previous unit, but 1000. So a 120 Gig hard drive would actually wind up being somewhere around 110-112 gigs. But my OCZ hard drive ended up being just a hair under 120. I think it's just the same size as most other 128 giggers, they just believe in accurate advertising - so good for them.
I also noticed something funny: they must calculate the space different than most hard disk companies. Most guys do it so that 1k, 1M, 1G, etc. aren't actually 1024 times larger than the previous unit, but 1000. So a 120 Gig hard drive would actually wind up being somewhere around 110-112 gigs. But my OCZ hard drive ended up being just a hair under 120. I think it's just the same size as most other 128 giggers, they just believe in accurate advertising - so good for them.
- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
I am thinking I'll end up getting a SSD eventually when prices come down a bit. At the moment, I need storage more than speed for the most part, and I'm already worried about filling up my 1TB HD.enygma wrote:I just put in my 120 GB OCZ SSD last night. I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it, but so far the speed difference is pretty damn noticeable. Safari and firefox open pretty much instantly. it's pretty damn sweet.
I also noticed something funny: they must calculate the space different than most hard disk companies. Most guys do it so that 1k, 1M, 1G, etc. aren't actually 1024 times larger than the previous unit, but 1000. So a 120 Gig hard drive would actually wind up being somewhere around 110-112 gigs. But my OCZ hard drive ended up being just a hair under 120. I think it's just the same size as most other 128 giggers, they just believe in accurate advertising - so good for them.

- enygma
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:03 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
well, this may only be for the people who are relatively networking-inclined. But I've set up a NAS on my home network, and I'm thinking about setting up a VPN for my laptop so that I can still access the system from school, etc.LawandOrder wrote:I am thinking I'll end up getting a SSD eventually when prices come down a bit. At the moment, I need storage more than speed for the most part, and I'm already worried about filling up my 1TB HD.enygma wrote:I just put in my 120 GB OCZ SSD last night. I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it, but so far the speed difference is pretty damn noticeable. Safari and firefox open pretty much instantly. it's pretty damn sweet.
I also noticed something funny: they must calculate the space different than most hard disk companies. Most guys do it so that 1k, 1M, 1G, etc. aren't actually 1024 times larger than the previous unit, but 1000. So a 120 Gig hard drive would actually wind up being somewhere around 110-112 gigs. But my OCZ hard drive ended up being just a hair under 120. I think it's just the same size as most other 128 giggers, they just believe in accurate advertising - so good for them.
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- Rocinante
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:44 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
- ddp
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:51 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
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- Posts: 351
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 8:02 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
Just got my 13" mbp and it's light, fast and goes ridicuously long on a charge. Coming from windows I was not prepared for the 30 second boot time. Ridiculous.
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- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:26 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
i've had my lenovo T400 laptop and S10 netbook for a few weeks now, and so far, so good. i'm glad i got the netbook because the T400 is heavy, especially with the bigger battery.
- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
Every new computer boots fast as hell. Then you start loading up stuff and more and more crap starts getting added to the "Load at boot" list and it just slows down a ton.sullidop wrote:Just got my 13" mbp and it's light, fast and goes ridicuously long on a charge. Coming from windows I was not prepared for the 30 second boot time. Ridiculous.
- cconnoll
- Posts: 50
- Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:51 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
LawandOrder wrote:http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
TITCR. I got this 17.4" HP with twice as much ram, 3X as much harddrive space for only $650. And its performance thus far is great.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8041148373
- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
If I compare the macbook air to the desktop I just built for roughly the same price ~$1500, I got 3x as much ram (DDR3), quad core, ~8x HD space, 22" monitor, and GTX 260 graphics. For the same price, the Mac users get portability and.... ???cconnoll wrote:LawandOrder wrote:http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
TITCR. I got this 17.4" HP with twice as much ram, 3X as much harddrive space for only $650. And its performance thus far is great.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8041148373
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- Posts: 97
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:14 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
Comparing notebooks to desktops is pretty silly though, especially the Macbook Air.If I compare the macbook air to the desktop I just built for roughly the same price ~$1500, I got 3x as much ram (DDR3), quad core, ~8x HD space, 22" monitor, and GTX 260 graphics. For the same price, the Mac users get portability and.... ???
- enygma
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:03 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
OMG you mean people can have different priorities?LawandOrder wrote:
If I compare the macbook air to the desktop I just built for roughly the same price ~$1500, I got 3x as much ram (DDR3), quad core, ~8x HD space, 22" monitor, and GTX 260 graphics. For the same price, the Mac users get portability and.... ???
- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
My point is that is it asinine to spend so much on a overpriced, overhyped Mac laptop.enygma wrote:OMG you mean people can have different priorities?LawandOrder wrote:
If I compare the macbook air to the desktop I just built for roughly the same price ~$1500, I got 3x as much ram (DDR3), quad core, ~8x HD space, 22" monitor, and GTX 260 graphics. For the same price, the Mac users get portability and.... ???
This is true.Cal4future wrote:Comparing notebooks to desktops is pretty silly though, especially the Macbook Air.If I compare the macbook air to the desktop I just built for roughly the same price ~$1500, I got 3x as much ram (DDR3), quad core, ~8x HD space, 22" monitor, and GTX 260 graphics. For the same price, the Mac users get portability and.... ???
- dholyghozt
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:31 am
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
are you gonna carry that behemoth to class, that has to weigh around 8-10lbs not to mention battery hungry? or are you getting a netbook to pair up with it?cconnoll wrote:LawandOrder wrote:http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
TITCR. I got this 17.4" HP with twice as much ram, 3X as much harddrive space for only $650. And its performance thus far is great.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8041148373
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- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
8-10lb, while heavy for a computer, is not so burdensome that it cannot be carried easily.dholyghozt wrote:are you gonna carry that behemoth to class, that has to weigh around 8-10lbs not to mention battery hungry? or are you getting a netbook to pair up with it?cconnoll wrote:LawandOrder wrote:http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:
every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
TITCR. I got this 17.4" HP with twice as much ram, 3X as much harddrive space for only $650. And its performance thus far is great.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8041148373
- misformafia
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:59 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
I am a longtime mac user. After researching all my PC options, I think I'm going with an HP Mini XP 110.
Besides OneNote and Microsoft Office, what other programs will I need to be running? Anyone know? Thankkks!
Besides OneNote and Microsoft Office, what other programs will I need to be running? Anyone know? Thankkks!
- hoffb86
- Posts: 313
- Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:11 am
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
mac to PC? I thought this switch was pretty rare.misformafia wrote:I am a longtime mac user. After researching all my PC options, I think I'm going with an HP Mini XP 110.
Besides OneNote and Microsoft Office, what other programs will I need to be running? Anyone know? Thankkks!
- misformafia
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:59 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
ahhh. don't get me wrong, I'm keeping my macbook. I will ALWAYS be a mac-guy. I just need a PC platform for law school to take notes, write papers, and take tests.
plus, those minis are like <400. how sweet is that?!!
plus, those minis are like <400. how sweet is that?!!
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- LawandOrder
- Posts: 591
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:36 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
Anti-Virus, Acrobat, Google Chromemisformafia wrote:I am a longtime mac user. After researching all my PC options, I think I'm going with an HP Mini XP 110.
Besides OneNote and Microsoft Office, what other programs will I need to be running? Anyone know? Thankkks!
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- Posts: 97
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:14 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
I'm getting the Sony Vaio TT and installing Windows XP.... I just hope it doesn't overheat all the time like some of their other notebooks.
- dholyghozt
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:31 am
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
are you gonna carry that behemoth to class, that has to weigh around 8-10lbs not to mention battery hungry? or are you getting a netbook to pair up with it?[/quote]
8-10lb, while heavy for a computer, is not so burdensome that it cannot be carried easily.[/quote]
that's true...i guess it depends on where you are as well...i'm just leery of having a heavy laptop coz i've tried lugging around my 7lb dell with two or three books and it's just very inconvenient esp if you have to walk a lot
8-10lb, while heavy for a computer, is not so burdensome that it cannot be carried easily.[/quote]
that's true...i guess it depends on where you are as well...i'm just leery of having a heavy laptop coz i've tried lugging around my 7lb dell with two or three books and it's just very inconvenient esp if you have to walk a lot
- ddp
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:51 pm
Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop
LawandOrder wrote:http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... KAIR-INDEXddp wrote:every time i even see the words "macbook air" i cream my pants.Rocinante wrote:If I had it to do over again, I would buy something lighter. I went about the purchase all wrong. My idea was to get the best hardware specifications for the money. What I didn't count on was that all I was going to be using the thing for is taking notes. Bad ass desktop (built it last year) at home for entertainment purposes.
Should have gone with a Macbook Air.
$1500 for dual core, 2gigs of ram, and a 120GB harddrive? LOL! What a joke. I've heard Mac prices are silly, but I never looked it up myself. Now I know.
it doesnt matter. i'll pay for sex sex sexy!!
Seriously? What are you waiting for?
Now there's a charge.
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