Computers for Law School 2011 Forum

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zeth006

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by zeth006 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:38 pm

I'd say everything in moderation. Do whatever helps you blow off steam, just make sure you're ready come exam time. Some people don't need to be at the library from 3pm-11pm everyday at the library to pull the grades.

deepspacenine

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by deepspacenine » Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:21 am

zeth006 wrote:I'd say everything in moderation. Do whatever helps you blow off steam, just make sure you're ready come exam time. Some people don't need to be at the library from 3pm-11pm everyday at the library to pull the grades.
QFT.

Anyways, to the poster listing SFF, do you mean SFF for a gaming/PC rig? Or SFF = ultraportable?

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bb8900

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bb8900 » Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:05 am

what do you guys think will be better for law school: a mac book air 13" or a mac book pro 13"?

Also, how much gb do you need for law school?

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reepS

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by reepS » Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:39 am

Pro with ssd?

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bigjinjapan

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bigjinjapan » Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:35 am

MacBook Pro is overkill for LS, unless there's something special you want to do with it. I'd say go with portability and the higher-res screen on the Air. I seriously doubt that storage space will be a problem no matter what you go with; PDFs and document files just don't take up that much space.
deepspacenine wrote:Anyways, to the poster listing SFF, do you mean SFF for a gaming/PC rig? Or SFF = ultraportable?
That's your gaming rig. Get a MacBook Air or something (Samsung 9 series looks pretty slick) to take to class with you.
Last edited by bigjinjapan on Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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deepspacenine

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by deepspacenine » Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:20 pm

bigjinjapan wrote:
zeth006 wrote:I'd say everything in moderation. Do whatever helps you blow off steam, just make sure you're ready come exam time. Some people don't need to be at the library from 3pm-11pm everyday at the library to pull the grades.
MacBook Pro is overkill for LS, unless there's something special you want to do with it. I'd say go with portability and the higher-res screen on the Air. I seriously doubt that storage space will be a problem no matter what you go with; PDFs and document files just don't take up that much space.
deepspacenine wrote:Anyways, to the poster listing SFF, do you mean SFF for a gaming/PC rig? Or SFF = ultraportable?
That's your gaming rig. Get a MacBook Air or something (Samsung 9 series looks pretty slick) to take to class with you.
I do love the thought of an SFF gaming rig =D I was going to build a mid-ATX using the BitFenix Survivor LAN case and a NVidia GT 560 Fermi 1GB DDR, but I may go the SFF route. Thanks for the input!

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Stoic » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:27 pm

Not sure where to post this. Anyhow. I usually just type up class notes using Microsoft word and I am fairly organized in doing so. This versus One Note please? I just figured to set up a document for each class. I usually separate my notes from class notes. Some person used one note who sat next to me in one lecture in undergrad. I suppose his notes looked a little sleeker but I didn't feel that having that was entirely necessary.

071816

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by 071816 » Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:02 pm

Stoic wrote:Not sure where to post this. Anyhow. I usually just type up class notes using Microsoft word and I am fairly organized in doing so. This versus One Note please? I just figured to set up a document for each class. I usually separate my notes from class notes. Some person used one note who sat next to me in one lecture in undergrad. I suppose his notes looked a little sleeker but I didn't feel that having that was entirely necessary.
Nothing is "necessary" when it comes to taking notes. Just do what works best for you and if that includes using Word then there isn't anything wrong with that. Plenty of people use Word to take notes I'm sure.

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bigjinjapan

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bigjinjapan » Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:26 pm

deepspacenine wrote:I do love the thought of an SFF gaming rig =D I was going to build a mid-ATX using the BitFenix Survivor LAN case and a NVidia GT 560 Fermi 1GB DDR, but I may go the SFF route. Thanks for the input!
Maybe it's just me getting older, but the idea of a quiet, economic and tasteful system is much more appealing these days than the kind of balls-out builds I used to favor. Especially with as powerful as these mini-ITX boards are getting, I don't see any benefit to going full-ATX for anyone who doesn't know they need it (i.e. - people planning to run double or triple graphics card configs). Planning a new build using the latest Shuttle box, myself:

http://www.shuttle.eu/products/mini-pc/sh67h3/overview/

Now I need to figure out what to do with that massive XATX-size Lian Li build I've had sitting in storage for the past 3 years...

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bb8900

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bb8900 » Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:36 pm

reepS wrote:Pro with ssd?

Do you think that would make it a big improvement?

Also, are 8gb of RAM overkill or not?

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by 23402385985 » Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:01 pm

bb8900 wrote:
reepS wrote:Pro with ssd?

Do you think that would make it a big improvement?

Also, are 8gb of RAM overkill or not?
I went with Pro w/ SSD and it is fantastic. Fooling around with my buddy's pro with HDD, this is so, so much faster. And 8GB of ram is not overkill, but get it from Newegg and replace it yourself. Apple's $200 ram is insane. Their SSD price is expensive, but not as out of line as their ram cost.

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bb8900

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bb8900 » Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:29 pm

joncrooshal wrote:
bb8900 wrote:
reepS wrote:Pro with ssd?

Do you think that would make it a big improvement?

Also, are 8gb of RAM overkill or not?
I went with Pro w/ SSD and it is fantastic. Fooling around with my buddy's pro with HDD, this is so, so much faster. And 8GB of ram is not overkill, but get it from Newegg and replace it yourself. Apple's $200 ram is insane. Their SSD price is expensive, but not as out of line as their ram cost.
What would a SSD improve compared to the Serial ATA drive it includes now?

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by albanach » Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:10 am

bb8900 wrote:
What would a SSD improve compared to the Serial ATA drive it includes now?
An SSD will improve overall responsiveness. You should probably get the apple SSD as OSX has trim support for apple drives but not apparently for 3rd party ones.

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jjlaw

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by jjlaw » Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:22 am

Anyone have any opinion of Lenovo T420 vs. X220? X220 seems lighter, but both machines seem to perform about equally.

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bb8900

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bb8900 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:35 am

Has anyone had trouble connecting to a router with their Mac if it wasn't the airport one?



Also, how long did it take you to get used to mac OS before you got your first mac?

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fatduck

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by fatduck » Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:41 am

jjlaw wrote:Anyone have any opinion of Lenovo T420 vs. X220? X220 seems lighter, but both machines seem to perform about equally.
i think the main difference is the X220 has a smaller screen, and longer battery life

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Iceman389

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Iceman389 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:48 pm

albanach wrote:
bb8900 wrote:
What would a SSD improve compared to the Serial ATA drive it includes now?
An SSD will improve overall responsiveness. You should probably get the apple SSD as OSX has trim support for apple drives but not apparently for 3rd party ones.
Just to give my $0.02 on SSD's. I had one for about 3 weeks and just returned it. It worked great it was fast and yada yada yada. Its just that $/GB is just way too high right now and a 120gb ssd cost me around $220 and I couldn't justify the cost and lack of storage (carrying around a portable hard drive for music and other media was more annoying than i expected it to be). I just bought a 750 GB 7200 RPM HDD and its working great. Not as fast but still faster than the stock HD and more room for ~100 ( i have a new macbook pro). Sure it take more time to boot, but if you are booting a lot you are doing it wrong. SSD's are a great upgrade but are no means necessary.

Also a word on 8gb Ram...its great if you are running VM's on a mac through parallels or vm fusion but thats all i can really recommend it for unless you are doing some serious video editing or something similiar

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Zazelmaf

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Zazelmaf » Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:19 pm

Almost any new computer or netbook will work. As long as it's reliable. A Macbook Pro? Seriously? Overkill. An iMac is definitely good enough, and still overkill.

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ebo

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ebo » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:20 pm

Ok I don't game or make movies or anything like that. I use my computer for Office, itunes, web surfing, and that's it.

Is this a reasonable choice for me?

--LinkRemoved--

2 GB of memory- is that enough? What about a 250 GB hard drive?

Also, how is the Intel Centrino technology? Is that sufficient for my needs?

Finally, what exactly is a Thinkpad SL410? I don't see that anywhere on the main Lenovo site- I only see X, T, Edge, etc. models

Thanks in advance!

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by albanach » Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:37 pm

ebo wrote:Ok I don't game or make movies or anything like that. I use my computer for Office, itunes, web surfing, and that's it.

Is this a reasonable choice for me?

--LinkRemoved--
No, it's really not.

You really do want 4GB of RAM. It will make everything faster, especially once you have many firefox/chrome/ie tabs open in your browser.

It's a core2duo so you're paying for old technology.

Look for a thinkpad that has a core i3 or i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. You can find one for less than $100 more than this, and you'll get a faster, more modern computer. The newer processor will significantly improve your battery life too, making the laptop more usable, especially in three years time when your battery is on its last legs. Unless you'd expect to be able to buy a replacement at little to no notice, you may want to consider an extended on-site warranty.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Stoic » Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:48 am

albanach wrote:
ebo wrote:Ok I don't game or make movies or anything like that. I use my computer for Office, itunes, web surfing, and that's it.

Is this a reasonable choice for me?

--LinkRemoved--
No, it's really not.

You really do want 4GB of RAM. It will make everything faster, especially once you have many firefox/chrome/ie tabs open in your browser.

It's a core2duo so you're paying for old technology.

Look for a thinkpad that has a core i3 or i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. You can find one for less than $100 more than this, and you'll get a faster, more modern computer. The newer processor will significantly improve your battery life too, making the laptop more usable, especially in three years time when your battery is on its last legs. Unless you'd expect to be able to buy a replacement at little to no notice, you may want to consider an extended on-site warranty.
Is on site good enough or should one get the thinkpad battery as well? I'm forgetting the name but I mean the one that covers spills and all that? I'm leaning towards just the onsite. I don't think I've ever dropped my laptop. But I've also never owned a Lenovo and I do have a tendency to just plop my backpack on the floor with my laptop inside.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by 23402385985 » Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:38 am

Iceman389 wrote:
albanach wrote:
bb8900 wrote:
What would a SSD improve compared to the Serial ATA drive it includes now?
An SSD will improve overall responsiveness. You should probably get the apple SSD as OSX has trim support for apple drives but not apparently for 3rd party ones.
Just to give my $0.02 on SSD's. I had one for about 3 weeks and just returned it. It worked great it was fast and yada yada yada. Its just that $/GB is just way too high right now and a 120gb ssd cost me around $220 and I couldn't justify the cost and lack of storage (carrying around a portable hard drive for music and other media was more annoying than i expected it to be). I just bought a 750 GB 7200 RPM HDD and its working great. Not as fast but still faster than the stock HD and more room for ~100 ( i have a new macbook pro). Sure it take more time to boot, but if you are booting a lot you are doing it wrong. SSD's are a great upgrade but are no means necessary.

Also a word on 8gb Ram...its great if you are running VM's on a mac through parallels or vm fusion but thats all i can really recommend it for unless you are doing some serious video editing or something similiar
You don't need to carry around a hard drive. You could just replace the optical drive with a hard drive if you wanted (who actually needs an optical drive built in these days?) and have a 1TB internal HDD for music and movies along with your SSD for the boot and some programs.

http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by chenalex » Sat Jul 02, 2011 2:56 pm

I got a Thinkpad T420s with 8gb RAM, i5 sandy bridge, and 128gb SSD for $1379. I really don't need all these fancy specs for law school/personal use so I might flip it - try selling it for 1500-1600, and then buy an $800 Asus. I do really like the Thinkpad though.

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ResolutePear

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ResolutePear » Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:27 pm

chenalex wrote:I got a Thinkpad T420s with 8gb RAM, i5 sandy bridge, and 128gb SSD for $1379. I really don't need all these fancy specs for law school/personal use so I might flip it - try selling it for 1500-1600, and then buy an $800 Asus. I do really like the Thinkpad though.
A T-series is perfect for law school. The issue isn't about the specs, but the reliability and durability. You have a computer there for ages - if you want to keep it.

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bb8900

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by bb8900 » Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:42 pm

What do you guys think of this laptop for law school:

MBP 13"
2.3GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm

Probably with Circus Ponies for notes

Please give me your thoughts on what this would be like for law school?

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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