Computers for Law School 2011 Forum

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Just bought the T-410 Thinkpad for an unbelievable $600. Highly recommended!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140036

[TUP]

I know this an old post, but a lot of people in here bought Macs. Have any of you been able to 1) disable mouse accel, even if just for the mouse? or 2) have the trackpad move according to finger movement (like the iphone) and the mouse scroll down when moving the wheel down (default for PC) without toggling between the two settings?

[zeth006]

Just bought the T-410 Thinkpad for an unbelievable $600. Highly recommended!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140036

Hmmm, not so sure. Only 2 gigs of ram and the processor line is from 2010.

[beach_terror]

Just bought the T-410 Thinkpad for an unbelievable $600. Highly recommended!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140036

Hmmm, not so sure. Only 2 gigs of ram and the processor line is from 2010.

For law school? A processor from 2006 would work fine.

Also to those considering Thinkpads, I dropped mine down a flight of stairs yesterday while it was still on and it still works as if nothing happened. I had to reseat a few keys on my keyboard, but otherwise it survived that fall like a fucking boss.

[ResolutePear]

Just bought the T-410 Thinkpad for an unbelievable $600. Highly recommended!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140036

Hmmm, not so sure. Only 2 gigs of ram and the processor line is from 2010.

For law school? A processor from 2006 would work fine.

Also to those considering Thinkpads, I dropped mine down a flight of stairs yesterday while it was still on and it still works as if nothing happened. I had to reseat a few keys on my keyboard, but otherwise it survived that fall like a fucking boss.

This.

Thinkpads aren't really about the specs, as they are supposed to be business computer. The only exception is their line built for autocad and other modeling applications. A CoreDuo or above is fine in my opinion. Just make sure you have at least 2GB of ram with Windows 7.

And yeah, T-series thinkpads are as durable as you can get without going to a toughbook... which costs a bit more than any law student would like to spend I would imagine.

[seanPtheB]

I'm looking at buying a T420S, pretty loaded up with 8gb of ram and an SSD. I'm worried about the battery life though. For people with thinkpads, how much battery life do you really get? Also, I see there's a 3cell extra battery you can buy. How exactly is that attached? Can you just put it in and take it out yourself with ease when you want to use it?


Yeaaaa, I'm pretty computer retarded. Thanks in advance guys.

[kalvano]

I like my Thinkpad Edge, but if I had it to do over again, I would get an Asus U-series or an Ultrabook. I don't care for the extra weight, the boot-up time is ridiculously slow, and the touchpad sucks.

But it's definitely tough. It's been dropped, kicked, stepped on by dogs, etc. Still runs fine.

[nStiver]

I use a Sager custom gaming notebook that is fucking awesome. No it is not portable, nor is it financially responsible, but it is a great computer. If I wasn't addicted to PC games I would go with the smallest, most paper-thin PC available. I used to be a mac fan, but I think PCs have come a long way since the early 2000s, especially windows 7, which is a great operating system. Macs are good for their quality control and warranty, but you pay the price in $$. Also, Macs can function as a hippster fashion accessory that you can tote around and impress people with.

[albanach]

Macs are good for their quality control and warranty

Do Apple offer next day on-site service on any of their laptops? If not I'd be hesitant unless you have a backup. Two weeks without a laptop while it's shipped to and from California would be a big inconvenience.

[bk1]

Macs are good for their quality control and warranty

Do Apple offer next day on-site service on any of their laptops? If not I'd be hesitant unless you have a backup. Two weeks without a laptop while it's shipped to and from California would be a big inconvenience.

I don't think any laptop actually comes with on-site service. Of course you can purchase it additionally but that is going to cost and most people don't buy it anyways.

[albanach]

I don't think any laptop actually comes with on-site service. Of course you can purchase it additionally but that is going to cost and most people don't buy it anyways.

My question was do Apple even offer on-site service for laptops?

I'd recommend anyone buying a laptop get a three year on-site warranty unless they have a backup or can afford to replace the laptop should it break. I believe you can only get a single loan modification to cover a laptop purchase during your three years at school.

[bk1]

My question was do Apple even offer on-site service for laptops?

I'd recommend anyone buying a laptop get a three year on-site warranty unless they have a backup or can afford to replace the laptop should it break. I believe you can only get a single loan modification to cover a laptop purchase during your three years at school.

iMacs have onsite but MacBooks require mail-in or carry-in to store. Most people's laptops will survive 3 years. For those who don't, should they need an immediate laptop for something like an exam if their old laptop needs repairs, they can get their data back from Dropbox while going to local BBY and getting the cheapest netbook possible to hold them over until the laptop gets returned to them.

It just does not seem economical in any way to buy a 3 year on-site warranty. Not to mention that if it's just for regular class, the person can go with handwritten notes for a while. If it's for exams look above but I know that some schools will allow you to use one of their computers if an emergency such as broken laptop does happen.

[albanach]

iMacs have onsite but MacBooks require mail-in or carry-in to store. Most people's laptops will survive 3 years. For those who don't, should they need an immediate laptop for something like an exam if their old laptop needs repairs, they can get their data back from Dropbox while going to local BBY and getting the cheapest netbook possible to hold them over until the laptop gets returned to them.

It just does not seem economical in any way to buy a 3 year on-site warranty. Not to mention that if it's just for regular class, the person can go with handwritten notes for a while. If it's for exams look above but I know that some schools will allow you to use one of their computers if an emergency such as broken laptop does happen.

My laptop - a three month old Lenovo Thinkpad - died three days before my first exam. I was appreciative of the on-site warranty and the engineer who came to my house the next day. Of course I'm an N of 1, but I've purchased dozens of business grade laptops over the past ten years. I wouldn't say a lot have had hardware failures, but enough to justify the warranty given the lost productivity if the computer dies.

Going to handwritten notes is fine, but I'd prefer to have access to a laptop than be stuck in the West or Lexis lab for two weeks while my computer is repaired. The additional cost of on-site service is typically $100 or less for the three years your at school. At exam time it's simply not something you want to be worrying about - heading to BestBuy, picking a laptop, getting home and going through an hour of updates, then getting dropbox and office installed. None of that individually takes much time, but it's all time you can't afford and stress you don't need before exams.

Each to their own. As I said, if you're happy to self-insure, go for it. But if you're buying a $1,000+ laptop I'd consider an extended warranty very worthwhile.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Just bought the T-410 Thinkpad for an unbelievable $600. Highly recommended!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140036

Hmmm, not so sure. Only 2 gigs of ram and the processor line is from 2010.

6gb of ram available for under 40 bucks at newegg a few weeks ago. solves the problem

[ResolutePear]

Macs are good for their quality control and warranty

Do Apple offer next day on-site service on any of their laptops? If not I'd be hesitant unless you have a backup. Two weeks without a laptop while it's shipped to and from California would be a big inconvenience.

I don't think any laptop actually comes with on-site service. Of course you can purchase it additionally but that is going to cost and most people don't buy it anyways.

Haven't looked at Thinkpad retail warranties lately, which I think has on-site.

For business, Lenovo/IBM has all types of warranty contracts from 3-day to 3-hour on-site repair/replacement.

I'd imagine a 3-hour on-site for a retail customer is not going to worth it.

On the up-side of things: I know some universities(FIU) has on-site authorized tech support for HP and Apple, among a couple others.

[jediknight2424]

Headed to UVA in the fall and looking for a pc with the best warranty/service. Is Lenovo the clear winner here?

I don't have a vehicle-- anyone happen to know if lenovo at-home service covers Charlottesville or is it big-cities only?

[bartleby]

copped a Dell on Staples cause i HATE my Thinkpad T410i

came out to $350 + tax after their easy rebate. haven't used it yet though

i think 75% of the people in my section have macs though

[beachbum]

So the Lenovo T410 that I bought last summer just crashed. The hard drive (solid state) had been gradually failing over the past few weeks, until today when it finally decided to stop working completely. So now I have an expensive, durable, well-constructed, highly-recommended paperweight.

For comparison, my Dell lasted 4 years before I decided to buy a new computer for law school. My Lenovo couldn't quite make it to a year before failing.

[beach_terror]

So the Lenovo T410 that I bought last summer just crashed. The hard drive (solid state) had been gradually failing over the past few weeks, until today when it finally decided to stop working completely. So now I have an expensive, durable, well-constructed, highly-recommended paperweight.

For comparison, my Dell lasted 4 years before I decided to buy a new computer for law school. My Lenovo couldn't quite make it to a year before failing.

You realize that Lenovo had nothing to do with the hard drive failing, right? It was a bad drive from the hard drive manufacturer, whoever makes it.

[beachbum]

So the Lenovo T410 that I bought last summer just crashed. The hard drive (solid state) had been gradually failing over the past few weeks, until today when it finally decided to stop working completely. So now I have an expensive, durable, well-constructed, highly-recommended paperweight.

For comparison, my Dell lasted 4 years before I decided to buy a new computer for law school. My Lenovo couldn't quite make it to a year before failing.

You realize that Lenovo had nothing to do with the hard drive failing, right? It was a bad drive from the hard drive manufacturer, whoever makes it.

Ok, so... what's your point? One way or the other, I thought I was getting a reliable computer from Lenovo, and thus far the computer has failed pretty miserably to live up to expectations. Whether Lenovo manufactured the HD or simply chose to include the HD in the computer doesn't make a whole lot of difference for my purposes.

[beach_terror]

Ok, so... what's your point? One way or the other, I thought I was getting a reliable computer from Lenovo, and thus far the computer has failed pretty miserably to live up to expectations. Whether Lenovo manufactured the HD or simply chose to include the HD in the computer doesn't make a whole lot of difference for my purposes.

Except all computer manufacturers use the same SSD brands. Check your warranty. I'm just pointing out that your assigning the blame to the wrong company. My Thinkpad had a spinning HD that failed. Unless the drive is dead on arrival, there's really no way to know the longevity of it. There's a small % of drives that go bad quickly like that, and it sucks that you fell into it, but the chance is the same across pretty much every company. Just buy a new drive and then you're computer isn't a "paperweight"

It's like getting mad at your car company if one of your tires cant hold any air.

[beachbum]

Ok, so... what's your point? One way or the other, I thought I was getting a reliable computer from Lenovo, and thus far the computer has failed pretty miserably to live up to expectations. Whether Lenovo manufactured the HD or simply chose to include the HD in the computer doesn't make a whole lot of difference for my purposes.

Except all computer manufacturers use the same SSD brands. Check your warranty. I'm just pointing out that your assigning the blame to the wrong company. My Thinkpad had a spinning HD that failed. Unless the drive is dead on arrival, there's really no way to know the longevity of it. There's a small % of drives that go bad quickly like that, and it sucks that you fell into it, but the chance is the same across pretty much every company. Just buy a new drive and then you're computer isn't a "paperweight"

It's like getting mad at your car company if one of your tires cant hold any air.

Maybe, I guess it's just really frustrating that this would happen now. I paid more than I otherwise would have in order to get a laptop that absolutely would not fail during 1L year. I figured notes/outlines/writing assignments this year were just too important to risk with potential computer problems. So I went out and bought a relatively expensive Thinkpad. And it crashes in the middle of 1L year. Ugh.

[Zazelmaf]

iPod Touch is ALL you need.

[ResolutePear]

So the Lenovo T410 that I bought last summer just crashed. The hard drive (solid state) had been gradually failing over the past few weeks, until today when it finally decided to stop working completely. So now I have an expensive, durable, well-constructed, highly-recommended paperweight.

For comparison, my Dell lasted 4 years before I decided to buy a new computer for law school. My Lenovo couldn't quite make it to a year before failing.

I've stated numerous times that SSD technology was not mature enough to be considered reliable.

It's only very recently that SSD's from select manufacturers have become very reliable. Intel and Crucial are the only two I can recommend at this moment; they're about the same and Crucial wins out an edge on price.

Also: Make sure you're updating your SSD firmware periodically. It matters a lot.

Sorry to hear your pains.

[albanach]

I've stated numerous times that SSD technology was not mature enough to be considered reliable.

No harddrive is reliable. Either you get new tech in the form of an SSD or you get old tech that has moving parts inside a moving object (the laptop). Neither is ideal.

Easy solution is backup, backup, backup.

Everything you need for lawschool should live in the DropBox folder or equivalent. Combine that with a decent warranty and a hardware failure is no big deal.