Computers for Law School 2011 Forum

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geoduck

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by geoduck » Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:57 pm

trudat15 wrote:Quick question for anyone that knows. I've heard that I should only get base RAM and upgrade via newegg or whatever, but does that void the warranty (manufacturers or any third party warranties)? I thought it did for the last comp I bought.
Generally, it doesn't break the warranty if it doesn't require you to break open the case. If the manufacturer has given you a panel under the battery or similar through which to access the RAM, you're fine.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by frijoles99 » Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:19 pm

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thi ... ries/x120e
It has fantastic graphics, the screen is big enough for all applications. It has the lenovo reliability. The processor is quite fast enough for law school. It is solidy built and gets great battery life. Also it is between 400 and 500 dollars. The only people this won't work out for is anyone who wants to do intense crysis gaming or if you want a 15-17 in. screen. Personally I would pick this machine up if I didn't have my asus. It is literally half the price of the x220 and will perform admirably for all facets of law school. Plus it's graphics are much superior to the integrated graphics of the x220 even though it literally costs double the price.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by trudat15 » Tue Apr 26, 2011 6:03 pm

geoduck wrote:
trudat15 wrote:Quick question for anyone that knows. I've heard that I should only get base RAM and upgrade via newegg or whatever, but does that void the warranty (manufacturers or any third party warranties)? I thought it did for the last comp I bought.
Generally, it doesn't break the warranty if it doesn't require you to break open the case. If the manufacturer has given you a panel under the battery or similar through which to access the RAM, you're fine.
Thanks for the info. Good to know that I can still upgrade ram on my own for cheap and still keep my warranty..

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zonto

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by zonto » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:14 pm

Can you honestly stand looking at an 11" screen all the time on the 120e? I was concerned the 12.5" screen on the x220 would be too small.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by zeth006 » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:27 pm

trudat15 wrote:
geoduck wrote:
trudat15 wrote:Quick question for anyone that knows. I've heard that I should only get base RAM and upgrade via newegg or whatever, but does that void the warranty (manufacturers or any third party warranties)? I thought it did for the last comp I bought.
Generally, it doesn't break the warranty if it doesn't require you to break open the case. If the manufacturer has given you a panel under the battery or similar through which to access the RAM, you're fine.
Thanks for the info. Good to know that I can still upgrade ram on my own for cheap and still keep my warranty..
Correct. The only time you might void your warranty is if you try to do some other kind of major upgrade that involves removing a part that has a piece of tape over it. If the tape is ripped, that's how the tech serviceman knows you tried to do something kooky.

And yeah, RAM is almost always cheaper when done on your own. Check slickdeals.net for the occasional RAM deals. Ask people there whether your X220 will take this or that RAM.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ColomboHeat » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:35 pm

zonto wrote:Can you honestly stand looking at an 11" screen all the time on the 120e? I was concerned the 12.5" screen on the x220 would be too small.

I have only had limited experience playing around with a 10ish'' netbook, so I am not quite sure how I would fare year in and year out.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by istara » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:55 pm

zonto wrote:Can you honestly stand looking at an 11" screen all the time on the 120e? I was concerned the 12.5" screen on the x220 would be too small.
I'm typing on one now (actually it's the older x100e). My work bought them for everyone this year. It took me about a week to get used to the small size of the screen and adjust the settings to my liking, but now that I've been using it for a year, I love it. "Big" laptops seem weird to me now.

It's great to carry around since it's smaller than most 3 ring binders and mine has flown across the room 3 times now (I teach elementary school) and still works great.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:21 pm

Speaking of Macs - some are bad out of the box. This is a known issue in Mac forums. (references for good measure: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8 ... ID=8353524, http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/ind ... 34184.html, http://mac.bigresource.com/MacBook-Pro- ... E0zZL.html) It is luck of the draw that the issue you experience out of the box will be one you notice right away (such as the display issue above), or at least within the warranty period. Also, luck of the draw that you will see the issue AND recognize that is the entire machine that is bad rather than just one piece.

Anecdote explaining how I learned this:

My girlfriend has a MacBook. Not once, but twice, her hard drive has crashed. No recovery available. You need to completely remove the hard drive and replace it with a new one with no chance for recovery at all. Then, when the new hard drive is in, in about a year or two, it will crash again.

Usually, the mac cannot be fixed if it is bad out of the box. It needs to be completely replaced with a new laptop. Hopefully, if this happens to you, you're within the warranty range. Otherwise, you're SOL. Though, I'd say you're already SOL if your hard drive has crashed with all of your data on it.

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Stringer6

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Stringer6 » Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:43 pm

slax wrote:Speaking of Macs - some are bad out of the box. This is a known issue in Mac forums. (references for good measure: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8 ... ID=8353524, http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/ind ... 34184.html, http://mac.bigresource.com/MacBook-Pro- ... E0zZL.html) It is luck of the draw that the issue you experience out of the box will be one you notice right away (such as the display issue above), or at least within the warranty period. Also, luck of the draw that you will see the issue AND recognize that is the entire machine that is bad rather than just one piece.

Anecdote explaining how I learned this:

My girlfriend has a MacBook. Not once, but twice, her hard drive has crashed. No recovery available. You need to completely remove the hard drive and replace it with a new one with no chance for recovery at all. Then, when the new hard drive is in, in about a year or two, it will crash again.

Usually, the mac cannot be fixed if it is bad out of the box. It needs to be completely replaced with a new laptop. Hopefully, if this happens to you, you're within the warranty range. Otherwise, you're SOL. Though, I'd say you're already SOL if your hard drive has crashed with all of your data on it.
i'd imagine that this is true for any computer, or any piece of electronics

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kalvano

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by kalvano » Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:54 pm

But wait, Macs are perfect. They just work.

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geoduck

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by geoduck » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:01 pm

kalvano wrote:But wait, Macs are perfect. They just work.*
Within the bounds of Chinese/Taiwanese quality assurance standards.
FTFY

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:54 pm

Stringer6 wrote:
slax wrote:Speaking of Macs - some are bad out of the box. This is a known issue in Mac forums. (references for good measure: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8 ... ID=8353524, http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/ind ... 34184.html, http://mac.bigresource.com/MacBook-Pro- ... E0zZL.html) It is luck of the draw that the issue you experience out of the box will be one you notice right away (such as the display issue above), or at least within the warranty period. Also, luck of the draw that you will see the issue AND recognize that is the entire machine that is bad rather than just one piece.

Anecdote explaining how I learned this:

My girlfriend has a MacBook. Not once, but twice, her hard drive has crashed. No recovery available. You need to completely remove the hard drive and replace it with a new one with no chance for recovery at all. Then, when the new hard drive is in, in about a year or two, it will crash again.

Usually, the mac cannot be fixed if it is bad out of the box. It needs to be completely replaced with a new laptop. Hopefully, if this happens to you, you're within the warranty range. Otherwise, you're SOL. Though, I'd say you're already SOL if your hard drive has crashed with all of your data on it.
i'd imagine that this is true for any computer, or any piece of electronics
Agreed, I just think that some Mac users believe that their machines are always perfect, as sarcastically noted by the poster below you.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by deepspacenine » Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:39 pm

slax wrote:
Stringer6 wrote:
slax wrote:Speaking of Macs - some are bad out of the box. This is a known issue in Mac forums. (references for good measure: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8 ... ID=8353524, http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/ind ... 34184.html, http://mac.bigresource.com/MacBook-Pro- ... E0zZL.html) It is luck of the draw that the issue you experience out of the box will be one you notice right away (such as the display issue above), or at least within the warranty period. Also, luck of the draw that you will see the issue AND recognize that is the entire machine that is bad rather than just one piece.

Anecdote explaining how I learned this:

My girlfriend has a MacBook. Not once, but twice, her hard drive has crashed. No recovery available. You need to completely remove the hard drive and replace it with a new one with no chance for recovery at all. Then, when the new hard drive is in, in about a year or two, it will crash again.

Usually, the mac cannot be fixed if it is bad out of the box. It needs to be completely replaced with a new laptop. Hopefully, if this happens to you, you're within the warranty range. Otherwise, you're SOL. Though, I'd say you're already SOL if your hard drive has crashed with all of your data on it.
i'd imagine that this is true for any computer, or any piece of electronics
Agreed, I just think that some Mac users believe that their machines are always perfect, as sarcastically noted by the poster below you.
Macs break, yes, but don't spread misinformation. The only Mac that can't be repaired is the MacBook Air. The others can be opened by a professional and fixed, and if you have AppleCare that will be done for 3 for three years as long as you didn't violate any warranty issues. (Case in point: My MacBook Pro was one of the ones affected by the faulty die cast on the NVidia 8600 GPUs. Apple replaced my logic board (motherboard/CPU/GPU) for free and it took all of a day. I dropped it off in the morning and it was repaired that afternoon.

Also, BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER no matter what OS or vendor you use. I have a Time Capsule (a network hard drive sold by Apple) that backs up every file on my computer hourly. I also store stuff on the cloud and external hard drives. You can never be too safe with your data. There are plenty of NAS/hard drive and cloud solutions for Windows and Mac computers an everyone headed to law school should look into them. 8)

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slax

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:54 am

deepspacenine wrote:
slax wrote:
Stringer6 wrote:
slax wrote:Speaking of Macs - some are bad out of the box. This is a known issue in Mac forums. (references for good measure: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8 ... ID=8353524, http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/ind ... 34184.html, http://mac.bigresource.com/MacBook-Pro- ... E0zZL.html) It is luck of the draw that the issue you experience out of the box will be one you notice right away (such as the display issue above), or at least within the warranty period. Also, luck of the draw that you will see the issue AND recognize that is the entire machine that is bad rather than just one piece.

Anecdote explaining how I learned this:

My girlfriend has a MacBook. Not once, but twice, her hard drive has crashed. No recovery available. You need to completely remove the hard drive and replace it with a new one with no chance for recovery at all. Then, when the new hard drive is in, in about a year or two, it will crash again.

Usually, the mac cannot be fixed if it is bad out of the box. It needs to be completely replaced with a new laptop. Hopefully, if this happens to you, you're within the warranty range. Otherwise, you're SOL. Though, I'd say you're already SOL if your hard drive has crashed with all of your data on it.
i'd imagine that this is true for any computer, or any piece of electronics
Agreed, I just think that some Mac users believe that their machines are always perfect, as sarcastically noted by the poster below you.
Macs break, yes, but don't spread misinformation. The only Mac that can't be repaired is the MacBook Air. The others can be opened by a professional and fixed, and if you have AppleCare that will be done for 3 for three years as long as you didn't violate any warranty issues. (Case in point: My MacBook Pro was one of the ones affected by the faulty die cast on the NVidia 8600 GPUs. Apple replaced my logic board (motherboard/CPU/GPU) for free and it took all of a day. I dropped it off in the morning and it was repaired that afternoon.

[\quote]

I'm sorry, but you're wrong, and I'm not spreading misinformation. The problem in my girlfriend's macbook cannot be fixed. Apple has admitted this. And the warranty that came with the machine was for 1 year only. It cannot be repaired for free past the warranty timeframe. Additionally, to replace the hard drive under the warranty, the macbook would have to be shipped to California, not fixed in a store in one day. This method would also cost more because of Apple's inflated costs. Instead, she has it repaired by a family friend who replaces the hard drive for her for much cheaper. Still, she loses all of her data that isn't backed up elsewhere, and the hard drive will inevitably crash again because of the fact that the macbook itself cannot be repaired.

It's important that people shopping for computers understand that Apple products are not foolproof investments as it seems you have been led to believe.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Stringer6 » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:12 am

I'm sorry, but you're wrong, and I'm not spreading misinformation. The problem in my girlfriend's macbook cannot be fixed. Apple has admitted this. And the warranty that came with the machine was for 1 year only. It cannot be repaired for free past the warranty timeframe. Additionally, to replace the hard drive under the warranty, the macbook would have to be shipped to California, not fixed in a store in one day. This method would also cost more because of Apple's inflated costs. Instead, she has it repaired by a family friend who replaces the hard drive for her for much cheaper. Still, she loses all of her data that isn't backed up elsewhere, and the hard drive will inevitably crash again because of the fact that the macbook itself cannot be repaired.
LIAR

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ResolutePear » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:25 am

Stringer6 wrote:
I'm sorry, but you're wrong, and I'm not spreading misinformation. The problem in my girlfriend's macbook cannot be fixed. Apple has admitted this. And the warranty that came with the machine was for 1 year only. It cannot be repaired for free past the warranty timeframe. Additionally, to replace the hard drive under the warranty, the macbook would have to be shipped to California, not fixed in a store in one day. This method would also cost more because of Apple's inflated costs. Instead, she has it repaired by a family friend who replaces the hard drive for her for much cheaper. Still, she loses all of her data that isn't backed up elsewhere, and the hard drive will inevitably crash again because of the fact that the macbook itself cannot be repaired.
LIAR
I don't like Apple hardware(but I run OSX, ha ha!), but that's a far stretch. The HD has it's own door you unscrew and pop the HD out, pop a new one in - preferably preformatted with a fresh copy of OSX included.

This is a 3 minute job tops, ~6 if OSX needs to be installed(not including time you're physically away from the laptop while the OS installs). The same applies to authorized apple repair centers. No way they'd outsource their work to corporate.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by deepspacenine » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:25 am

slax wrote:
I'm sorry, but you're wrong, and I'm not spreading misinformation. The problem in my girlfriend's macbook cannot be fixed. Apple has admitted this. And the warranty that came with the machine was for 1 year only. It cannot be repaired for free past the warranty timeframe. Additionally, to replace the hard drive under the warranty, the macbook would have to be shipped to California, not fixed in a store in one day. This method would also cost more because of Apple's inflated costs. Instead, she has it repaired by a family friend who replaces the hard drive for her for much cheaper. Still, she loses all of her data that isn't backed up elsewhere, and the hard drive will inevitably crash again because of the fact that the macbook itself cannot be repaired.

It's important that people shopping for computers understand that Apple products are not foolproof investments as it seems you have been led to believe.
Sorry, I'm not trying to flame or anything but like I said, your claim that Apple computers can not be repaired is untrue, except in the case of a MacBook Air. Even you just said your girlfriend's MB was repaired. Anyone with some minimal technical skill can open up a Mac, there are guides online on how to open up a MacBook and replace a HDD. Or you can take it to an Apple Authorized Repair agent or just a random computer shop.

Plus like I said, if you get AppleCare then you have a 3 year warranty. That is no different than a Dell or HP. You get a 1 year warranty and if you want more you buy more.

In the ends, HDDs fail on ALL computers over time... so get an SSD and backup or if you have an HDD backup and then backup again. No matter what system you have.

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ResolutePear

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ResolutePear » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:30 am

I'll be fair though, I have bought broken iPhones and macbooks that the owner said it couldn't be fixed.

It was usually small stuff like the glass cover on the iphone or a defective LCD.

Buy at 85% off, sell at 50% + parts. Easy 35% margin on idiots.

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slax

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:37 am

-
Last edited by slax on Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ResolutePear » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:42 am

slax wrote:It's not the HD itself that breaks. It's the part of the macbook that interacts with the HD component that fails. You can actually hear the mechanism clicking out of place as it tries to read the HD but can't. It cannot be fixed, I promise you. But I guess you clearly know more about it from reading it on the internet than I could ever know from my own hands on interaction, so thanks for clearing everything up.
The "clicking" are the heads seized up - and are contained within the HD casing. There is the possibility that it is the interface, but when doing diagnostics, the first step would be to switch out the HD have heard "clicking."

And you're damn straight I know more given an accurate description.

Besides, being remote from the problem isn't the issue. If it were, Apple would be the only electronics company in business.

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slax

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:48 am

ResolutePear wrote:
slax wrote:It's not the HD itself that breaks. It's the part of the macbook that interacts with the HD component that fails. You can actually hear the mechanism clicking out of place as it tries to read the HD but can't. It cannot be fixed, I promise you. But I guess you clearly know more about it from reading it on the internet than I could ever know from my own hands on interaction, so thanks for clearing everything up.
The "clicking" are the heads seized up - and are contained within the HD casing. There is the possibility that it is the interface, but when doing diagnostics, the first step would be to switch out the HD have heard "clicking."

And you're damn straight I know more given an accurate description.

Besides, being remote from the problem isn't the issue. If it were, Apple would be the only electronics company in business.
Was actually speaking to deepspacenine, the Apple worshipper up there. But to respond, the computer repair shop and Apple themselves have both said it is not the HD itself that is the problem; it is the computer. The clicking issue has happened now with 2 HD's, with a third one in now. If 2 HD's have failed, what would lead you to believe it is the HD itself that is the problem? Not antagonizing, just curious as to what I am missing here.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by ResolutePear » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:52 am

slax wrote:
ResolutePear wrote:
slax wrote:It's not the HD itself that breaks. It's the part of the macbook that interacts with the HD component that fails. You can actually hear the mechanism clicking out of place as it tries to read the HD but can't. It cannot be fixed, I promise you. But I guess you clearly know more about it from reading it on the internet than I could ever know from my own hands on interaction, so thanks for clearing everything up.
The "clicking" are the heads seized up - and are contained within the HD casing. There is the possibility that it is the interface, but when doing diagnostics, the first step would be to switch out the HD have heard "clicking."

And you're damn straight I know more given an accurate description.

Besides, being remote from the problem isn't the issue. If it were, Apple would be the only electronics company in business.
Was actually speaking to deepspacenine, the Apple worshipper up there. But to respond, the computer repair shop and Apple themselves have both said it is not the HD itself that is the problem; it is the computer. The clicking issue has happened now with 2 HD's, with a third one in now. If 2 HD's have failed, what would lead you to believe it is the HD itself that is the problem? Not antagonizing, just curious as to what I am missing here.
Well, you left out a pretty relevant set of facts. I'd also check attempt a reinstall of OSX just to see if it's a corrupted driver for the SATA controller. Otherwise, it's the motherboard. Sure it's expensive and you're better off buying a new model, but it's not "unfixable."

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by slax » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:57 am

-
Last edited by slax on Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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geoduck

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by geoduck » Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:38 am

slax wrote:It's not the HD itself that breaks. It's the part of the macbook that interacts with the HD component that fails. You can actually hear the mechanism clicking out of place as it tries to read the HD but can't. It cannot be fixed, I promise you. But I guess you clearly know more about it from reading it on the internet than I could ever know from my own hands on interaction, so thanks for clearing everything up.
The part of the MacBook that interfaces with the HD... Would be a floppy SATA ribbon connector. I'd love to see that click! But anyway, a MacBook is something known as a computer, made in things called factories. Often, computers of all brands produce things called lemons. Statistically, Apple produces slightly less of these than most brands and has slightly higher customer satisfaction in the way they manage said lemons. But no, you are correct, Apple computers are not made out of magical unicorn poo which is invulnerable to mechanical failures.

Though if you buy a MacBook Air, you don't have to worry about any moving parts failing.

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Re: Computers for Law School 2011

Post by Stringer6 » Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:45 am

All of the people that said Macs are perfect and never break have finally been put in their place.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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