Best Law School Laptop for the Money Forum

[Oe.Maas]

Ugh, I've read through this entire thread and still don't know what to get. Basically I need something that'll do word processing, web browsing and that's it. I also listen to music on my computer but hard drive space does not seem to be an issue with computers these days.

Can someone just recommend me 3 or 4 laptops and I'll go from there? I'm on a dying 4 year old mac book, but dropping that much money on a new macbook pro seems to be overkill. So something under $1k all-in ideally, as if I'm going to be spending that much money I'll go with the low-maintenance and idiot-proof apple.

I'm hoping to avoid having to replace or upgrade this thing for the next 4 years. Is it true that entry-level thinkpads are unreliable?

Thanks.

[kalvano]

Lenovo, Asus.

They both carry what you are looking for.

Thinkpads are quite reliable.

[Oe.Maas]

Lenovo, Asus.

They both carry what you are looking for.

Thinkpads are quite reliable.

So any of the Thinkpads are a pretty good deal then? The 14" Edge looks pretty good from here, but I really don't know _anything_ about computers. Except for battery life, 4.5 hours is pretty bad isn't it?

[kalvano]

Lenovo, Asus.

They both carry what you are looking for.

Thinkpads are quite reliable.

So any of the Thinkpads are a pretty good deal then? The 14" Edge looks pretty good from here, but I really don't know _anything_ about computers. Except for battery life, 4.5 hours is pretty bad isn't it?

I just ordered the 14" Edge after a lot of research, so I'm going to have to say it's pretty reliable.

4.5 hours isn't great, but law schools tend to have a lot of places to plug in.

[Oe.Maas]

I just ordered the 14" Edge after a lot of research, so I'm going to have to say it's pretty reliable.

4.5 hours isn't great, but law schools tend to have a lot of places to plug in.

OK that's what I'm going with then. Thanks for your help.

EDIT: what's up with the $200+ difference between the AMD and the Intel processors on the same model?
EDIT2: looks like with the L series you get 7 hr battery, anti-glare screen and the intel processor for less than the Intel Edge? Maybe this is better?

[kalvano]

I just ordered the 14" Edge after a lot of research, so I'm going to have to say it's pretty reliable.

4.5 hours isn't great, but law schools tend to have a lot of places to plug in.

OK that's what I'm going with then. Thanks for your help.

EDIT: what's up with the $200+ difference between the AMD and the Intel processors on the same model?

Intel is $200 better.

[Oe.Maas]

Intel is $200 better.

Foooook, so stuff like it runs faster & is less prone to crashing?

Also, edited into my last post: EDIT2: looks like with the L series you get 7 hr battery, anti-glare screen and the intel processor for less than the Intel Edge? Maybe this is better?

[kalvano]

Intel is $200 better.

Foooook, so stuff like it runs faster & is less prone to crashing?

Also, edited into my last post: EDIT2: looks like with the L series you get 7 hr battery, anti-glare screen and the intel processor for less than the Intel Edge? Maybe this is better?

Intel is just better. Runs cooler, more stable, faster.

L-series doesn't have the same graphics options available, nor the impact protection for the HDD. I'd want that.

Also, no HDMI connector.

[sdlaw]

Do the performance benefits of solid state really outweigh the cost. Doesn't it make just as much sense to beef up the processor and go with standard Hard Drive?

Thanks

Yes, you're right. Solid state drives are too expensive for their performance increase. Beef up other components, and give SSD's a year or so to fall down in price.

Good to hear regarding the solid states, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I was also looking at the HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition Series with the following configuration.

Processor: Intel i5-540M Dual Core Processor 3 Ghz good
Memory: 6 gigs Excessive, 4gb is more than enough
Hard Drive: 500 gigs at 7200 RPM good
Graphics: 1 gig switchable graphics card if you're playing video games, sure?
Fingerprint scanner, backlit keyboard etc. I don't see the need for the scanner honestly, backlight keyboard is win though
6 cell lithium battery w/ extra 9 cell for long days


Game away

Thanks for the responses, it's been very helpful. The 6 GBs of memory is a free upgrade so I'm not spending any more for it. I figure the 1 GB graphcis card can't hurt as it was something like a 50 dollar upgrade from a 500 MB graphics card. Similar to the fingerprint scanner/backlit keyboard...another 25 dollar upgrade.

What do you guys think about the differences between the HP dv6t-select edition and the envys?

[Deuce]

Just wondering- is a high-performance laptop essential for law school? I have a standard, $500 HP G60-535DX Notebook... everything works fast and smooth, will I need to upgrade in a year?

[beach_terror]

Just wondering- is a high-performance laptop essential for law school? I have a standard, $500 HP G60-535DX Notebook... everything works fast and smooth, will I need to upgrade in a year?

No. A lot of people in this thread are getting crazy with spending on things that aren't necessary, or even that helpful.

[ResolutePear]

Just wondering- is a high-performance laptop essential for law school? I have a standard, $500 HP G60-535DX Notebook... everything works fast and smooth, will I need to upgrade in a year?

No. A lot of people in this thread are getting crazy with spending on things that aren't necessary, or even that helpful.

You have a point:
Real lawyers use stone tablets and chisels:

[sdlaw]

Just wondering- is a high-performance laptop essential for law school? I have a standard, $500 HP G60-535DX Notebook... everything works fast and smooth, will I need to upgrade in a year?

Not at all, it will probably be dated by the time you get out of law school but hopefully then you'll be able to afford another computer. I just figure the bank... I mean school, is willing to give me an extra 1100 on top of the 60,000 for a computer, I may as well use it since at the end of the day, that 1k is a drop in the bucket when you're paying back 200k and without jobs we're all screwed anyway...may as well have a decent computer.

This logic should suit me well in ls.

[missinglink]

This might be too far afield for the thread, but I thought I would try. It is a technology related question, anyways.

I'm looking for a decent laser multifunction that will serve me well for a while. Duplexing is desirable, so I've narrowed it down to these two units:


Canon imageCLASS D1120
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS- ... 216&sr=1-1

Currently, you get a $50 amazon.com gift certificate with the purchase of this (and other) qualifying printers, so the total cost would be $279.00.

The other possibility is the Brother DCP-8080dn. To get the full duplex capabilities of the Canon, however, I would have to go with the DCP-8085dn, which is $399.00. I know Brother Lasers get pretty good marks.


http://www.amazon.com/Brother-DCP-8080d ... 461&sr=1-2

Anyone have on experience with either of these printers?

[sdlaw]

What about Dual Core vs. Quad Core. For about 50 dollars more I can upgrade to a Quad core. The Dual Core is an i5-540 (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with turbo boost up to 3.06 Ghz. Quad Core would be an i7 ((1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with turbo boost up to 2.8Ghz. Which would you guys reccomend?

[kalvano]

Quad, no question.

[ResolutePear]

Quad, no question.

And before anybody rolls all over kal - it makes sense. Less overall load on the processor = cooler CPU = cooler laptop = saving you from sniper round shrapnel.

Okay, I lied on the last reason. But, the rest is true.

[kalvano]

If it was $300 then I'd pass. But for $50? Hell yes.

[ResolutePear]

Yeah, stuff like that totally pisses me off that I can't make a decent laptop from scratch.

Built a system for 1k - went to best buy for a completely unrelated matter and saw a Sony Vaio desktop going for 3k with about the same specs.

I want that same price gap with laptops for an initial 3 hour investment(1 hour to source the parts, 1 hour to build, 1 hour to install seven + ninite goodies)

[sdlaw]

Quad, no question.

And before anybody rolls all over kal - it makes sense. Less overall load on the processor = cooler CPU = cooler laptop = saving you from sniper round shrapnel.

Okay, I lied on the last reason. But, the rest is true.

Don't quads generally ream the battery??? Is the performance benefit substantial, I've heard of the i5 dual cores being cooler than the i7 quads but I could have that backwards.

[ResolutePear]

Quad, no question.

And before anybody rolls all over kal - it makes sense. Less overall load on the processor = cooler CPU = cooler laptop = saving you from sniper round shrapnel.

Okay, I lied on the last reason. But, the rest is true.

Don't quads generally ream the battery??? Is the performance benefit substantial, I've heard of the i5 dual cores being cooler than the i7 quads but I could have that backwards.

All things equal - the difference is minimal between them with battery life. Oh, and depending on what family of i7 and i5 you're looking at.. the cache is larger on the i7 which makes it exceedingly faster...

but we're on a law forum. Chances are unless you're multi-tasking WoW and Starcraft 2 while editing a word document on an external display.. I doubt you're going to run into problems. Especially with Windows 7. Microsoft is (finally) pushing out quality for the first time since DOS.

[ApexChaser]

Don't quads generally ream the battery??? Is the performance benefit substantial, I've heard of the i5 dual cores being cooler than the i7 quads but I could have that backwards.

I'm just Jeremy Clarkson about it; more power! The i7 is pretty sweet but it does draw more across the board and will likely run your system hotter.

The quad will draw a bit more, but the battery life difference shouldn't be drastic. My guess would be ~5% difference in battery life max, though I have seen some weird power consumption figures out there for i7 vs i5 debate.

[laolbjob]

To those who ordered an Ideapad or Thinkpad on Lenovo.com:

Were you required to sign your names upon delivery? Since I'll be out of the country till aug.12, and I need to enjoy the new laptop as soon as I get to the states, can I request that the delivery date be Aug. 12, no later and no earlier?

Thanks guys.

[ApexChaser]

Just wondering- is a high-performance laptop essential for law school? I have a standard, $500 HP G60-535DX Notebook... everything works fast and smooth, will I need to upgrade in a year?

Microsoft Office 2010 is about as high-performance as a law laptop needs. If you're fine with the speed of your laptop now, you'll be fine in a year.

[lawschooliseasy]

Anyone else here have a thought on this, i5 seems nice but I got the thought in my head that i3 is plenty fine for my needs.

You should probably get that new celeron processor intel just came out with. It seems nice.

The i3 is fine for the basics(IM, Email, Browser, Office, etc.)

The i5 is geared more towards power users who need a lot of these apps open and/or play games on occasion.

The i7 is a beast built for the top rigs - in laptops, you'll typically find these in laptops geared for gaming, video/graphics editing, etc.

The Intel Celeron is called the Intel Celery for a reason. It's an economic processor built for very low end laptops.

Oh, and whichever PC you choose - get Linux to get the most out of your laptop. Especially laptops that use a SSD.

FTFY

I would love nothing more than to see the world using Linux.. but pleasent memories remind me otherwise:

I got a call from a friend saying he needs a firewall on his Linux box. I said: it comes installed.

He said: cool. What do I click?

Obviously I was referring to ipchains, but... I wasn't going to explain that.

EDIT: Also, that's going to be hard to pull off since lawl schools don't even have that as an option for support(i.e. exam software)

I bet that the exam software will work in WINE, but I'll dual boot just to be safe. Regarding your friend, what you should do is throw Compiz on Ubuntu, make the following picture one side of the cube

--ImageRemoved--

and then tell him to CTRL-ALT-LEFT to make sure that his firewall is working properly.