Best Law School Laptop for the Money Forum

[kalvano]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

[ResolutePear]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

I agree with this.

Buying a dell is like buying an India calling card.

[zeth006]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

I agree with this.

Buying a dell is like buying an India calling card.

What's wrong with buying a calling card for India?

[kalvano]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

I agree with this.

Buying a dell is like buying an India calling card.

What's wrong with buying a calling card for India?

Just call customer service for any company.

[ResolutePear]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

I agree with this.

Buying a dell is like buying an India calling card.

What's wrong with buying a calling card for India?

Just call customer service for any company.

I have never seen so many Indians named "Bob" and "Sue" until I bought a dell in '03.

[lawschooliseasy]

Instead of blowing a bunch of money on a new machine, I'd just buy something nice, cheap and functional from a site like this: http://www.cedarpc.com/.

[Rudy]

I have never seen so many Indians named "Bob" and "Sue" until I bought a dell in '03.

Used to be if you bought an XPS, they actually gave you a seperate support line connecting to Phoenix, Arizona. The call waiting music was the super mario bros theme. The guy I had was named Bill Arlow, he was an actual American, I chatted with him about videogames while we waited for an info request to come up. Awesome experience. At some point after my 4th motherboard on that model I started to get Indians or Filipinos. I now own a mac.

I loved that Machine, but Dell is such an awful, awful company I can't stand to buy any of their products.

[kalvano]

Also, Dell, FYI -

Reformatting the computer is NOT the answer to every problem first off.

[3ThrowAway99]

about the Dell comments.. I am definitely not a Dell fan.. Even had the AGs office in the state I was living in get involved over a customer service issue with them. State of NY won a suit against the company for 'deceptive business practices' and I feel that that's exactly the type of BS they were engaged in with me (I was not living in NY though). They basically gave me an unconscionable run around when I tried to cancel an auto-renewal for one of their services. Unfortunately, I think this type of BS is so common in the corporate world that Dell isn't really a black sheep. It is a corporate cultural thing more than a problem with individual companies IMO. That being said, I don't plan to ever buy another computer from Dell.

[lonerightly]

So up until recently I was looking at an Asus UL 12.1" but there are these new Acer notebooks out that seem to be amazing. Both of these are 11.6"
i5
4g ram, 500g hd, hdmi port, bluetooth, listed at 8hrs battery life $699
i3
3g ram, 320g hd, hdmi port, listed at 8hrs battery life $599

Obviously the i5 is faster but also will give less battery life, and also has bluetooth. Other than bluetooth which I don't use, and a faster processor but less battery life, is the $100 price difference worth it?

I'll be using it for basic tasks, like word processing, itunes, youtube, ocassional movie, and surfing the web. All tasks that I currently can do albeit not as well on a centrino laptop. Not really into games, or video editing so, i5 worth it?

[lawschooliseasy]

So up until recently I was looking at an Asus UL 12.1" but there are these new Acer notebooks out that seem to be amazing. Both of these are 11.6"
i5
4g ram, 500g hd, hdmi port, bluetooth, listed at 8hrs battery life $699
i3
3g ram, 320g hd, hdmi port, listed at 8hrs battery life $599

Obviously the i5 is faster but also will give less battery life, and also has bluetooth. Other than bluetooth which I don't use, and a faster processor but less battery life, is the $100 price difference worth it?

I'll be using it for basic tasks, like word processing, itunes, youtube, ocassional movie, and surfing the web. All tasks that I currently can do albeit not as well on a centrino laptop. Not really into games, or video editing so, i5 worth it?

I don't know, I was looking at something cheaper like the Asus 1201N, but that's tempting.

[cranberry]

If you're thinking of purchasing a Dell, just go to the local strip club and help put Kaylee through "college".

It's a more productive use of money.

I bought a 15" Inspiron in 2006 and have had very few issues with it. It is slightly slower now than it was when I bought it new; the only problems I ever had were virus related and recently, blue screen of death when I let it go into hibernation with a new mouse plugged in... remedied by unplugging the mouse (old USB ports). I rarely take it out of my apartment so it hasn't seen much action, but I use it all day every day. Maybe I'm the exception, but I've been pretty happy with this thing.

[yinz]

Docking stations for macs?

[pinkzeppelin]

So up until recently I was looking at an Asus UL 12.1" but there are these new Acer notebooks out that seem to be amazing. Both of these are 11.6"
i5
4g ram, 500g hd, hdmi port, bluetooth, listed at 8hrs battery life $699
i3
3g ram, 320g hd, hdmi port, listed at 8hrs battery life $599

Obviously the i5 is faster but also will give less battery life, and also has bluetooth. Other than bluetooth which I don't use, and a faster processor but less battery life, is the $100 price difference worth it?

I'll be using it for basic tasks, like word processing, itunes, youtube, ocassional movie, and surfing the web. All tasks that I currently can do albeit not as well on a centrino laptop. Not really into games, or video editing so, i5 worth it?

What made you conclude you would get less battery life? The i3 and i5 in this laptop are probably both Arrandale low-voltage 35W. Meaning battery life will be the same. That said, the performance of the i5 vs. i3 is really pretty negligible for your uses. Personally I think 1g of ram, 180 g of hdd capacity and a faster cpu is worth $100.

[blurbz]

One less thing to worry about when getting ready for school. Just ordered the Lenovo Thinkpad x201.

i7 processor
Windows 7 Prof 64
4 gb ram (one dimm)

Ultrabase with slim dvd drive

I'm happy to be done!

[JollyGreenGiant]

Any word on the T510 vs. the T410s?

The T510 looks better and is roughly the same price ($1200).

[blurbz]

Any word on the T510 vs. the T410s?

The T510 looks better and is roughly the same price ($1200).

I think the T510 is larger (15.4' screen vs. 14.1 inch). That played a huge role in my decision to get the x201 + Ultrabase: Identical specs, far more portable.

[zeth006]

Quick heads up: HP has 30% Bing Cashback going on

[JollyGreenGiant]

alright dudes.. looks like I'm going with the Lenovo T410, but I have some questions (I'm not exactly tech-savvy)

One of my main questions involves the graphics card. It comes with "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 5700MHD - AMT" but gives the option to upgrade to "NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics 256MB DDR3 with AMT" for $100 or 512MB for $125. I don't game on my computer usually, but I will be playing Starcraft 2 and likely buying any future Blizzard games (like Diablo 3). Is the Intel card good enough or is it crappy?

For memory, I'm planning to upgrade to 4GB. Will I notice a significant difference between: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) [add $85.00]

4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]

4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]


And my last question is about WiFi LAN adapters.

ThinkPad bgn Wireless

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [$0.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2x2 AGN) [add $20.00]

Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN) [add $40.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [add $55.00]

Any recommendation for which I should choose out of these? Thanks again everyone. I'm planning on using it for surfing, streaming videos, playing games, word, notes, etc.

[beach_terror]

alright dudes.. looks like I'm going with the Lenovo T410, but I have some questions (I'm not exactly tech-savvy)

One of my main questions involves the graphics card. It comes with "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 5700MHD - AMT" but gives the option to upgrade to "NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics 256MB DDR3 with AMT" for $100 or 512MB for $125. I don't game on my computer usually, but I will be playing Starcraft 2 and likely buying any future Blizzard games (like Diablo 3). Is the Intel card good enough or is it crappy?

Upgrade this if you want to play D3 or SC2. Do the 512, no point in only upgrading to 256, imo.

For memory, I'm planning to upgrade to 4GB. Will I notice a significant difference between: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) [add $85.00]

4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]

4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]

No, you won't notice a big enough difference to justify forking over an extra 140$

And my last question is about WiFi LAN adapters.

ThinkPad bgn Wireless

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [$0.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2x2 AGN) [add $20.00]

Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN) [add $40.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [add $55.00]

Any recommendation for which I should choose out of these? Thanks again everyone. I'm planning on using it for surfing, streaming videos, playing games, word, notes, etc.

The standard ThinkPad is probably fine. You only really need the "upgraded cards" if you're doing some serious shit on the wireless (and even then, the difference is kinda meh)... but I doubt you will. Save your money and plug into a wall.

[zeth006]

alright dudes.. looks like I'm going with the Lenovo T410, but I have some questions (I'm not exactly tech-savvy)

One of my main questions involves the graphics card. It comes with "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 5700MHD - AMT" but gives the option to upgrade to "NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics 256MB DDR3 with AMT" for $100 or 512MB for $125. I don't game on my computer usually, but I will be playing Starcraft 2 and likely buying any future Blizzard games (like Diablo 3). Is the Intel card good enough or is it crappy?

Upgrade this if you want to play D3 or SC2. Do the 512, no point in only upgrading to 256, imo.

For memory, I'm planning to upgrade to 4GB. Will I notice a significant difference between: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) [add $85.00]

4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]

4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [add $215.00]

No, you won't notice a big enough difference to justify forking over an extra 140$

And my last question is about WiFi LAN adapters.

ThinkPad bgn Wireless

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [$0.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2x2 AGN) [add $20.00]

Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN) [add $40.00]

Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [add $55.00]

Any recommendation for which I should choose out of these? Thanks again everyone. I'm planning on using it for surfing, streaming videos, playing games, word, notes, etc.

The standard ThinkPad is probably fine. You only really need the "upgraded cards" if you're doing some serious shit on the wireless (and even then, the difference is kinda meh)... but I doubt you will. Save your money and plug into a wall.

Yeah. Ditto on the RAM advice but for wifi, I personally upgrade it as I'm a regular Borders/coffeeshop visitor, but that's just me. For school, I normally plug in.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Thanks a lot for the advice! Ordered it today.. kind of excited. Now all I need is to order Microsoft Office and I'll be all set!

[lawschooliseasy]

Thanks a lot for the advice! Ordered it today.. kind of excited. Now all I need is to order Microsoft Office and I'll be all set!

Don't order office until you ask your school if they offer it at a discounted price. We can buy it for like $5 through a Microsoft-Higher Ed agreement.

[savagecheater]

Dell Latitude vs. ThinkPad...?

[kalvano]

Dell Latitude vs. ThinkPad...?

Would you rather have a Kia or a BMW?