The Ideal Law School Laptop Forum

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manola

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by manola » Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:23 am

if you want to splurge, so you can leave one in your locker (also in case you lose one the day before exams, so you don't have to freak out trying to find a replacement).
sonnerie portable gratuite

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vanwinkle

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by vanwinkle » Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:56 am

vut wrote:Furthermore, what you are forgetting that the majority of the planet runs on Windows, especially in the business world. With Apple computers, the one thing that you always have to deal with is compatibility. I expect that to change. But that will take awhile, assuming the Apple trends continue to grow.
Even if they don't, all current Mac models can be booted into Windows or run Windows in a VM session. You can have the best of both worlds with a Mac, truly.

And before anyone starts in on me about the added cost of Windows on top of your Mac... I'd like to point out this thread is about laptops for law school, and many universities have special student-licensed versions of Windows available. While I was in undergrad at Texas, they sold copies of Win XP for $5. UVA sells Vista for $10 today. I would expect it's likely other universities have similar offerings.

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Metternich

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by Metternich » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:17 pm

superflush wrote:For those of you about to buy a T400:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/leno ... n-officia/
Thanks for the heads up. Any inside word on the release date?

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by GCabot » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:42 pm

I can't think of any reason why I would need any of these for law school, but wanted to double check before I excluded them in case any of these happen to be useful during the law school years:

Camera
DVD Burner
Bluetooth

HAZMAT

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by HAZMAT » Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:06 pm

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=718516

Objection, thought you should read that thread... Apparently, the new 13 (and possibly 15) inch MBPs are capped at 1.5 GB SATA for some unknown reason (especially weird since the previous gen of MBPs was 3.0). This basically means that the computer wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speed of an SSD. I'm not that well-versed on the whole SATA thing, but you should check out that thread if you're even considering getting an SSD for a new MBP.

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:45 am

GCabot wrote:I can't think of any reason why I would need any of these for law school, but wanted to double check before I excluded them in case any of these happen to be useful during the law school years:

Camera
DVD Burner
Bluetooth
So, you're talking about having these things in a laptop??
If so, I don't see why you would buy a laptop that doesn't have these things, (unless it is a netbook or MacBook Air that wouldn't have an optical drive).

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:49 am

HAZMAT wrote:http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=718516

Objection, thought you should read that thread... Apparently, the new 13 (and possibly 15) inch MBPs are capped at 1.5 GB SATA for some unknown reason (especially weird since the previous gen of MBPs was 3.0). This basically means that the computer wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speed of an SSD. I'm not that well-versed on the whole SATA thing, but you should check out that thread if you're even considering getting an SSD for a new MBP.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, (and I haven't hit the link), but SSD is an option when ordering any of the the new MBPs from Apple.

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by GCabot » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:52 am

superflush wrote:
GCabot wrote:I can't think of any reason why I would need any of these for law school, but wanted to double check before I excluded them in case any of these happen to be useful during the law school years:

Camera
DVD Burner
Bluetooth
So, you're talking about having these things in a laptop??
If so, I don't see why you would buy a laptop that doesn't have these things, (unless it is a netbook or MacBook Air that wouldn't have an optical drive).
Well, I don't particularly see the point in paying for those features if I'll never use them.

Camera - I never video chat or record videos or anything. I guess it could be useful if people do a lot of internet conference calls in law school/firms? Otherwise I dunno.

DVD Burner - The only use I can think for this is backup, and one can already backup on a external HD/flash drive/internet. Is there another compelling reason to pay for this?

Bluetooth - I have no experience with bluetooth, but since I don't own any bluetooth devices I can't think of any reason why I'd need bluetooth connectivity.

Of course I could be totally wrong and naive about what capabilities I'm going to need the next 3+ years, but then that's why I'm asking here!

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:07 am

Does the laptop you're looking at buying new not have bluetooth and a camera standard???
And if its a regular laptop, you're saying the optical drive is not standard dvd-rw??

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by GCabot » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:37 pm

superflush wrote:Does the laptop you're looking at buying new not have bluetooth and a camera standard???
And if its a regular laptop, you're saying the optical drive is not standard dvd-rw??
No, they're not standard as far as I can tell on Lenovo products. For example, on the T400 bluetooth costs $29, CDRW/DVD to DVDRW costs $70, and I don't think an integrated camera is even available. Therefore, I don't think this is an uncommon situation.

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vut

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by vut » Sat Jun 13, 2009 2:45 pm

GCabot wrote:
superflush wrote:Does the laptop you're looking at buying new not have bluetooth and a camera standard???
And if its a regular laptop, you're saying the optical drive is not standard dvd-rw??
No, they're not standard as far as I can tell on Lenovo products. For example, on the T400 bluetooth costs $29, CDRW/DVD to DVDRW costs $70, and I don't think an integrated camera is even available. Therefore, I don't think this is an uncommon situation.
The option for an integrated camera is actually available, but I'm not sure if the mic is included with it. Can somebody verify that?

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by casper00 » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:32 pm

I read on this thread before that Lenovo ship dates are usually somewhat exaggerated, but after ordering my T400 today (added 6 cell battery, nothing else) which had an estimated 10-day ship, the Order Status page has an estimated ship date of 9/21/09. That's more than three months from now. What do I do? Will this drastically reduce or do I need to cancel this order? Law school starts a month before that and my current comp won't make it until then.

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coolkatz321

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by coolkatz321 » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:36 pm

casper00 wrote:I read on this thread before that Lenovo ship dates are usually somewhat exaggerated, but after ordering my T400 today (added 6 cell battery, nothing else) which had an estimated 10-day ship, the Order Status page has an estimated ship date of 9/21/09. That's more than three months from now. What do I do? Will this drastically reduce or do I need to cancel this order? Law school starts a month before that and my current comp won't make it until then.
I doubt it's going to take 3 months to fill your order. It will definitely go out before that...

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:54 pm

GCabot wrote:
superflush wrote:Does the laptop you're looking at buying new not have bluetooth and a camera standard???
And if its a regular laptop, you're saying the optical drive is not standard dvd-rw??
No, they're not standard as far as I can tell on Lenovo products. For example, on the T400 bluetooth costs $29, CDRW/DVD to DVDRW costs $70, and I don't think an integrated camera is even available. Therefore, I don't think this is an uncommon situation.
That's crazy. I wouldn't want to be without the bluetooth & camera.
It looks like the camera is available with the display option.

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by GCabot » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:40 pm

superflush wrote:
GCabot wrote:
superflush wrote:Does the laptop you're looking at buying new not have bluetooth and a camera standard???
And if its a regular laptop, you're saying the optical drive is not standard dvd-rw??
No, they're not standard as far as I can tell on Lenovo products. For example, on the T400 bluetooth costs $29, CDRW/DVD to DVDRW costs $70, and I don't think an integrated camera is even available. Therefore, I don't think this is an uncommon situation.
That's crazy. I wouldn't want to be without the bluetooth & camera.
It looks like the camera is available with the display option.
Can you explain why?

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:52 pm

To talk to other people.

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enygma

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by enygma » Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:08 pm

Well, I just bit the bullet and got the 2.53 GHZ macbook pro. This this is beautiful, everything I expected, and not a bit too small, in case anyone was worried about that. I think this is going to be the perfect size for law school, and I'm loving playing around with it.

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:37 pm

what size did you get?

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MrKappus

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by MrKappus » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:46 pm

My Ideal Lap Accessory for law school.

Image

[/threadhijack]

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dbt

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by dbt » Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:05 pm

As of now I'm leaning towards the Macbook Pro (13 or 15 inch), primarily because of battery power, reliability (most friends say Macs don't freeze up like my PCs have), standard perks (camera, mic, etc.). Moreover, I haven't been really wowed by any of the non-Mac laptops, even though they often run for about the same price (especially after getting the anti-Virus software, etc.) The only things still holding me back are OneNote and the fact that I am already very familiar with the Windows OS. Also Windows 7 (which I'm downloading now) looks fantastic.

So now my question is, if I did go ahead and get a Macbook Pro, it is possible to partition the drive so that I can run the Mac's original operating system or Windows 7 whenever I want, right? And this would make it possible for me to run OneNote on Windows 7 (or is it, as someone said earlier, actually possible/easy to run OneNote on the Mac's OS?) That same question applies to taking law school exams.

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by HAZMAT » Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:07 pm

superflush wrote:
HAZMAT wrote:http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=718516

Objection, thought you should read that thread... Apparently, the new 13 (and possibly 15) inch MBPs are capped at 1.5 GB SATA for some unknown reason (especially weird since the previous gen of MBPs was 3.0). This basically means that the computer wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speed of an SSD. I'm not that well-versed on the whole SATA thing, but you should check out that thread if you're even considering getting an SSD for a new MBP.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, (and I haven't hit the link), but SSD is an option when ordering any of the the new MBPs from Apple.
Right, and that option is a rip-off because the downgraded SATA speed prevents you from taking advantage of the SSD they install. Right now, only the 17 inch new MBPs have the old 3.0 speed (and thus only they can take advantage of faster SSDs).

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/14/13- ... interface/

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dbt

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by dbt » Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:32 pm

HAZMAT wrote:
superflush wrote:
HAZMAT wrote:http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=718516

Objection, thought you should read that thread... Apparently, the new 13 (and possibly 15) inch MBPs are capped at 1.5 GB SATA for some unknown reason (especially weird since the previous gen of MBPs was 3.0). This basically means that the computer wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speed of an SSD. I'm not that well-versed on the whole SATA thing, but you should check out that thread if you're even considering getting an SSD for a new MBP.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, (and I haven't hit the link), but SSD is an option when ordering any of the the new MBPs from Apple.
Right, and that option is a rip-off because the downgraded SATA speed prevents you from taking advantage of the SSD they install. Right now, only the 17 inch new MBPs have the old 3.0 speed (and thus only they can take advantage of faster SSDs).

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/14/13- ... interface/
So then if I'm going to get the 13" or 15" Pro, I may as well just get the standard drive and upgrade its size instead of getting the smaller SSD, right? The 500GB standard drive is about the same price to upgrade to as is the SSD 128 GB.

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Rsrcht

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by Rsrcht » Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:31 pm

GCabot wrote:
superflush wrote:
GCabot wrote:I can't think of any reason why I would need any of these for law school, but wanted to double check before I excluded them in case any of these happen to be useful during the law school years:

Camera
DVD Burner
Bluetooth
So, you're talking about having these things in a laptop??
If so, I don't see why you would buy a laptop that doesn't have these things, (unless it is a netbook or MacBook Air that wouldn't have an optical drive).
Well, I don't particularly see the point in paying for those features if I'll never use them.

Camera - I never video chat or record videos or anything. I guess it could be useful if people do a lot of internet conference calls in law school/firms? Otherwise I dunno.

DVD Burner - The only use I can think for this is backup, and one can already backup on a external HD/flash drive/internet. Is there another compelling reason to pay for this?

Bluetooth - I have no experience with bluetooth, but since I don't own any bluetooth devices I can't think of any reason why I'd need bluetooth connectivity.

Of course I could be totally wrong and naive about what capabilities I'm going to need the next 3+ years, but then that's why I'm asking here!
Find out if will be recording your exams on dvds. Some schools claim to do this. Others use USB sticks. Check with your school.

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superflush

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by superflush » Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:43 pm

Rsrcht wrote:Find out if will be recording your exams on dvds. Some schools claim to do this. Others use USB sticks. Check with your school.
If this was the case, then people couldn't really use netbooks for exams either.

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Re: The Ideal Law School Laptop

Post by sheltron5000 » Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:52 pm

superflush wrote:
Rsrcht wrote:Find out if will be recording your exams on dvds. Some schools claim to do this. Others use USB sticks. Check with your school.
If this was the case, then people couldn't really use netbooks for exams either.
Most slimline external dvd drives are dvd burners. (that I've been able to find anyway)

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