Splurge on a laptop? Forum

[mt2165]

Hey y'all. Incoming 0L and I need laptop advice. I'm completely broke right now and am mostly spending my summer relaxing and volunteering and am currently using a shitty chromebook for my computing needs. It obviously won't do for law school. Is it worthwhile taking out extra loans and splurging on a really nice laptop (thinking acer s7 or lenovo yoga 2, 1000-1500 bucks) or should I just get something a little more budget? I just assumed with using it a ton and test taking it'd be worthwhile to buy something really nice. Thanks in advance.

Edit: really appreciate the advice everyone but just note, I don't want a super budget laptop, they'll do fine, get the job done, and maybe even last for law school, but I'm looking for something a little more upscale. We're taking minimum i3 (maybe pentium if the other factors are met), 4 gigs of ram (prefereably 6-8), above basic resolution screen (full Hd mainly, basically 1080p, or at least higer than 1366x768 or whatever), under 5lbs, preferably ssd or hybrid drive, decent battery life, and looks decent. I realize thats above 500-600, but maybe less than the 1200 im prepared to spend. Im not a video editor or gamer I just want something with very solid performance thats portable and has a solid screen

[ph14]

I think it's worth it, given how much time you spend on it in law school.

[chuckbass]

I think it's worth it, given how much time you spend on it in money you're (probably) spending on law school.

[03152016]

how good are you w tech stuff generally

[mt2165]

how good are you w tech stuff generally

In what sense? I'm generally pretty tech savvy, pretty sure I know substantially more about computers than the average consumer.

[03152016]

how good are you w tech stuff generally

In what sense? I'm generally pretty tech savvy, pretty sure I know substantially more about computers than the average consumer.

if i were buying a compy, i'd buy a budget asus, they last a long time
swap the hd for an ssd
maybe dual boot with linux

i went that route, i have an old piece of crap asus that i bought for 279 in 2012
got the ssd, loaded mint
and i'm amazed at how responsive and stable it is
actually best experience i've ever had with a laptop, i like it better than my old macbook in fact

http://www.amazon.com/K200MA-DS01T-11-6 ... words=asus
here's a touchscreen laptop, 4 gigs ram for 295

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-6-0GB-2-5 ... =ssd+drive
here's a 52 dollar ssd

347 for a solid touchscreen laptop setup
plenty of ram, should be very responsive with the ssd
just my 2c

eta: also w ssd you can be less afraid of knocking the laptop around a little
physical hard drives are often first thing to croak on laptops esp if you'll be moving it around a lot

[mt2165]

how good are you w tech stuff generally

In what sense? I'm generally pretty tech savvy, pretty sure I know substantially more about computers than the average consumer.

if i were buying a compy, i'd buy a budget asus, they last a long time
swap the hd for an ssd
maybe dual boot with linux

i went that route, i have an old piece of crap asus that i bought for 279 in 2012
got the ssd, loaded mint
and i'm amazed at how responsive and stable it is
actually best experience i've ever had with a laptop, i like it better than my old macbook in fact

http://www.amazon.com/K200MA-DS01T-11-6 ... words=asus
here's a touchscreen laptop, 4 gigs ram for 295

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-6-0GB-2-5 ... =ssd+drive
here's a 52 dollar ssd

347 for a solid touchscreen laptop setup
plenty of ram, should be very responsive with the ssd
just my 2c

eta: also w ssd you can be less afraid of knocking the laptop around a little
physical hard drives are often first thing to croak on laptops esp if you'll be moving it around a lot

Interesting. Certainly a great way to create a budget workhorse. I dual booted Linux on my chromebook. But it's still a chromebook. Only part of me really wants the full hd screen, the design, and battery life on an ultrabook. Also you can't really get away from the processor issue no? I would like something above a pentium I.e minimum i3.

[03152016]

how good are you w tech stuff generally

In what sense? I'm generally pretty tech savvy, pretty sure I know substantially more about computers than the average consumer.

if i were buying a compy, i'd buy a budget asus, they last a long time
swap the hd for an ssd
maybe dual boot with linux

i went that route, i have an old piece of crap asus that i bought for 279 in 2012
got the ssd, loaded mint
and i'm amazed at how responsive and stable it is
actually best experience i've ever had with a laptop, i like it better than my old macbook in fact

http://www.amazon.com/K200MA-DS01T-11-6 ... words=asus
here's a touchscreen laptop, 4 gigs ram for 295

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-6-0GB-2-5 ... =ssd+drive
here's a 52 dollar ssd

347 for a solid touchscreen laptop setup
plenty of ram, should be very responsive with the ssd
just my 2c

eta: also w ssd you can be less afraid of knocking the laptop around a little
physical hard drives are often first thing to croak on laptops esp if you'll be moving it around a lot

Interesting. Certainly a great way to create a budget workhorse. I dual booted Linux on my chromebook. But it's still a chromebook. Only part of me really wants the full hd screen, the design, and battery life on an ultrabook. Also you can't really get away from the processor issue no? I would like something above a pentium I.e minimum i3.

hmm, looks like their i3s start in the 400 range, that's not so bad
they have some inexpensive vivobooks around there

but yeah, w/r/t hd, form factor, battery life, that's a different story obv
still, don't necessarily need to go balls to the wall, lot of good laptops sub 1k
i think ppl tend to underestimate their mid-range options, esp if they're not gaming, vid editing, music producing, etc

[mt2165]

but yeah, w/r/t hd, form factor, battery life, that's a different story obv
still, don't necessarily need to go balls to the wall, lot of good laptops sub 1k
i think ppl tend to underestimate their mid-range options, esp if they're not gaming, vid editing, music producing, etc

Yeah no I gotcha and I don't do any of that, I certainly don't need a i5 or ssd or hd screen or anything like that, I just want them. I think the happy medium might be the lenovo u430. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-idea ... /2453445.p
700 hundred for good battery 1600x900 display i7 500gb hdd (ugh) and a smidge over 4lbs. If I could swap the hdd for a ssd it would be perfect but I think it's soldered on. Tell me whatcha think.

Edit: and same thing with the ram, 8gb would be nice but beggars can't be choosers. Prolly soldered on too. If not that gets upgraded and then I'd have a tank for like 900 if I splurged on the add ons.

[03152016]

but yeah, w/r/t hd, form factor, battery life, that's a different story obv
still, don't necessarily need to go balls to the wall, lot of good laptops sub 1k
i think ppl tend to underestimate their mid-range options, esp if they're not gaming, vid editing, music producing, etc

Yeah no I gotcha and I don't do any of that, I certainly don't need a i5 or ssd or hd screen or anything like that, I just want them. I think the happy medium might be the lenovo u430. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-idea ... /2453445.p
700 hundred for good battery 1600x900 display i7 500gb hdd (ugh) and a smidge over 4lbs. If I could swap the hdd for a ssd it would be perfect but I think it's soldered on. Tell me whatcha think.

Edit: and same thing with the ram, 8gb would be nice but beggars can't be choosers. Prolly soldered on too. If not that gets upgraded and then I'd have a tank for like 900 if I splurged on the add ons.

oo that looks pretty good
and at least it has sshd

[rinkrat19]

Alternatively, get a decent ($700-900 or so) laptop and also get a dock for it, a laser printer that does auto duplex, a set of decent computer speakers, and a good high-res monitor that can be turned 90 degrees.

I would get a model with 1920x1080 screen, though. You can fit so much more shit on it that way, which is nice when you've got a million PDFs, Westlaw, and Word all open.

[03152016]

Alternatively, get a decent ($700-900 or so) laptop and also get a dock for it, a laser printer that does auto duplex, a set of decent computer speakers, and a good high-res monitor that can be turned 90 degrees.

I would get a model with 1920x1080 screen, though. You can fit so much more shit on it that way, which is nice when you've got a million PDFs, Westlaw, and Word all open.

how often do you have to print in ls?
jw cuz i've been considering getting a printer before school starts

[chuckbass]

^curious as well since I was planning on just printing at school because it's free and figured it wouldn't be too much of a hassle

[Balthy]

^Also, any recommendations for a specific printer? Ive always had bad luck with them.

[igo2northwestern]

On printing: It depends on the school, as some have free printing, some give you semesterly credits, and some don't have it at all.

But at the end of the day, you'll probably need to print a good amount for OCI + your outlines. And it's pretty nice to be able to print at home (thought some people don't really care, and that's fine).

I'd recommend this:
http://www.staples.com/HP-LaserJet-P203 ... PID=762122

A lot of people get cheaper Brothers printers, but I swear by that HP. Cartridges are ~$50 though, and I've used 2 of them. So total cost has brought me to $350.

--

and OP, I'd stay away from Celeron processors from that link above. My friend and I had some durability issues, and I read some borderline negative things? Could be wrong about the newest processors.

[03152016]

On printing: It depends on the school, as some have free printing, some give you semesterly credits, and some don't have it at all.

But at the end of the day, you'll probably need to print a good amount for OCI + your outlines. And it's pretty nice to be able to print at home (thought some people don't really care, and that's fine).

I'd recommend this:
http://www.staples.com/HP-LaserJet-P203 ... PID=762122

A lot of people get cheaper Brothers printers, but I swear by that HP. Cartridges are ~$50 though, and I've used 2 of them. So total cost has brought me to $350.

--

and OP, I'd stay away from Celeron processors from that link above. My friend and I had some durability issues, and I read some borderline negative things? Could be wrong about the newest processors.

cool thx for info

re: celeron processors
lower-performance, budget processor line
but there are literally hundreds of very different processors under the name celeron
so if one model has a high failure rate that isn't reflected in the line as a whole

[furrrman]

On printing: It depends on the school, as some have free printing, some give you semesterly credits, and some don't have it at all.

But at the end of the day, you'll probably need to print a good amount for OCI + your outlines. And it's pretty nice to be able to print at home (thought some people don't really care, and that's fine).

I'd recommend this:
http://www.staples.com/HP-LaserJet-P203 ... PID=762122

A lot of people get cheaper Brothers printers, but I swear by that HP. Cartridges are ~$50 though, and I've used 2 of them. So total cost has brought me to $350.

--

and OP, I'd stay away from Celeron processors from that link above. My friend and I had some durability issues, and I read some borderline negative things? Could be wrong about the newest processors.

Out of curiosity how many pages do you get out of a laser cartridge? I've stuck with inkjet for a while basically for the cheapness of off-brand refill cartridges (a $1 black cartridge would get me somewhere around 100 pages.) I feel like I'm saving money with this vs. a laser setup but want to make sure.

[igo2northwestern]

On printing: It depends on the school, as some have free printing, some give you semesterly credits, and some don't have it at all.

But at the end of the day, you'll probably need to print a good amount for OCI + your outlines. And it's pretty nice to be able to print at home (thought some people don't really care, and that's fine).

I'd recommend this:
http://www.staples.com/HP-LaserJet-P203 ... PID=762122

A lot of people get cheaper Brothers printers, but I swear by that HP. Cartridges are ~$50 though, and I've used 2 of them. So total cost has brought me to $350.

--

and OP, I'd stay away from Celeron processors from that link above. My friend and I had some durability issues, and I read some borderline negative things? Could be wrong about the newest processors.

Out of curiosity how many pages do you get out of a laser cartridge? I've stuck with inkjet for a while basically for the cheapness of off-brand refill cartridges (a $1 black cartridge would get me somewhere around 100 pages.) I feel like I'm saving money with this vs. a laser setup but want to make sure.

I just checked prices on HP's site, and the HP-official cartridges went up in price. It's now 28.2 pages per dollar for those. The off-brand ones are ~100 pages per dollar though, so it's wash. ($22 for one 2300 page cartridge). Not sure whether the advertised 2300 pages on the off-brand ones is for real, but you might be better able to make that assessment with your experience using off-brands.

I like the quality of the print, which is why I went with that printer; and the cost of the official cartridges was better before. Also, when I was printing apps, it was nice to have speed on my side. But a lot of people use the ink ones so they probably have something to say about that.

[gnomgnomuch]

i mean if you're gonna splurge then got an i5 at the very least =P

For real though, it all depends on what you want out of your computer, if you want to game on it as well as do work, you'll need something more powerful than if you're doing nothing but light internet browsing and studying.

I'd recommend a Lenovo though.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/le ... 9:00010E4B:

This is a beauty for its price, I TB, plus an SSD for your OS. 4th gen i5 and 8 gigs of RAM. The graphics card isn't super fancy, but it'll do for stuff like LoL.

Newegg is one of the best sites for laptops btw.

[Scotusnerd]

I bought a $300 lenovo before school started and outfitted it with a university-bought microsoft office. I can't even play minecraft on it, but I sure as heck can do what I need to do for law school.

Shit has been going strong for two and a half years and doesn't show any sign of slowing. Meanwhile, my friends with apples are constantly taking them back to get their cords or wireless cards fixed.

More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better.


Also, Uninstall all games on that computer. You'll thank me later when the professor is going into how to divide up joint and several liability and rules against perpetuities. And yes, solitaire is a game.

[mt2165]

i mean if you're gonna splurge then got an i5 at the very least =P

For real though, it all depends on what you want out of your computer, if you want to game on it as well as do work, you'll need something more powerful than if you're doing nothing but light internet browsing and studying.

I'd recommend a Lenovo though.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/le ... 9:00010E4B:

This is a beauty for its price, I TB, plus an SSD for your OS. 4th gen i5 and 8 gigs of RAM. The graphics card isn't super fancy, but it'll do for stuff like LoL.

Newegg is one of the best sites for laptops btw.

Thanks, thats solid laptop for 900. Issues and this is just be being greedy, it would be perfect for if not for the screen, which at that proce point should definitely be full HD, I dont really think that deal is that much, if any better, than the bestbuy one I listed above. I mean I dont think its worth 200 more bucks for 4 gigs of ram and double the hard drive when i really dont need that much local storage, plus I lose the better screen and downgrade from an i7 to i5. Also guys I realize I could buy a budget lenovo/acer laptop and it would do perfectly fine, there are just some finer things I'm looking for (i.e full hd screeen, slimmer chassis, real computing power, battery life etc) that I cant get with a budget laptop, so really what I'm trying to do is find balance.

[gnomgnomuch]

i mean if you're gonna splurge then got an i5 at the very least =P

For real though, it all depends on what you want out of your computer, if you want to game on it as well as do work, you'll need something more powerful than if you're doing nothing but light internet browsing and studying.

I'd recommend a Lenovo though.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/le ... 9:00010E4B:

This is a beauty for its price, I TB, plus an SSD for your OS. 4th gen i5 and 8 gigs of RAM. The graphics card isn't super fancy, but it'll do for stuff like LoL.

Newegg is one of the best sites for laptops btw.

Thanks, thats solid laptop for 900. Issues and this is just be being greedy, it would be perfect for if not for the screen, which at that proce point should definitely be full HD, I dont really think that deal is that much, if any better, than the bestbuy one I listed above. I mean I dont think its worth 200 more bucks for 4 gigs of ram and double the hard drive when i really dont need that much local storage, plus I lose the better screen and downgrade from an i7 to i5. Also guys I realize I could buy a budget lenovo/acer laptop and it would do perfectly fine, there are just some finer things I'm looking for (i.e full hd screeen, slimmer chassis, real computing power, battery life etc) that I cant get with a budget laptop, so really what I'm trying to do is find balance.

You can def find a better screen in the ~900$ range, it really depends on how flexible you are with other parts of the laptop. But if you want all of what you just listed it'll be tough to find it anywhere lower than the ~1200 range. Also, keep in mind that the more computing power your laptop has, the faster it'll drain its battery... not really a problem if you just have your charger with you, but something to keep in mind. Finally, i understand only too well the desire for an attractive, slim laptop, so if you're really dead set on that, you'll need to stick in the ultra-book family.

A final suggestion, why not invest in a large computer for your apartment and an updated chrome book for actual LS. That way, you can have both the convenience of a laptop that's only used for class, and a powerful gaming/video/whatever you want to do with it/ computer at home. It'll cost more, but im sure you could find something that wont absolutely kill your budget. If you want any more advice on computers/laptops or whatnot, feel free to PM me =)

[lawhopeful10]

I got a really cheap PC at Best Buy for like $300. It can't play computer games but it took notes and let me take exams fine. Make sure whatever laptop you get you see yourself comfortable typing. I partly chose mine because I felt typing on it came really easy and thus quickly. (Can help on exams)

Edit: I also had a really big laptop for computer games like the poster above so this one was solely for law school notes and taking the exams. But since you want to save money obviously 1 is fine.

[rinkrat19]

This printer is great: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-2270DW ... er+printer

It's not huge, wireless, auto duplex, and it prints PDFs in "booklet" format which gets 4 pages per sheet and is fantastic for journal articles and cases. It's easy to set up and hasn't misbehaved like my Epson and HP inkjets which would periodically just decide they didn't want to connect anymore and needed all their drivers reinstalled for no reason.

Printing at school is a huge PITA compared to just being able to do it at any moment at home, especially on weekends when you weren't planning to go to campus, or late at night. It's also really useful for printing resumes and such on nice paper because you're the only person using it. I've printed fairly extensively for 2 years and only replaced the toner once.

[Dafaq]

Lenovo is the rage. Everyone I know who has one loves it. Asus is the pits according to a few people I know who got sucked into buying one (cheap monitor goes blank)…it is a Best Buy brand so beware when the salesperson tries to hustle you one.

I came to LS with a Vaio and never had a problem so I have resisted buying a new one for just the fun of it. But when the day comes for a change, probably will strongly consider Lenovo.