Laptop question...

[BGGA]

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Hi All,

I'm looking into buying a laptop. Can current med students give me some insight into what I should be looking out for? I really don't want to be shopping in the dark, so I would appreciate any info. I want to walk into a store a say I'm looking for a laptop to be used for X, Y, and X. I've heard that some view anatomy dissections online. Aside from that is there anything that I should be looking out for? Any recommendations or warnings?

Thanks.

 

[Electrophys]

Hi All,

I'm looking into buying a laptop. Can current med students give me some insight into what I should be looking out for? I really don't want to be shopping in the dark, so would appreciate any info. I want to walk into a store a say I'm looking for a laptop to be used for X, Y, and X. I've heard that some view anatomy dissections online. Aside from that is there anything that I should be looking out for? Any recommendations or warnings?

Thanks.

As an addendum, has anyone tried the new tablet PC? Are they worth it?

 

[rpkall]

Most laptops nowadays can accomplish a reasonable amount of multitasking when there's a broadband internet connection going. That anatomy online business has more to do with your internet connection than anything else (and your memory--I have 512MB and that's been enough for streaming video). For word processing, online tutorials, streaming video, protein rendering programs (Chime, etc), powerpoint presentations, and CD-rom stuff (Harrison's, etc), your basic laptop with 512MB and a centrino processor (that's that integrated wireless, which is always good to have nowadays) should be fine.

I'm sure if you get a mid-range price laptop you'll be golden. I have a Gateway 400X or something with a couple USB ports, DVD/CDRom drive, and Windows XP professional (from 2003) and it's always been fine. If you get those USB ports in it and Windows XP, it's really east to connect printers, external hard drives, memory sticks, etc, etc.

The best advice you'll get is probably to get some good antivirus/anti-spyware software and update it when possible (unless you're one of these Linux hacker/computer nerd types who can go online and get everything for free from those shareware places). 😉

Since you seem not to be biased yet, I would stay away from Macs unless you're going to be designing websites or doing 3D graphic art in your spare time. IMO, PC laptops seem to be cheaper for the same utility/computing power when you consider the typical applications of most med students. I heard that Macs are moving away from their old processors and moving towards ones more similar to those in PCs, too--something about the G4/5 chips cycling too "hot" or whatever. Like I know what the f*ck I'm talking about... But it didn't *sound* good. ahahah!

Good luck!

 

[omaralt]

hey, i just got a dell latitude D810 laptop, and it seems awesome. the coolest thing about it is the screen, its very wide and sharp, so its great for looking at xrays, etc..


omar

 

[SkylineMD]

My personal recommendation is to just buy a laptop online. You will find it for a LOT cheaper. Dell always has $750 off $1500 coupon savings going on so if you want to buy a Dell, wait for that and you can get a pretty good system for under 1000bucks. Only thing I would recommend is to get the extended warranty with Dell. My personal experience has shown that they arent all that reliable (maybe the business ones are more durable). The other bad thing about Dell is their customer support is terrible. IBM thinkpads are some of the best laptops out there but they are also a bit pricey.

The question that you should ask is will this be your main computer or do you have a desktop that is powerful? If you plan on being mobile, I would recommend a smaller laptop. Sure, the screen might not be as big but its a whole lot easier to carry smaller laptops than bigger ones. I used to have a 8-9lb dell and sure its not as heavy as you would think but if you have to carry it everywhere, it can get quite heavy. Definitely get an anti-virus program because PC's are prone to virus attacks.

If you aren't too familiar with macs and don't have time to look into them, then just stick with PCs. Tablet PC's are great for note taking since you can write right on the laptop but they usually run around 1200dollars.

Basic recommendations:
- at least 512MB RAM - more is always better
- at least 30GB hard drive IF you aren't planning on storing songs, videos, etc on this. If this is your only computer, then increase the storage
- 1.6ghz+ would be fine for a processor since you aren't going to be doing anything crazy
- integrated wireless is a must (bluetooth optional)
- most drives now are coming with DVD-RW/CD-RW's so you can decide between that or a simple DVD/CD-RW como
- screen size depends on you. The larger you go, the heavier it will be. 15'' is fine and unless you really value your screen space, you can get away with just the 15''.

 

[grw0o]

I would suggest looking into the IBM Thinkpad X30 series laptops. The reason being is that they are housed in a titanium composite material which makes them solid for throwing around in your bookbag.

 

[DeterminedMD]

I would suggest looking into the IBM Thinkpad X30 series laptops. The reason being is that they are housed in a titanium composite material which makes them solid for throwing around in your bookbag.

i will be an MS1. I originally bought a Toshiba but I disliked it. It ran hot and the fan sounded like a lawnmower...which I guess is a common complaint. I swithced to an IBM T42. I LOVE it. Very solid, good battery life, great keyboard, quiet fan, doesnt run hot at all. Works great!

 

[grw0o]

i will be an MS1. I originally bought a Toshiba but I disliked it. It ran hot and the fan sounded like a lawnmower...which I guess is a common complaint. I swithced to an IBM T42. I LOVE it. Very solid, good battery life, great keyboard, quiet fan, doesnt run hot at all. Works great!

Yeah, I'm on my X31 and LOVE it!! I would say stick with the T or X30 series since they are both titanium cased. I just got an extended life battery for my x31, weighs about a pound, and can use it for 10 hrs straight.

 

[NeuroSync]

hey, i just got a dell latitude D810 laptop, and it seems awesome. the coolest thing about it is the screen, its very wide and sharp, so its great for looking at xrays, etc..


omar

How big and heavy is that thing for lugging around on the commute to and from school? What do you think about the D610 as an alternative?

 

[dbutz02]

How big and heavy is that thing for lugging around on the commute to and from school? What do you think about the D610 as an alternative?

I just got a 12" powerbook and I love it. It's small, fast and has an amazing screen. They are a little pricy but you don't have to worry about viruses, or pop ups since they are all written for windows.
I used to have windows and never had any major complaints but after playing with this mac for only two days I'm already in love with it's user friendliness...everything just seems so easy. It boots up in less than a minute. As much as I used to hate all those Mac lovers I might just become one.

 

[gary5]

You don't need a laptop for med school. That said, get a Dell Latitude D600. I love mine. It's more of a business computer. If you want a more toyish school computer, get the next lower blue colored model.

 

[pratik7]

from personal experience...i am a dell laptop hater. I have had a couple and they all have had battery and screen problems. I just bought an acer aspire and it is a great computer and even a greater value. If you buy it from sams club they will give you a 4 year warrenty that includes replacement for normal wear for 74 bucks (they do this for all computers)

 

[Madhatter]

Pratik7- how much did you get your acer for, and what features does it have??

I just bought a dell Inspiron, Pentium M, 1.6Ghz, 1GB Ram, 60GB Hard drive and 64 MB Video card all for $1050.

 

[pratik7]

Pratik7- how much did you get your acer for, and what features does it have??

I just bought a dell Inspiron, Pentium M, 1.6Ghz, 1GB Ram, 60GB Hard drive and 64 MB Video card all for $1050.

You got a great deal on your computer. I paid 999 for mine and it is a Intel Pentium M Processor 715, 1.5GHz, with Centrino Technology, 512MB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, 8X DVD+/-RW Drive. But to me the best part of the computer is the screen... it is 15.4" WXGA screen with a resolution of 1280 x 1024.

 

[jasmynediva]

what ever you do, do NOT, i repeat: DO NOT buy a DELL computer. Sure they are affordable but at what cost? I cant tell you how many times ive had to call their customer service (they do have excellent customer service though 🙂 to fix a problem. Sometimes it shuts down on its own for no reason and a blue error screen pops up. mY sister has a dell too and she complains about the same problems (defunct dvd/cd drive).

On a more positive note, a few weeks ago i decided to ditch the dell and go for a sony vaio laptop. I highly reccomend it. Its very light, portable, has a 15.4 inch screen and is aesthetically pleasing. You cant go wrong with a sony. goodluck.

 

[BGGA]

Thanks for all the info guys. Please keep it coming. 🙂
I was really leaning towards a dell because of the affordability and what i thought was a good reputation. Now I'm having second thoughts. 😳

 

[heeter]

I have an ibook and wouldn't trade it for anything but an intel apple notebook, due out next year or so.

 

[UTCobra]

Watch Best Buy and Circuit City. I got $450 in rebates on a $980 Compaq, and it does more than I would ever need.

 

[PreMedAdAG]

I just bought the 600M Dell, does anyone have any commments on this. I"m nervous because I have a wireless card, but i don't think centrino comes with it. Any suggestions or can that be added???

Please help.

 

[grw0o]

I just bought the 600M Dell, does anyone have any commments on this. I"m nervous because I have a wireless card, but i don't think centrino comes with it. Any suggestions or can that be added???

Please help.

Don't sweat!! Centrino does have wireless capability, intel just combined wirelesss technology with the Pentium processor.

 

[jendc08]

I just bought the 600M Dell, does anyone have any commments on this. I"m nervous because I have a wireless card, but i don't think centrino comes with it. Any suggestions or can that be added???

Please help.

I dont know anything about what centrino does or is (can someone answer that??) but I also have a dell 600 and I love it. I have had it since the fall and it has been great so far. Before that I had an inspiron 5000 and that one was good enough to do dell again...and great customer service 🙂

 

[Uegis]

I just bought the 600M Dell, does anyone have any commments on this. I"m nervous because I have a wireless card, but i don't think centrino comes with it. Any suggestions or can that be added???

Please help.

The 600M is a great laptop. A big screen but still light enough to be portable. The onboard Radeon graphics card is pretty good and provides a great picture. My friend used it for 8 or so months already without much problems. I bought the 700M with the $750 off $1500 deal a few months ago. Dell, so far, have been very dependable for me. I would imagine the 600m would be the same.

I'm pretty sure all the Inspiron's come standard with integrated wireless, though it might not be 802.11g. But it's good to go connect through wireless right out of the box. Centrino is designed for mobility, extending battery life and reducing heat. Oh yea, one more thing, the wireless is really easy to access on campus now. They just changed it this month where all you have to do is put your login and password instead of having to register your MAC address with IT like before. I just tried it a few days ago at the MU!

 

[BGGA]

I'm hearing a lot good things about Toshiba. Does anyone have personal experience with them?

 

[DeterminedMD]

I'm hearing a lot good things about Toshiba. Does anyone have personal experience with them?

I bought a toshiba s200. It was a light notebook which was a nice feature. But the fan turned on after about a minute and stayed on almost constantly. I tried tweaking settings, etc but that did not help. And even with fan on (which was very loud) the laptop got very hot to the point where it started burning my wrist. And if it was on my lap it became uncomfortable. I ended up returning it. I got annoyed. Thats my only expereince with Toshiba. Dont know if that is a problem with all models or just this one.

 

[PM2]

I would suggest looking into the IBM Thinkpad X30 series laptops. The reason being is that they are housed in a titanium composite material which makes them solid for throwing around in your bookbag.

It is not the speed that knocks a component loose....it is the sudden stop. 🙂

 

[Dr.Phenomena]

My school forced us into getting the new Hewlet-Packard tablet PC. So far I absolutely love it. If your notes are given on powerpoint or any other digital program, these are great because you can write on whatever it is as if you were writing on paper. It saves a ton of time and energy not having to keep track of different notebooks for each class. Just make sure to backup your info each week. The price for us was a little of 2000 which is pretty expensive, but I'd say it is worth it. The value of these will increase come third year because there is a program called IQ-Mark that lets you take down patient information as if it were a paper chart.

 

[myodana]

i had a 600m for about 6 months before it got stolen. 🙁 i ended up buying a 14" ibook G4 with the apple educational discount and i LOVE IT. 😀 it is the best little computer; super user friendly, works perfectly with my digital cameras, digital video camera, ipod, external drive, etc... i had never had a mac before, but this is the first computer that i have actually loved. as far as windows vs. mac, for all intents and purposes, it's simply a question of personal preference... if you've never tried a mac, i suggest you hit the apple store and play with one for a few minutes. you may like it.

 

[ShyRem]

I have a Toshiba Pro (got it in 2002). I absolutely love this computer. While I have two other desktops in the house, the Toshiba has become my main computer. Only one problem last year when the power supply developed a problem, but not bad to fix at all. Fan is quiet, not too hot.

When I get a new computer, tho, I'm looking at the Motion M1400 tablets - they're supposed to be awesome. But if Toshiba's new tablet PC looks as good, I'd probably be more inclined to stay with the Toshiba just because I've had a good experience with mine.

 

[BGGA]

i had a 600m for about 6 months before it got stolen. 🙁 i ended up buying a 14" ibook G4 with the apple educational discount and i LOVE IT. 😀 it is the best little computer; super user friendly, works perfectly with my digital cameras, digital video camera, ipod, external drive, etc... i had never had a mac before, but this is the first computer that i have actually loved. as far as windows vs. mac, for all intents and purposes, it's simply a question of personal preference... if you've never tried a mac, i suggest you hit the apple store and play with one for a few minutes. you may like it.

As of a few hours ago, I have been turned on to the G4 ibook. I had a mac desktop at work and I don't know why I never considered the laptop (well maybe the $). Is the 60 GB hard drive enough? Have you come across any problems so far?
Thanks

 

[myodana]

As of a few hours ago, I have been turned on to the G4 ibook. I had a mac desktop at work and I don't know why I never considered the laptop (well maybe the $). Is the 60 GB hard drive enough? Have you come across any problems so far?
Thanks

as far as the hard drive goes... if you have a lot of music and/or video, you might want an external hard drive. i have a 60 GB ipod, as well as access to a lot more music (my brother is a musician with a hard drive full of music!), and i was filling up the internal drive rather quickly with music, plus photo and video (i'm one of those artsy types), so i bought a really great 250 GB external hard drive for music and video, as well as for backup. now i'm good to go!

so far, no problems with the computer... i've had it since around thanksgiving '04 and it's running like a champ. another idea to consider: when i went to the apple store, they had just upgraded to the 1.33 GHz processor, and they still had a few of the 1.2 GHz left, so i got one, WITH a superdrive, for about $200 less than the 1.33. (i used the money i saved to put a 1 GB chip of RAM in -- don't buy RAM from apple though; it's overpriced). so i say, go ibook! you won't regret it.

 

[digitiminimi]

DEFINITELY consider the weight of the laptop. I bought an 8 lb laptop before my senior year in college in anticipation of using it in med school.

However, during MS1 I only took it to school 2 or 3 times because it (along with the books I had to carry) just about broke my back. It peeved me though because the few times I took it, it really helped me out in the library being able to study at a cubicle and look up the lecture slides at the same time.

I just bought a new laptop 2 days ago and it only weighs 5 pounds, so I plan on taking it with me this year .... weight really makes a HUGE difference. More than you may think.

 

[fielight]

there are a lot of issues to consider when buying a laptop... there are many good guides online you can read about this. personally though, i think portability should be top of the list; anything more 6 lbs (ideally, less than 5 is better) will be a lot to handle (though most med students don't really bring their computers to class, so it may be a non-issue for you). processing power is probably next... if you want to save money, go with Celeron M (though the life of the computer will be somewhat shorter). if you want something with more power and will last longer, get Pentium 4M or Centrino (mine is a centrino, and i can say it's power efficient, quiet, thin, and doesn't get very hot like the old generation of notebooks). branding doesn't matter too much either, unless you have a preference. this is a great time to be buying laptops, i have to say, because they have become very accessible; a Centrino running 1.5MHz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD (which is more than you'll need for med school) would have retailed something like $1500 a year ago, but can be found for half that right now if you look around. i wouldn't go with a tablet, just because i don't think for what you'll be doing, there is any advantages over a notebook. and finally, keep things in perspective; i understand the fear of having your only pc crap out the day before the anatomy exam when you haven't had the chance to watch the dissections online yet.... but honestly, with a little computer savvy, you don't need the most high powered device to get the work done in med school.