laptop recommendations

[ohioboy]

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Hey, as current dental students, could you please recommend to us (class of 2011) which laptop you recommend and why. Most all of us will be purchasing a laptop, and we will need to know the criteria that matter the most (eg. lightweight vs durability vs processing speed...) And this is obviously going to have to be done on a very limited budget...so please...if you have any suggestions on laptops, or even just certain things to look for in a laptop...then that would be much appreciated! Thanks for the help!

 

[KOM]

Well, I have a dell inspiron (can't quite remember what model)...that I got 3 years ago and it died and went to heaven just 2 weeks ago. The fan was sporadic so it kept overheating and I asked a person at Circuit City how much it might cost to fix based on what he thought may have happened and he said about 3-4 hundred bucks.

I'm going to get a new one as well, so I'm also open to recommendations.

 

[shamrock2006]

I keep hearing about those tablet computers? Still not sure exactly what those are and hopefully someone on here can elaborate...but from what I keep hearing/reading everyone seems to like them.

 

[naivegrl124]

Hi, although i am not a dental student yet but I am an IT person. Whatever you buy, you should try to get at least 1G of RAM, and 1.7+ GHz in processing speed. For one, I would not recommend Dell laptop since they are known to give out in a short period of time. Personally, I would recommend buying a IBM (or so called Lenova now) laptop, specifically and R-XX or T-XX model. I currently have a T-40 model and boy its been 4 years and stilll works faster than the ones that recently came out. Not to say i dropped it so many times. However, stay away from R-60 + up models, (this is around when Lenova took over) they tend to have alot of bugs in their software and are not as reliable. As for price, the last time i checked on a T-40 or so was around $1000-$1100 and this was about 1 or 2 ago so it might have dropped significantly. IBM are known to make durable laptops so keep an eye out if you are planning to buy one. One more thing, stay away from Compaq and Acer-cheap but bad quality. HP on the other hand are usually very bulky and big. Furthermore, if you can use tiger OS-go for a MAC 🙂 (but you might have some software compatibility problems which can be rendered by splitting your HD up and having both Tiger OS and Windows XP/Vista. Goodluck!
p.s If you know somebody that works at IBM- they get a lil discount

 

[utahdent123]

A lot of the Dental schools require you to purchase a laptop of there chooosing. So you just have to get whatever they tell you to buy.

 

[TheBestDoctor]

i have a macbook and its really good for school

 

[CSI Dentist]

I have a tablet pc , gateway.. and I am in love with it. I take it everywhere with me. It is awesome, and some of the things I think would come in handy at dental school is you can write on it, just like you would on piece of paper, and it has all those cool stuff like highlighters, and different colors of pens, and markers, and flags, and also while you are writing down something, you have an option to record what the person is saying. So when you are looking over your notes, you can also play back what was said in class!!

Also it makes it so easy to organize your notes, and change them, add stuff to them, and upload them online if you want to.

I should be a sales person for Gateway, but I am just 100% satisfied with this machine!

Some drawbacks... they are more expensive than regular laptops, and mine is about 8lbs including the battery, so it is not the lightest thing ever... but those are the only two things I can think of that might get you to choose traditional laptop over a tablet. Also I would get a warranty on it, bc it can happen for the screen to break if you are not careful enough. Also, you might have to spend some time practicing how to use it and write on it, untill you get used to, so you should probably get it few weeks before schools starts.

 

[ohioboy]

also, does anyone know if there are laptops out now that come with microsoft vista? i wonder if there will be major problems with this operating system, like there was with windows xp!

 

[Turnerjo13]

vista comes out to the public on January 30th. It will be installed on most new computers. Most of old computer won't have the hardware requirement to run it. It is supposed to have better security that XP does.

 

[KOM]

OK...how about a good laptop for gaming as well. I want one that has a good 3D processor. Studying would be no fun without some gaming intervals.

 

[tgp511]

OK...how about a good laptop for gaming as well. I want one that has a good 3D processor. Studying would be no fun without some gaming intervals.

What kind of games do you play? If it's first person shooters, you're better off buying a separate desktop for it.

The problem with a laptop with a good 3d processor is:

They are usually in the Desktop Replacement market, which means they have a 17" inch screen, weigh 8 pounds, and are not meant to be carried around.

Their battery life typically sucks. The new gen video cards can draw around 100 Watts under load, 50 watts idle. This drains your battery life much quicker than your typical intel integrated graphics, which probably draws around 10-15 watts.

If you're ok with the above two issues, I'd probably wait for a hot deal to roll around on a dell inspiron e1705 with it's best graphics card upgrade.

 

[naivegrl124]

Do not buy Vista yet, its a rip off MAC OS with a crap load of bugs and alot of software incompatibility. Alot of companies will start to make their programs and software compatible with it but alot of people i know who uses it say its not worth it. As for the gaming thing, T40 does just fine, I play starcraft on it all the time but if you are looking at more power demanding games and willing to spend some extra cash then there are plently of other laptops out there but take it for what its worth.

 

[jrstephe]

I have had a Sony laptop for since spring '03, and the only problem I have had is that I didn't realize that you needed to blow out the vents occasionally. I took it to a so-called computer repair shop and they couldn't figure out why it was turning itself off. I told my help desk at the University what the symptoms were and the girl blew out a ton of dust from the vents and I have yet to have anymore problems, that was Jan '05. The only thing about the Sony's is that they are pricy. I have a pentium 4 and I have had many IT people look at it and say it is a very nice piece of equipment.

 

[KOM]

What kind of games do you play? If it's first person shooters, you're better off buying a separate desktop for it.

Yeah, first person shooters.

 

[KOM]

I have had a Sony laptop for since spring '03, and the only problem I have had is that I didn't realize that you needed to blow out the vents occasionally. I took it to a so-called computer repair shop and they couldn't figure out why it was turning itself off. I told my help desk at the University what the symptoms were and the girl blew out a ton of dust from the vents and I have yet to have anymore problems, that was Jan '05.

Interesting...are there any screws around the vent that you have to take out or do you blow directly into it from the bottom of the comp?

 

[Chrono1984]

Forget what kind of laptop I should get...how about someone explain WHY I need a laptop at all?

I've never used or even needed one in undergrad, I take notes by hand, I do homework/study on a big desk right next to my PC so I have word/internet if needed. If I study at the library..it is usually reading/memorizing terms that do not require internet access or a word processor.

Do they really make that big of a difference? I can get a PC with twice the power at the same price and they are far easier to upgrade/repair which equals better longevity.

UIC does not require anything, but I'm open to convincing arguments. Can someone give me a real reason aside from the "you can sit on a couch and type a paper" argument. Just seems like another really expensive piece of technology to be lugging around.

 

[jlicious]

I hear ya. Some schools require them and others do not... would this indicate that since one school has most of their textbooks online and has moved to the next level of information technology that it is better than another school who still uses paper and doesn't require a laptop? Should this be taken into consideration when deciding where to go- especially if it might mesh/not mesh with my learning style? I know we're moving quickly into the future and paper will soon be obsolete- even in your dental office. Maybe it's good that some schools push you to learn to use the computer, but I don't know if I like having to rely on it... (ramble I know...)

 

[Fuji]

Laptops are convenient if you like to do work at Starbucks, the library, or in bed. If that's not your style, don't bother. They can be quite distracting if you are tempted by the internet, email, iTunes, or games.

Currently I have a Sony Vaio laptop that I love, but I'm treating myself to a phatty 24" iMac and taking notes by hand.

 

[Fuji]

we're moving quickly into the future and paper will soon be obsolete

Ha! I do believe computers have increased our paper consumption exponentially.

Oh, wait. Are you talking about paperless records? Okay, that's true.

 

[jrstephe]

Interesting...are there any screws around the vent that you have to take out or do you blow directly into it from the bottom of the comp?

Just use that canned air, stick the nozzle into the vents, if you haven't tried this before be sure and do it outside as you might have quite a bit of dust like mine.

 

[CSI Dentist]

Currently I have a Sony Vaio laptop that I love, but I'm treating myself to a phatty 24" iMac and taking notes by hand.

is that the really small one? They have the one that can fit in your purse.. i love it .. except that it is super hard to type on it, and it costs $3500...

 

[john9192]

Hi, although i am not a dental student yet but I am an IT person. Whatever you buy, you should try to get at least 1G of RAM, and 1.7+ GHz in processing speed. For one, I would not recommend Dell laptop since they are known to give out in a short period of time. Personally, I would recommend buying a IBM (or so called Lenova now) laptop, specifically and R-XX or T-XX model. I currently have a T-40 model and boy its been 4 years and stilll works faster than the ones that recently came out. Not to say i dropped it so many times. However, stay away from R-60 + up models, (this is around when Lenova took over) they tend to have alot of bugs in their software and are not as reliable. As for price, the last time i checked on a T-40 or so was around $1000-$1100 and this was about 1 or 2 ago so it might have dropped significantly. IBM are known to make durable laptops so keep an eye out if you are planning to buy one. One more thing, stay away from Compaq and Acer-cheap but bad quality. HP on the other hand are usually very bulky and big. Furthermore, if you can use tiger OS-go for a MAC 🙂 (but you might have some software compatibility problems which can be rendered by splitting your HD up and having both Tiger OS and Windows XP/Vista. Goodluck!
p.s If you know somebody that works at IBM- they get a lil discount

Hey I agree with this,
I have a IBM T40 as well and had it for about 3 years.
When I bought this, my friends bought Dell and Toshiba.
Out of these, toshiba went dead, dell is having minor problems but
my T40 is working just fine! I think IBMs look ugly somewhat, but the labtob is pretty solid!

 

[UtahDad]

A few years ago, I bought a Laptop at Best Buy and thought it was neat. I just thought I would share.

 

[tooth decay]

Forget what kind of laptop I should get...how about someone explain WHY I need a laptop at all?

I've never used or even needed one in undergrad, I take notes by hand, I do homework/study on a big desk right next to my PC so I have word/internet if needed. If I study at the library..it is usually reading/memorizing terms that do not require internet access or a word processor.

Do they really make that big of a difference? I can get a PC with twice the power at the same price and they are far easier to upgrade/repair which equals better longevity.

UIC does not require anything, but I'm open to convincing arguments. Can someone give me a real reason aside from the "you can sit on a couch and type a paper" argument. Just seems like another really expensive piece of technology to be lugging around.

I think some dental schools specify the type of laptops you should have to run their cds/dvd that contain their school work. Personally, I think that you should keep your dental school data/homework separate from your every day stuff on another computer in case you get a virus which can wipe out the data you are keeping for school.

 

[Fuji]

is that the really small one?

No, it's a 2-year old S-type that I don't think they sell anymore.

 

[ard14]

I have an an apple Powerbook (now the macbook pro) and wouldn't recommend anything else. I switched halfway through college, so I know what life is like on both sides of the PC/Mac fence, and would never go back to PC. Microsoft works very poorly in comparison to a mac, and now that Macs can run windows through BootCamp (a program) an apple computer can run every single application that exists.
Buying advice: buy a macbook if you are in the $1000-1400 price range and want a portable laptop that will do everything, or buy a macbook pro if you want a sleeker look, the best performance that exists in a laptop today, and are in the $1600+ category.

PM me with any questions.

 

[dddsmack]

Hey, as current dental students, could you please recommend to us (class of 2011) which laptop you recommend and why. Most all of us will be purchasing a laptop, and we will need to know the criteria that matter the most (eg. lightweight vs durability vs processing speed...) And this is obviously going to have to be done on a very limited budget...so please...if you have any suggestions on laptops, or even just certain things to look for in a laptop...then that would be much appreciated! Thanks for the help!

From the sounds of things, your school doesn't specify, or need you to get one at all. This brings up the benefits of a paperless cirriculum and the need for a laptop in a traditional cirriculum?

What do you all think? Is a paperless cirriculum going to give me any advantage or put me at a disadvantage?

 

[ohioboy]

no, actually they do require that you have a new computer. I have been accepted to three schools and they all require a new computer (or at least that you have one that is no more than two years old)...so therefore I have to purchase one. I spoke with the lenovo (IBM thinkpad) and they said that you should hold off till the summer before you buy a pc...so that the windows vista can work all the bugs out.

 

[dddsmack]

So again, your schools don't specify. I am curious to know if they are a completely paperless cirriculum or if they just need you to have one for convenience?

It seems like most schools with a paperless cirriculum have specific models you need.

 

[ohioboy]

one of the schools is paperless and they don't specify which type pc. i asked if macs work on their system and they said they did...so I don't think it really matters. the other schools...they are semi-paperless...they still have a few things that are not completely paperless. they said you needed a laptop to run some of their programs...but the only specifications they gave was that it had to be somewhat new...so who knows. of course before i buy one i will check with them...but I do remember them saying that quite a few had the ibm thinkpad. it was nice to see that at all the students seats in their lecture rooms they had hook ups for each persons computer. that will help save on battery life as well!

 

[mmasurf]

get the new mac laptops that will let u run windows xp on it so you'll have mac/windows. for deals look at www.techbargains.net and www.slickdeals.net if there is a deal on the net you'll find it there.

 

[earthcap]

i have a macbook and its really good for school

I second that