Laptop vs desktop + tablet for medical school?

[Soviet Poland]

Sorry for the common question. I searched a few prior threads, but I am looking for some additional feedback. I start medical school in the fall. I currently have a mid-range HP laptop that is a few years old. AMD quad core, 6 GB RAM, a slow 5400 rpm HDD, and a dedicated GPU. Perfectly sufficient for school, but it's a 17 inch screen (1080p) and feels cheaply put together (plastic). Long story short, I want to replace it.

I also won an iPad mini in a raffle last year. I know the full-sized iPads are better for the didactic years, but I wonder if the iPad mini alone will be sufficient for note taking.

I'm considering three options:

Lightweight laptop like the Asus Zenbook (~$700) + large monitor for home study (~$150)

higher end Asus or MSI laptop (~$1,000)

Building a desktop from scratch (~$600-800?) and a really cheap Chromebook (~$150, or just use the iPad mini). I would need a monitor as well, probably bring this budget up to $1,000 as well.

The Zenbook's portability would be nice, but I worry if it can handle more intensive multimedia type hobbies (i.e. games) in my rare few moments of free time to unwind.

The Asus or MSI would last me longer, but I don't like "gaming" laptops all too well in terms of value. These are ~5 lbs, not the worst offenders. The weight is a non-issue. I wonder if 4-5 hrs of battery is sufficient. But it's a $300 difference from the Zenbook, but jumps from an i5 to i7, 8 GB RAM to 16 GB, larger screen (13 vs 15 inches), and dedicated GPU. I'd feel like I was wasting money with the Zenbook, in spite of its portability.

Desktop would be nice as well, but leaves me hanging in terms of class room note taking or reading text. A chromebook would not have a great resolution and the iPad mini might be too small on its own.

Thoughts?

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[NeuroMaster316]

For note taking check the Surface 3. For note taking and more screen space and power check the Surface Pro 3 or the HP spectre x360, they're around 12-13 inches.
You won't need a desktop and is it really worth it just to play games in whatever small free time you have?

 

[Soviet Poland]

For note taking check the Surface 3. For note taking and more screen space and power check the Surface Pro 3 or the HP spectre x360, they're around 12-13 inches.

Problem is they seem rather expensive for what they are and no HDMI port. Plus, then what do I do with my iPad mini? Sell it?

You won't need a desktop and is it really worth it just to play games in whatever small free time you have?

Games, not really. But having two 25" monitors seems like great real-estate for studying, no? The added multimedia capability just means I'm not dumping $500-800 on just a note taking tablet.

Which makes me lean toward the Zenbook, or a comparable ultrabook.


I take it you went with the Surface/Surface pro?

 

[Jabbed]

I'm a big fan of the desktop/tablet combo, although I never go to class so there's no benefit to my using a laptop. Honestly though, you can pick up a cheap laptop for sub-$200 that will give you enough bare bones processing power to fill the laptop niche.

You can put together a nice tablet, workhorse desktop, and budget laptop for under $1000.

 

[NeuroMaster316]

I take it you went with the Surface/Surface pro?

Not yet. I'm waiting to see if the Pro 4 will be released. if not I'm sticking to the Pro 3.
Regarding your iPad.... sell it lol I studied on a 21 inch monitor for undergrad and honestly it's way too much space and I found myself uncomfortable on it. i need something portable and small, but that's just how I feel. I guess if you're accustomed to big screens get em. Alternatively, you can buy a dock for the SP3 and connect it to any monitor you want.

 

[Eokpar02]

Sorry for the common question. I searched a few prior threads, but I am looking for some additional feedback. I start medical school in the fall. I currently have a mid-range HP laptop that is a few years old. AMD quad core, 6 GB RAM, a slow 5400 rpm HDD, and a dedicated GPU. Perfectly sufficient for school, but it's a 17 inch screen (1080p) and feels cheaply put together (plastic). Long story short, I want to replace it.

I also won an iPad mini in a raffle last year. I know the full-sized iPads are better for the didactic years, but I wonder if the iPad mini alone will be sufficient for note taking.

I'm considering three options:

Lightweight laptop like the Asus Zenbook (~$700) + large monitor for home study (~$150)

higher end Asus or MSI laptop (~$1,000)

Building a desktop from scratch (~$600-800?) and a really cheap Chromebook (~$150, or just use the iPad mini). I would need a monitor as well, probably bring this budget up to $1,000 as well.

The Zenbook's portability would be nice, but I worry if it can handle more intensive multimedia type hobbies (i.e. games) in my rare few moments of free time to unwind.

The Asus or MSI would last me longer, but I don't like "gaming" laptops all too well in terms of value. These are ~5 lbs, not the worst offenders. The weight is a non-issue. I wonder if 4-5 hrs of battery is sufficient. But it's a $300 difference from the Zenbook, but jumps from an i5 to i7, 8 GB RAM to 16 GB, larger screen (13 vs 15 inches), and dedicated GPU. I'd feel like I was wasting money with the Zenbook, in spite of its portability.

Desktop would be nice as well, but leaves me hanging in terms of class room note taking or reading text. A chromebook would not have a great resolution and the iPad mini might be too small on its own.

Thoughts?

I am a cheap bastard. I do all of my studying on a used desktop that I bought off Ebay and a monitor (27") that I got from Craigslist. My home pc set up probably cost $450.00 I have a litany of laptops that have done their solitary task (I leave them in my school locker for exams) and I have never spent more than $250.00 on them (they are used of Ebay).

 

[deleted472157]

I personally went desktop + tablet. Didn't really take notes on the tablet, but it's great to bring to class/clinic and have around. I already had a monitor and Microsoft Windows/Office Pro provided through my school; the rest ran me 575 to build: 4.1 GHz CPU dual core, with 8 Gb RAM, good CPU cooling system (this is important), SSD for bootup/essential programs/games + standard HD for my documents/photos/music, etc, plus the rest like keyboard/mouse/wifi/hardware. Running a couple years now and I boot from off to desktop in 10 seconds. Couldn't have bought a laptop with those specs for twice that amount at the time.

Honestly the best part of having a good powerful desktop for me is doing research/data analysis. With big monitors I can pull up several windows at once (yeah I'm disorganized) and run several resource-intense programs simultaneously when I need. It's stuff you can still do with a laptop, but for me having it done fast and not having to type on those stupid laptop keyboards for the same price is enough for me, especially when I wouldn't be taking my laptop into school already. Maybe it's just me but I hate running outlook/word on a laptop and having it take 10 seconds to open (I just want to click and have it open right away, is that too much to ask?).

I have several classmates who've done the same thing (just built nicer desktops) and like it.

 

[sk2fz]

So I think you're thinking way too hard on this... you see people doing both - laptop or just an ipad... Some people start out bringing their laptops and just drop to an ipad during the year...

I have a 15" macbook pro and used that primarily in didactic years...had just a 20" second display at home, most helpful when working on research projects, somewhat helpful for just regular studying...in retrospect it doesn't matter, do whatever makes day to day life convenient (lots of battery-life, isn't too big...if I had to do it again, I'd just get a 13" macbook air or pro and keep my external display). Even base models macs and equivalently built PCs are overkill for anything you do in med school, including research/data analysis.

Your iPad mini will be better than the regular sized iPad in M3 and M4 years...

Don't think about this too hard, just get a laptop you like that will actually last for all four years and will have enough battery life where you don't really need to carry your charger/extra crap around everywhere... I took my laptop and got 5-6 hours easy out of it...(your lecture schedules should rarely (aka never) be longer than that)

 

[DeucesHigh3]

I vote for getting a gaming desktop (built from scratch, of course), putting the iPad in a drawer until your clinical years, and getting a nice non-gaming laptop as well. I know, it's not the cheapest option, but you're only talking about another $1000 or so on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans -- and this is for the electronics you will use every day of the next 4+ years of your life. I have all three, and they all have their niche:

1. Fully-upgraded Lenovo Thinkpad that is virtually indestructable, and can still do everything I need it to do even 4 years later. This is what came with me to campus every day, and also serves as my go-to computer at home (surfing on the couch or in bed, watching shows anywhere other than the living room).

2. Gaming desktop to blow off steam (you'll have more free time than you probably expect, aside from exam time and the lead-up to Step 1), but is also worth its weight in gold for the ability to run 15 Chrome tabs across two large monitors for doing work, studying anatomy, writing papers, anything. My wife was a skeptic about the 2nd monitor at first, but now it would be hard to go back. The ability to have a journal article, wikipedia, Word, and a PDF open and visible at the same time is super handy.

3. Dirt cheap Dell Venue 8 Pro, which fits in the white coat pocket and lets me look things up on the go, or do UWorld questions during down-time. Also has the advantage of not looking like I'm texting when I'm actually on Epocrates. I'm in the minority for having a Windows device instead of an iPad mini, but I didn't feel like paying for a brand name and it suits me just fine.

For you, I say go ahead and get that desktop that I think you want. Take the iPad to classes with you for the first week or two, and see if you really need a laptop or not. The answer will probably be yes, but it might also be that you're not even *going* to classes after a few weeks. It also might be the case that having an electronic device during lectures is more of a distraction than a useful adjunct. Or, you'll discover that your class syllabi are comprehensive enough that you only occasionally need to add much to them. Or that they're on paper anyway.

 

[Dares Dareson]

I think I'm going Surface 3 Pro and having a decent laptop with a big monitor at home.

BTW I would not recommend Lenovo. The one I have now is crap, not to mention they stealthily installed Superfish, which created a huge security hole in windows, putting all their customers' personal data at risk, just for a few bucks. An awful company that exploits its customers.

 

[Medstart108]

Sorry for the common question. I searched a few prior threads, but I am looking for some additional feedback. I start medical school in the fall. I currently have a mid-range HP laptop that is a few years old. AMD quad core, 6 GB RAM, a slow 5400 rpm HDD, and a dedicated GPU. Perfectly sufficient for school, but it's a 17 inch screen (1080p) and feels cheaply put together (plastic). Long story short, I want to replace it.

I also won an iPad mini in a raffle last year. I know the full-sized iPads are better for the didactic years, but I wonder if the iPad mini alone will be sufficient for note taking.

I'm considering three options:

Lightweight laptop like the Asus Zenbook (~$700) + large monitor for home study (~$150)

higher end Asus or MSI laptop (~$1,000)

Building a desktop from scratch (~$600-800?) and a really cheap Chromebook (~$150, or just use the iPad mini). I would need a monitor as well, probably bring this budget up to $1,000 as well.

The Zenbook's portability would be nice, but I worry if it can handle more intensive multimedia type hobbies (i.e. games) in my rare few moments of free time to unwind.

The Asus or MSI would last me longer, but I don't like "gaming" laptops all too well in terms of value. These are ~5 lbs, not the worst offenders. The weight is a non-issue. I wonder if 4-5 hrs of battery is sufficient. But it's a $300 difference from the Zenbook, but jumps from an i5 to i7, 8 GB RAM to 16 GB, larger screen (13 vs 15 inches), and dedicated GPU. I'd feel like I was wasting money with the Zenbook, in spite of its portability.

Desktop would be nice as well, but leaves me hanging in terms of class room note taking or reading text. A chromebook would not have a great resolution and the iPad mini might be too small on its own.

Thoughts?

You are the first person i've ever heard of winning a raffle of any kind. I just have to say, wow you can actually win? Congrats

 

[BABSstudent]

I just got a surface and I wish I had it sooner. I didn't get a pro but I think it was worth it still.

 

[Jepstein30]

Problem is they seem rather expensive for what they are and no HDMI port. Plus, then what do I do with my iPad mini? Sell it?



Games, not really. But having two 25" monitors seems like great real-estate for studying, no? The added multimedia capability just means I'm not dumping $500-800 on just a note taking tablet.

Which makes me lean toward the Zenbook, or a comparable ultrabook.


I take it you went with the Surface/Surface pro?

You can easily just get an additional external monitor for a laptop? That's what I have and my laptop has basically functioned as desktop all year as I rarely ever take it anywhere. Nice to always have that functionality.. like I have taken it with me when going home, etc.

 

[chizledfrmstone]

How good are you with computers? The prices for SSDs have come down quite a bit. You could change out the 5400 rpm HDD for an SSD. I wouldn't make a major decision until school starts. Who knows what you will need. I personally use a moderately powerful desktop (4790k i7, 16 GB RAM, 280X.. etc) w/ 2 large screens to study. I have only used my laptop once this year for school work. I can run lectures on one screen and have Anki/Chrome opened up on the other one.

The iPad mini is a bit small for note taking I think.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

Not to steal your thread, but I also have a question regarding laptop/ipad mini for medical school.

I have a strong gaming laptop (i7 processor w/GTX 980m on a 17 in HD screen) It's heavy as hell. I plan on using this for studying at my apt.

I also have a 64GB ipad mini 4, someone was nice enough to buy me one. Now, should I keep the ipad mini 4 or sell it for another computer/tablet unit? Unsure if youre able to write on it with a stylus. Im a windows guy, apple products are so foreign to me.

Thanks in advance

-Newbie

 

[tick_tock400]

A lot of people write on ipads with a stylus and their notes seem quite nicely written. Have you tried it out yet?