Technology Should I buy a new laptop for Med School?

[rockydoc]

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I am entering med school this fall. I currently have a 5 year old Dell Inspiron laptop that is working ok, but it is obviously not the best laptop out there and is growing old. I am wondering if I should buy a new laptop now (the summer before I matriculate) even though my computer is still working ok. Or should I just keep my current laptop until I need to buy a new one?? I'm just not sure I should take on any uneeded expenses right now. It is possible that this laptop will last me another year and I can put off buying a new one till next summer or something. Thanks

 

[MDpride]

If your laptop is too slow to turn on and off, then it can be very annoying.

Also, laptop hanging/crashing while switching from one document to another can be annoying too.


In short, as long as ur laptop is not too slow to respond to your command then u r good to go.

 

[MossPoh]

You're going to need one sometime. 5 years is a longtime for most laptops. Mine start being problematic around the 3-4 year time. Look to see if your school has any deals. I didn't have to get one since we had a particular one rammed down our throats, excuse me, I mean they "leased it to [us] for 4 years".

 

[Veg]

Depends if you're going to use it for class or not......our professors distribute thier powerpoints ahead of time so a lot of people take notes in the speaker notes area. I bought mine over Christmas M1 year and it was the best money I spent in med school.

No binders to carry around, you never forgot the notes you needed, you could always look up stuff from the last test (or last year). Just back it up OFTEN.

 

[DrYoda]

I've got a 4 year old laptop which is still working well. I plan on continuing to use it until it explodes.

I do keep backups of any important files though, which is especially important if you're going to use an older computer.

 

[McPoyle]

I have a five year old PowerBook G4 that, while running slower than it used to, hopefully will get me through a few more years. If you do get a new computer, get a mac.

 

[Mattabet]

I have a five year old PowerBook G4 that, while running slower than it used to, hopefully will get me through a few more years. If you do get a new computer, get a mac.

Me too! Computer buddies!

I'm sad though, I'm gonna have to retire it pretty soon, the hard-drive is starting to wear out on me, and I know it's not going to be able to travel in a backpack much longer.

Seriously though, if it was 2004, I'd highly recommend the PowerBook G4!

 

[UVAbme2009]

I'm debating whether I should get a new one or not. I've had my current laptop since summer 2005. It runs okay, but four years is on the long end. I just don't want to drop $1500+ on a new one when I need so many other things.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I'm debating whether I should get a new one or not. I've had my current laptop since summer 2005. It runs okay, but four years is on the long end. I just don't want to drop $1500+ on a new one when I need so many other things.

I couldn't agree more with the Mac thing. People always get tempted to buy a a cheap Dell at half the price but you get so much more value out of a Mac. When I switched from my Dell to the Macbook it was like night and day. I used to close it after one class, open it in the other, and find half the power drained. The dell would also lag randomly when I turned it on, or would require a restart for no reason after freezing, and I'd lose precious minutes of notes. Very frustrating.

My Macbook is the ideal notebook for class notes. Slim, turns on when I need it, never freezes, retains battery power very well, and can record audio right into the notes on Word. 👍

 

[bydotte]

profs like to make 25Mb 100-slide powerpoints, at least at my school. as long as you can key these up in an acceptable amount of time you're ok.

 

[KingstonPre]

Laptops that old can die at any time, so a change is going to have to be made sometime. You don't want your laptop dying at a crucial moment....

 

[HrryUpNwait]

I am in the same boat as the OP and I have always wanted a mac - I have a dell now. I was trying to decide on what mac model to get when I stumbled upon this HP that is seemingly a beast-
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...Tar5V5iCh&cmp=RMX&ky=8s4tzpe9qawwk23ed47n89g5
I am having trouble finding reasons to get a mac over the HP when it seems like it had tons of RAM, storage, screen size, etc for a price that blows mac out of the water. Any thoughts on HP or mac (and if you vote mac specifically what model)?

 

[WellWornLad]

I am in the same boat as the OP and I have always wanted a mac - I have a dell now. I was trying to decide on what mac model to get when I stumbled upon this HP that is seemingly a beast-
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...Tar5V5iCh&cmp=RMX&ky=8s4tzpe9qawwk23ed47n89g5
I am having trouble finding reasons to get a mac over the HP when it seems like it had tons of RAM, storage, screen size, etc for a price that blows mac out of the water. Any thoughts on HP or mac (and if you vote mac specifically what model)?

I have the older version of that HP laptop, and while it performs well (after serious tweaking re: Vista), it is very, very heavy and I am loathe to carry it anywhere.

If price wasn't an issue, I'd definitely get a Mac. They actually hired people that weren't computer programmers to design their OS interface, and it shows. If you need Windows compatibility, VMware is good enough these days to run things in parallel. It doesn't matter what Mac you buy, as long as it's got OS X.

Whatever you do, always get the extended warranty. Don't drink the kool-aid, Macs actually do break just like PCs, and I have never bought a warranty that didn't end up saving me 2-3x what it cost.

 

[HrryUpNwait]

I have the older version of that HP laptop, and while it performs well (after serious tweaking re: Vista), it is very, very heavy and I am loathe to carry it anywhere.

If price wasn't an issue, I'd definitely get a Mac. They actually hired people that weren't computer programmers to design their OS interface, and it shows. If you need Windows compatibility, VMware is good enough these days to run things in parallel. It doesn't matter what Mac you buy, as long as it's got OS X.

Whatever you do, always get the extended warranty. Don't drink the kool-aid, Macs actually do break just like PCs, and I have never bought a warranty that didn't end up saving me 2-3x what it cost.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately price is, and likely always will be, an issue (my money tree died a few years back).

 

[TMP-SMX]

Macbook $949 or 13" MBP $1099. Free iPod Touch at $229 or $200 off the top of your computer purchase if you sell it on ebay. Free $99 printer. Seems like a good deal to me. Apple never updates the notebooks just prior to or during the summer iPod deal. They did this year and if I didn't buy back in October this would have been a great time to buy one.

About the HP: If you want something portable, that isn't going to cut it. Battery life and weight are important factors. The thing is 7.6lbs and HP says it will last up to 3:15! The 13" MBP is 4.5lbs and is listed at 7 hours. That extra 15.4" also adds to its bulk. I don't see how you can say it blows the Mac out of the water in price when the low end MBP is $1099 or the Macbook is $949. It may have a 5400 RPM 500GB HDD and 6GB of RAM, but you can upgrade the Mac to 7200 RPM 320GB and 4GB for $120. Is it really necessary for 500GB and 6GB right now? I'd imagine that HP could be a lot cheaper if it just had 4GB rather than 6GB of DDR2. FYI, the MBPs use faster DDR3 RAM than the HPs DDR2.

 

[rockydoc]

Thanks for the advice so far, after thinking about it more I think I will end up buying a new laptop this summer. However, as some have noted, they do not recommend Dell computers. I was wondering what the specific reasons against Dell are. I have been pretty happy w/ my old dell and obviously am still attracted to the price (approx $700 vs approx $1000 for mac). I don't really plan on using my laptop for notes everyday in class, so carrying weight and battery life aren't real considerations for me.

 

[DrJosephKim]

It's actually a really good time to purchase a new system, so that's what I would suggest. I'm a big fan of Lenovo Thinkpads, and that's what I would recommend.