Which laptop do you guys have?

[purplerose]

What would be a good laptop for medical student? Apple, dell, compaq, or something else? Also, which operating system would be better to have Mac OS, Window or something else? Any suggestion on display size?

I wouldn't want any trouble from my laptop once I'm on the Island.

[shahzada619]

Apples & HPs are really common. After those, then come Toshiba & Sony. The others are rare.

[aconfusedazn]

Mac 4 life. Either a MacBook or the 13" MBP is popular too. OSx runs fine and does everything you need it to do. I would get Office 08 tho.

[don1]

i've seen every brand of laptop fail on the island. usually the power supply goes, so I suggest getting a backup one. In fact, i would suggest don't spend a fortune getting a high end notebook but rather getting a second cheap laptop.

Even a new laptop can fail with in the first term. in med 1, there were 2-3 peoples laptop that broke (fallen, or stopped working). by the end of med 5 about 15% of notebook computers broke at some point, from what I noticed. there is no apple store on nevis or reputible repair depo there. computers are very expensive there!

What would be a good laptop for medical student? Apple, dell, compaq, or something else? Also, which operating system would be better to have Mac OS, Window or something else? Any suggestion on display size?

I wouldn't want any trouble from my laptop once I'm on the Island.

[purplerose]

i've seen every brand of laptop fail on the island. Usually the power supply goes, so i suggest getting a backup one. In fact, i would suggest don't spend a fortune getting a high end notebook but rather getting a second cheap laptop.

Even a new laptop can fail with in the first term. In med 1, there were 2-3 peoples laptop that broke (fallen, or stopped working). By the end of med 5 about 15% of notebook computers broke at some point, from what i noticed. There is no apple store on nevis or reputible repair depo there. Computers are very expensive there!


great idea!

[MedMan87]

great idea!

What im doing is planning on bringing my macbook and buying a cheap tablet PC used/refurbished from ebay. I'll use the tablet for school notes etc, and run it to the ground!

don1 - do many people obtain pdfs of textbooks? or do many ppl buy them?

[don1]

pdfs are very available. I would suggest getting the actual netters book for med1. also, if you think you will study the text books and like having a physical book, it might be worth getting those texts. bear in mind, you can buy second hand books from other students. look for postings in the first week and if you see something you might want, buy it. if you don't end up using it, you may just end up selling it for what you paid (assuming you bought it from another student on the island for a decent price)

I rarely used the text books. I based my studying on the slides and if there was something I didn't understand I looked it up on the internet. I had a classmate who only used the text and wrote in additional material from the slides. that seemed to work well for them because the text book was sometimes better at having the concepts flow and explaining concepts in method that made it easier to understand.

What im doing is planning on bringing my macbook and buying a cheap tablet PC used/refurbished from ebay. I'll use the tablet for school notes etc, and run it to the ground!

don1 - do many people obtain pdfs of textbooks? or do many ppl buy them?

[MedMan87]

anybody considering getting a laptop look for Fujitsu refurbished store on ebay, very very cheap! and straight from the manufacturer.

[FutureMD-NNR]

I bought an HP, decided not to bring my Dell. Staples has a really good HP dv series on sale this week ($200 off plus $75 for your trade in) but I got my HP from Best Buy a little cheaper because I know someone. But the HP is really nice.

[aconfusedazn]

i would strongly recommend that anyone regardless of the make of their laptop to get an unitneruptable power supply. It does a very good job at regulating power especially if you live off campus. it'll save your computer.

[Sharky]

A few points about windows laptops (macs always work) The brand of a laptop is only a name. laptops are made from the same parts, some have faster processors than others or more memory (ram) some with glossy screens (IMO suck) some with non glare/matte in the end they are all the same. They are all man made and will break at some point.

So, when buying a laptop, 4 areas to make sure you have, at least 3 GB's of ram for vista or window 7, light weight, since you will be carrying it around every day, 3rd a spare power adapter, and 4th a good padded backpack to protect it in transit to and from campus.

There was a mention of factory refurbs in this thread, nothing wrong with that to save some money. Also wal-mart has better prices than electronics stores hands down.

MUA IT department provides technical services for its student, so if something does go wrong they can get you back up and running really quick. They carry the most common parts if something is needed.

Other things to bring, a quality surge suppressor, A UPS isn't necessary and to0 heavy to bring with you. A USB powered external hard drive, 250 GB +, make backups of your files from your computer.

Hope this helps, all student, and congradulations to the future doctors. :)