Laptop Specifications
It is strongly recommended that you purchase a laptop if you do not already have one available. There are many advantages of having a personal laptop while attending the College of Law.
- You are able to study at your personal carrel and use your laptop while having access to the College of Law Library materials and other students.
- You will also be able to access and use Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis which are online legal research programs.
- The College of Law also uses the ExamSoft testing application SofTest which can be run on a Windows or Mac machine.
- Most of the current College of Law students take their tests on laptops during finals and midterms. You are also able to use your laptop to take the Idaho Bar Exam.
I have a Mac. Is that OK?
There are three main issues for Mac users:
- First, the University of Idaho is a Windows oriented campus. This does not mean a Mac will not work here on campus. Our suggestion is if you are familiar with the Mac operating system and applications, a Mac will be able to do all the work required by the College of Law.
- Second, the College of Law and main campus Help Desk are not Apple Certified and may not be as familiar with Macs should you need technical help.
- Finally, local support for Mac is limited, should you need your computer serviced by an Apple Certified Technician you will most likely have to send your Mac to Apple for repairs.
BootCamp may be required for your Mac due to some software requirements.
Update: Regarding the recent release of the new Mac operating system Mac OS X Lion.
You may want to upgrade your Mac computers to the new Operating System.
I would advise you to hold off on this upgrade due to compatibility issues with Softest, the test taking software we use for midterms and finals (as well as BAR takers). Examsoft is currently working on a solution and will make it available as soon as possible. A current ETA on the solution is not known.
What if I have already upgraded my Operating System?
- Currently the only solution to this is to have your Mac setup using BootCamp to start a Windows operating system such as Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7.
What if I do not have access to Windows Operating Systems?
- ITS no longer is offering access to Windows XP for free, you will need access to a Computer that has a Windows operating system. This means you will have to purchase a copy of Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 to install on your Mac computer for Bootcamp.
What if I do not want to pay for Windows Operating Systems?
- You next best options is to purchase a netbook with that has a version of Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 and use this for testing purposes.
Windows Oriented Campus
The University of Idaho is a Windows oriented campus through a Microsoft campus agreement. This agreement provides access to Microsoft operating systems and software at discounted prices. This also means that the majority of all campus faculty and staff will be running a Windows machine. The University network and printing capabilities are also Microsoft oriented with a Microsoft Printing Network and Active Directory shared drive access to student storage drives.
Please visit the University Bookstore Vandal Tech for more pricing information.
You may also want to visit Microsoft DreamSpark, they provide Microsoft professional tools and applications at no charge when you sign up with your student e-mail.
Specifications
What type of laptop should I get?
This largely depends on how you will use your laptop. The vast majority of your computer use will be word processing and Internet use. Most new laptops will handle these tasks well.
Below is a list of the major components of a laptop:
Processor Speed – 1.0 gigahertz (GHz) or faster REQUIRED. If you are buying new, even the most low-cost options will likely have a processor speed over 1.8 GHz. This is the "engine" of your laptop. High-end models have processor speeds up to 3.0 GHz and over,, which may not be necessary for your purposes. Also, for the majority of casual users, there is no difference between a and an AMD processor.
Memory (RAM) – 1 gigabyte (GB); REQUIRED. 512MB is the absolute minimum required for Windows XP and SofTest (Finals Exam Software), but you will find that even that isn't really adequate. Most new laptops today come with 1 gigabyte (GB) or more. More memory makes your computer smoother and faster when using multiple applications. For those of you with older laptops, RAM is one of the easiest (and relatively cheap) things to upgrade. Check out Crucial or Kingston for the right RAM upgrades for your laptop.
Video Card – 8MB video card; another category you don't have to worry about if you buy new. Most Laptops have onboard video cards that meet this requirement so you don't have to worry about it if you already have a laptop since it is not easy (or cheap) to upgrade.
Hard Drive Size – 20GB; generally, the bigger the better. 40 GB may be enough of space for your law school papers, Office applications, Examsoft testing application and a small music/video collection.
Network Interface Card – 10/100 preferred; this is also a standard on most laptops.
Wireless Network Card – Must have if you want to surf the Internet. Brands to look for include Linksys or Cisco. The card must be 802.11g or 802.11n compatible, most laptops produced after 2003 have these types of internal wireless cards. It is likely that your laptop will include an internal wireless card, making an external one unnecessary.
Screen Size – Generally as screen size increases, so does weight, which is definitely a concern if you will be lugging your laptop around. If the laptop will be your only computer or you will spend the majority of your time using it, then it is worth getting at least a 14.1 inch display.
CD/DVD Burner –. This really isn't a need specific to law school, but a handy thing to have, nonetheless. CD's are an inexpensive way to back up your data. DVD's, also inexpensive, hold more than 5 CD's worth of data.
Operating System – Windows XP Professional (SP3), Windows Vista (SP1) or Windows 7. Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support will continue until April 8, 2014 If you are still using Windows XP or Vista the Student Book Store has an upgrade to Windows 7 for a fee of $10.00. We recommend you have the most up to date operating system for Windows.
Work Processing – The most common suite is Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Many in the legal community also use WordPerfect but these documents can be opened using the Office suite. There is also a free suite called Open Office that will work fine if money is an issue.
Optional Items:
USB Ports – Many, if not most, add-on devices connect to your computer via a USB port. This includes external keyboards, optical mice, and flash hard drives.
Webcam – Some students use webcams to communicate through video chat for student conferences, distance learning and client communication.
External Optical Mouse – Nice to have if you don't like touchpads on laptops.
External Hard Drive – It is always a good idea to back up your work. This will also help you in times where your personal computer is not available. You can use your external hard drive with any campus computer lab to continue your work while your personal computer is unavailable.