Advice please on laptops for my daughter entering nursing school

originally posted by: tanstaafl

originally posted by: jtrenthacker
I’m a tech manager for a university and we give out Lenovo T series laptops to every new class of med school students and faculty/staff. The newer T490 and T14 are a solid no nonsense laptop.

Sorry, but I wouldn't touch anything that comes straight from China.

I know, most PCs have some components made there, but Lenovo is a Chinese company.

Stay away. Far far away.

Every manufacturer's components come straight from China. They may design/assemble here in the States but it all comes from China.

originally posted by: jtrenthacker
Every manufacturer's components come straight from China. They may design/assemble here in the States but it all comes from China.

Not all of it. Much comes from Taiwan, Vietnam, etc...

But yeah, a lot still does.

That doesn't men we shouldn't try, and certainly doesn't change the fact that I'd never ever buy an actual fully assembled Chinese PC.

a reply to: tanstaafl
I should have been clearer in my question. I didn't mean for you to go into a long explanation we both already understand the workings of, but you ended up answering my question any way. Different techs do things differently and I understand that, but at least you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. I fix a lot of other techs screw-ups and all I can do is shake my head.

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: tanstaafl
I should have been clearer in my question. I didn't mean for you to go into a long explanation we both already understand the workings of, but you ended up answering my question any way.

Mostly the explanation was for the OP and anyone else reading that may not understand UAC (lots, as evidenced by the number of blogs and articles that recommend disabling UAC completely).

Different techs do things differently and I understand that, but at least you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. I fix a lot of other techs screw-ups and all I can do is shake my head.

Been there/done that more times than I can count.

For $1000 any "new" system with at least 8GB of RAM, from a major OEM should work out just fine.

There is a good laptop price/quality point near $700 and it has some diminishing returns up to around 900~ laptops near the $1000 mark would be good enough to last her probably around 3 years.

In general I would advise AGAINST refurbished options for a laptop, if this is for a student. The reason being that laptops don't show all their wear and tear on their face.

Better not to risk getting a system with micro-cracks in the circuit boards that don't show themselves for a couple months. (Seen it with refurbs myself.)

The only time I would trust a refurbished unit is under these specific conditions.
Is it refurbished by the original manufacturer? Good. Does it have at least a 1 year hardware warranty? Good.

If those two things are not true, avoid it.

Being in North Carolina, you are very close to the US headquarters for Lenovo. It's located out there in Morrisville.
(They have a warehouse location near Whitsett, North Carolina that they sell decent deals from.)
URLS REMOVED
I like finds like these one, on there. These are refurbished by Lenovo directly, and have a 1 year hardware warranty.
The main page is: URL REMOVED
Well these links aren't behaving well with the forum code, just search in Google for Lenovo Outlet, and you'll find the site.

They also have some 15 inch models in similar price ranges. Blow for blow, these have just as good, if not better specs than what has already been suggested in the thread. The ThinkPad line is known for being office/business computers with good reliability, even if the Lenovo retail brand has some questionable units from time to time, the ThinkPad lines are the machines they sell to their large contracts, so they have to be good value or they wouldn't have those contracts.

(I have bought laptops from the Lenovo outlet website in the past, the experience is generally good.)

I can in good conscience, recommend most Lenovo laptops near the $600-1000 price range.

The other guy that was helping you in this thread did point out that you can upgrade Windows 10S to Windows 10 for like $50, and I don't personally disagree with any of his suggestions. His machine was a solid recommendation as well. Those Ryzen machines I listed are technically from one generation behind, the performance compared to that newer Intel chip is neck and neck except in graphics heavy workloads, the Ryzen laptops will probably pull ahead by a solid margin.

Thank youa reply to: rounda

Thank you very much. This is some solid advice for consideration. I appreciate your your time and input. a reply to: Archivalist

I would just like to thank every one of you who responded for all of the advice, help, recommendations and explanations. And especially for the kind way in which you all addressed my inquiry. In other words thanks for not making me feel like numb skull. You have given us a lot of helpful information to consider and I definitely appreciate your time.

a reply to: wehere

I used my Acer Switch for nursing school and it was perfect. Just make sure you get one that meets the minimum requirements (such as HD space).

Late to the party, I know, sorry.

Just a couple thoughts. First, I wouldn't touch anything with 10S on it with a ten foot pole! And I don't care how easy it is to upgrade. Get a real OS to start with, else be plagued with complex problems for the life of the machine. Troubleshooting a machine which started with an OS like 10S and then was upgraded to 10 is considerably more difficult than say, a machine which started with 10 Home and was upgraded to 10 Pro. The entire philosophy behind 10S is different from a regular straight-up OS.

Next, absolutely get a machine with an SSD. This is probably one of the biggest speed enhancers out there. Plus, they're very reliable.

Personally, I actually strongly recommend Lenovo (despite some other posts here). I've got two of them (edit: actually four of them, well, 3.5 of them). All are rocket fast with their SSD drives (average boot time is 6 seconds). Just don't ever spill anything on the keyboard of a Lenovo! Any laptop for that matter, but especially a Lenovo. Don't ask me how I know this! All of them are going on nearly 2 years now. Spacebar key on my primary has the color worn off in a spot from use, if that give you any idea of their daily requirements.

I've never had any luck at all with Dell laptops. Their desktops are fine, but their laptops are always dogs compared to the units I generally use and need. I've had 'okay' results with HP's, and I've had pretty good luck with Toshiba's. Biggest issues with the Toshiba's and HP's was that they were heavy as heck. Another plus for Lenovo, they're light!

Stay away from LINUX unless you're a computer expert and love, love, love, dinking around with your computer to make it work properly. LINUX is a great OS, and it's durable, but it can be complex and difficult to work with. Not what your daughter needs when she's trying to memorize Gray's Anatomy.

That's my .02, FWIW

a reply to: Archivalist

I bought a Thinkpad T40p back in 2003 when it was still sold by IBM, who later sold out to Lenovo in 2005.

It is the most solid and reliable laptop I ever had... and it still works! I lost the screens backlight many years ago and a replacement was very expensive, so I ripped off the screen and run an external monitor via the VGA output. It was a premium price at the time, but it repaid itself in longevity, reliability and utility, both for personal use and as a workhorse at work.

The best part about it is the keyboard. IBM arguably made the best keyboards for PCs and laptops. IF Lenovo have kept the old IBM standards of design and build quality then I would buy one today without question.

The only other laptops I considered at the time were the custom-made Voodoo or Alienware gaming computers.

Some trivia: last I knew, Thinkpads are the only laptops approved for use on the International Space Station!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You can't dink around with linux to make it work for nursing school. Most use testing software they will not work. In the program I graduated from a 5 minute software glitch due to trying to run linux and emulating windows will result in the failure of the class and an $8,000 retake fee.

Thank you for the suggestion. When did you. Complete nursing school if you don’t mind me asking?a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Oh damn I’m sorry that happened to you! But I feel ya on a spiritual level lol. That’s the exact kind of disaster we are trying to avoid. Similar incidents caused failure and near failures on more than one occasion. Thank you for advising. a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Late or not I thank you for your input just the same. I definitely agree with you about the dell. The one she has now came with Windows 7 and upgraded itself to Windows 10 all by itself within weeks of having it. 🤬 We have had nothing but compatibility problems ever since and she was forced to take all her tests at school using their computers and running into all kinds of time restraints. a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Hence my point.

a reply to: wehere

It didn't happen to me, but I used win10. I had software glitches but since I used approved software I was covered. If tech support saw I had Linux emulating windows I would not have been covered and would have had a zero on any test I had software problems on.

I had a problem with the nursing director who tried to fail about 30 students one of which was me, but she was forced to give us a retake when lawyers were mentioned.

a reply to: wehere

I graduated may 2020 with my BSN. If I can offer any help let me know. Many programs advertise themselves with their high NCLEX pass rate. What many neglect is that they achieve this through intentionally failing any student they think will not pass first try.

Also nursing style questions are very different than other programs. I suggest getting some practice in early on in the program with these types of questions. Select all that apply is the bane of nursing students existence, but the NCLEX is full of them. I finished in 60 questions and would guess 30 of them were select all or comparable difficulty questions.

Don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you so much! I read this to my daughter and her eyes got huge! Lol I said “ Wasn’t that nice and informative?” She said “ and scary!” We may very well reach out to you. I appreciate your willingness to help. I means a LOT. where in the country are you located? Not that it actually matters and you don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable with it. I’m just always curious about where people are from. Thank you again. She is planning on getting her BSN. Right now she is in the associate degree program at our local community college. Cost is a huge reason for that. Lola reply to: OccamsRazor04

a reply to: wehere

I am from Charleston, SC. Cost between programs can be huge, my program was $10k a semester. The big ADN program here is Trident Tech, much cheaper, but they are well known for trying to enroll as many as possible and then fail as many as possible to get close to a 100% NCLEX first try pass rate. Their retention rate is about 60%, so 40% fail out. My program (Medical University of South Carolina) is much more rigorous, requires almost 2 years of college pre-requisites with at least a 3.0 GPA in them to even apply, is a top 20 program nationally, and top 5 in online programs and our retention rate was about 90% because the philosophy was to help struggling students rather than fail them. With that said, I think 2019 pass rate was 96%, and my batch in 2020 had almost 99% pass rate, higher than Tridents.

Reach out for anything I love to help people. Nursing fundamentals are very important, there will be questions in the final semester where you can deduce the correct answer using first semester ABC's (Airway, breathing, circulation) even if you can't remember the specific disease process the question is about.