Washington and Lee University School of Law

Washington and Lee University School of Law

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Student Computing at the Washington and Lee School of Law 2009-2010

Laptop Purchase Quick Notes

  • Our recommended Dell systems come with Windows Vista Business Edition (D830 and D630) or Windows XP (D430), but they are NOT imaged.  Once you purchase your laptop, you can download Office 2007, GroupWise, and Symantec antivirus from our webpage.  There is no cost to you for this software. 
  • The pricing of the laptops includes a external backup USB drive and a full warranty that includes accidental damage protection.
  • We support Windows Vista Business and Vista Ultimate, Windows XP sp2, or Max OSX.
  • If you prefer a Mac laptop, please see the W&L Mac store (go to Apple's web site, and find W&L on the Education Store).
  • Quicklink to the Dell laptops: Premier Login 

Laptop Purchase Details

Minimum Specifications

Feature Minimum Comments
Warranty 3 yr, NBD, Select Care Make sure that you don't have to ship your laptop away to be worked on. You might be without it for several weeks.

SelectCare (from Dell) or similar coverage protects your laptop from accidental damage (dropped laptop of spills on the keyboard, etc.)
Security Software AntiVirus
SpyWare Protection 		W&L provides Norton Corporate Edition Antivirus. See our security page for additional links (Top Ten)
Processor Intel Pentium Intel Pentium Dual-Core "Centrino" is Intel's name for the Pentium processor paired with Intel's Wireless chip set.

The latest Intel chips feature "dual core" which means faster processing. Be careful when comparing GHz speeds; a Dual Core chip with a lower GHz willl be faster than a P4with a higher GHz. For complete details see Intel's web site.

We suggest you avoid the Celeron chip.

We have no suggestions or recommendations on AMD chips.
Memory (RAM)

1GB (XP)
2 GB (VISTA)

 More RAM increases performance. We suggest 1GB if you plan on running Microsoft Vista (set to replace Windows XP in 2007)

We have no suggestions or recommendations on ADM chips.
Video RAM

128 MB (xp)
256 MB(Vista)
Hard Drive 60 GB Get a larger harddrive if you plan to store music files or videos.

You should also invest in an external USB 2.0 harddrive to backup your laptop.
Display

1024x768 res.
Active/TFT

 This is a personal decision; some people do fine on a 12.1"; others prefer a 17" full sized screen.""
Network 10/100/1000 MB NIC
802.11 B/G Wireless Card		 A 802.11 A/B/G card will give you the most flexibility in the Law School. B/G speeds are limited to 11 MBps, while A is upto 54 MBps
Modem Not required Get a modem if you wish to connect from home, and don't plan on using DSL or cable.
Operating System

VISTA Business Windows XP Professional
Mac OS X               

 The Campus Bookstore carries upgrades to XPPro for a minimal fee.
Optical Drive CD-RW, DVD,
or DVD/CD-RW		 CD-RW allows you to transfer files or backup your laptop. Some law materials may be on DVD in the future.
USB At least one port This allows you to connect peripherals to your machine, allowing you to backup external hard drives. You should consider USB 2.0 for faster speeds.
For additional questions or comments
please contact Technology Services at 540-458-8021

 

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