Cpu Information

[sb11]

I was just wondering if any current med students, or anyone else, would mind giving us their thoughts on what type of cpu they feel we are going to need in med school..

I am thinking of buying a laptop, but i am not sure if the portability is really that neccesary. I also understand UBC is sending us a registration package soon that will contain the requirements for the cpu we need to have, but I wanted some real life thoughts on the proccesor, SDRAM etc.... that are you feel work best.

thanks,

steve

[Cantor80]

I'm shipping mine. (going to the US) I don't feel the need to get a new one. My school's giving us palm pilots in our junior year, anyway, so getting a new comp would be pretty useless, since I don't do much on the comp anyway.

[MedderI]

Hi Steve,

You don't really need to worry too much about this. As long as you can access the Internet at a reasonable speed, that's all you really need a computer for, as well as some word processing.

The cheapest entry level computer (AMD Duron, Celeron) you can buy will already be overkill. I just upgrade my motherboard/CPU/memory/whatever every so often on my own, as needed. It's done me well for a long time, and should last me through to residency with a couple of inexpensive upgrades along the way.

I think the most important things are:
- A nice monitor. Something you don't mind staring at for a while. You'll keep this even if you upgrade the rest of your computer.
- A cheapo laser printer (about $300-$400 Brother will do fine) so you don't have to rely on spotty access to school printers
- Broadband (ADSL/Cable) Internet Access is the best thing you can get for yourself. So much PBL research can be done over the internet.

One other issue is that your computer should be able to run many of the multimedia CD-ROM program available for med students (Harrison's, etc). Again, even any entry-level computer is already overkill for this.

If you've got the money, then by all means, go and get whatever you think would look nice on your desk. However, if you're going to get funds from loans/lines of credit, then the less now means the better for your long term financial outlook. (i.e. $900 borrowed now will end up costing you $1500 down the road)

A laptop bought now will be obsolete by the time you finish med school, and there's not much to upgrade. A desktop can always have its components upgraded at a fraction of the cost to bring it up to current standards. Plus, UBC is still basically a books and notes curriculum, so there isn't much need for portability. Not a single one of us takes notes in class with a laptop. We have the Anatomy lab (20+ computers) at our disposal for at school word processing/internet.

Hope that was enlightening.

[UWOMED2005]

Yeah. . . I don't think they make CPUs slow enough anymore that processing speed should be a problem. Unless playing the top-end computers games

But definitely get a high-speed connection. I went with the cheaper dialup connection through Western, and have regretted it ever since. It's amazing how many resources there are for medicine on the internet - it's no longer just porn! (joking - :) )

[Ian Wong]

I agree with the above. The most common thing you will use your computer is for email. After that, printing PBL stuff off the internet, and doing online UBC med quizzes will pretty much round out the demand for a computer system. A laptop is not necessary, as you don't need a computer during the school day; you can't really use it during PBL or Anatomy/Histology labs, and you will be supplied with printed lecture notes for most lectures.

Any cheap computer will do. I would highly recommend investing the extra money into a high-speed internet connection (time is your most valuable resource in med school, and sitting watching PBL stuff download over a modem is frustrating as hell.) A laser printer will also be of a lot of use if you're the type who doesn't like to read off a monitor, and prefers to have a printed copy of whatever you're studying to high-light, underline, whatever.

Ian
UBC, Med 3