Buying a laptop, considering the ideapad y570

[davisflow]

Hey guys, I am looking for a laptop for school, which will run modern games at medium detail and will last for 5-7 years, what do you think about this laptop? Do you have better ideas at this price point? Thanks 😀

I am considering the IdeaPad Y570 Laptop - 08626JU. It is $699.00 with free shipping. I do have a question, I assume that the hd3000 and gt555m work in crossfire when needed, is this correct?


http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=457&Code=08626JU&category-id=F41BC8E1656C5F85171FBDB172571912

1. What is your budget?
I would like to keep it under $750 us.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
At least 14in. I will be using this primarily for school, which will consist of mostly online content.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I don't have a strong preference here, if the resolution is too high, I have found that the graphics card is usually underpowered.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I need some portability, however, I expect to be near an outlet most of the time.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Probably about 3-4 hours.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
I would like to play some games, but this isn't my focus, I have a desktop I built for gaming. I would want modern games to run at medium detail.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
No editing, just school related tasks, word, excel, pp.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I would think that 500 or so would be sufficient, I have an external drive for music and videos.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Any site, but I have purchased from newegg an tigerdirect in the past.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

***This is the big one for me, I want this laptop to last for 5-7 years, as webpages become more content rich, I don't want to be dealing with 10plus second load times in 3 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
A basic dvdrom is fine.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
No preference, I just want quality. I do want a good keyboard which is near to desktop quality.

13. What country do you live in?
USA.

 

[davisflow]

Also, for those of you which have Lenovo's what is your impression of the quality? does the case feel solid? How are the hinges holding up?

Thanks.

 

[davisflow]

Sorry for the multiple posts, I am hoping to buy this today as I am moving and will be without internet access soon, does anyone have any input on this??

Thank you!!!!

 

[Tibbs01]

The build quality and keyboard are great. The 1366x768 screen is "meh". The other thing to note is the lenovo GT555m is just a slightly overclocked GT550m, and is not the same GT555m that most other manufacturer's use so don't base your performance estimates on the standard GT555m benchmarks listed on sites like notebookcheck.net. You will be able to run many modern games on medium, but some will require lower settings or a lower resolution.

With all that said it is a pretty solid machine for the price.

 

[jaguarskx]

Asking a laptop to be able to play games at medium graphic quality for 5 - 7 years is asking a bit too much in my opinion. The Lenovo Y570's GT 555m is just an overclocked GT 550m (a little slower than an actual GT 555m). While the GT 550m / GT 555m has pretty good performance for a 1366x768 resolution screen in current games at medium graphic quality, you will likely have to lower graphic settings to low in about 3 or 4 years to get decent performance. "Decent performance" varies from game to game and person to person, so what may look and play fine to someone might be terrible to someone else.

For all other things besides games (work, school, internet, watching movies, etc...), the Y570 should be able to last you 5 - 7 as long as you are not doing anything that highly demanding on the CPU.

I have the smaller 14" Y470, and while it is overall pretty good, but the 1366x768 resolution screen is a bit too low for my taste when it comes to multi-tasking. The next laptop I buy will have higher resolution (next year?).

 

[WR2]

$700 for a Core i7-2670QM CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB 7200 rpm and GT 555M Graphics is a pretty good value.

I am considering the IdeaPad Y570 Laptop - 08626JU. It is $699.00 with free shipping. I do have a question, I assume that the hd3000 and gt555m work in crossfire when needed, is this correct?

They do not work together in Crossfire.
When the GT 555M graphics card is not needed the HD3000 integrated graphics is used while the GT 555M shuts down to save battery life.


More info on the GT 555M graphics card. As tibbs01 mentions the Y570 had the 96 shader model of the card.
And there is a link to the GT 550M graphics card that is probably a better representation on how well the card runs games.

 

[davisflow]

I have just purchased it.
Thanks for the info on the graphics card, I wasn't aware that it was an overclocked 550.
I agree that the resolution would be somewhat low for multi tasking.
Also thanks for the clarification on the crossfire.
Even with the lower resolution and the lower quality graphics card, it will work well for me, I'd prefer to spend less and deal with a less than perfect laptop.
I appreciate the help

 

[davisflow]

Best answer selected by davisflow.