Does a Lenovo Y Series Suit Me?

[hibbiejibbie3]

1. What is your budget? $600-$900

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? No larger than 15.6"

3. What screen resolution do you want? At least 720p though larger is preferred.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? As "portable" as possible.

5. How much battery life do you need? 3+hrs at least.

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)? Yes, preferably medium-high settings with Ultra being the max (since most games have an Ultra setting)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) General coding, circuit design, able to have multiple programs running and not experience any slowdown.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Preferably at least 500GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Lenovo's Student discount site. Newegg/Amazon?

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? Until it is worth replacing rather than repairing i.e. until it dies.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? None really though I don't need a Bluray drive.

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. I like lenovo's offerings right now. Basically any brand except Toshiba and Acer. I've never really liked them.

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I'm currently looking at the Lenovo Y400 and Y500 series. I like that they have the Ultrabay in which you can swap out the DVD drive with another fan or even another GPU to SLI. Newegg has a Lenovo Y500 with an i5 and dual GPU for $899.99 right now, however I can get a Y500 with a quad core i7 and single GPU for cheaper at Lenovo's student discount website. Is it better to have an i7 with a single GPU or an i5 with dual GPUs? I kind of like the idea of having a quad core laptop.

I'm also open to any other considerations.

 

[Usmcpi9504]

well you can always add another GPU later...but you can't replace the i5 for the i7 later. So personally, I would get the quad core i7 and single 650m...and when funds allow. You also didn't say what games you play...but a single 650m should be able to play a lot of games on high, whereas others, such as BF3 you may have to turn down to medium settings.

Also, I would stay away from the y400 and y480 as they don't offer 1080p screens, which is a shame.

 

[hibbiejibbie3]

You make some good points that I can definitely agree with. I do play BF3 as well as Far Cry 3, Guild Wars 2, and other newer games as well as older games. I believe BF3 is probably the most "hardware crippling" game I play. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Usmcpi9504]

So just tolerate playing BF3 on low-med settings until you can afford another 650m to play it on high. You won't be playing it on ultra at 50+ fps either way (at least for those huge multiplayer maps with explosions going off everywhere). That would take a gpu such as the 680m or 7970.