Help me pick a laptop, feeling Lenovo y500 series

Selphy

Distinguished
Aug 23, 2011
6
0
18,510
I've never really used one before but since I'm travelling and will be living abroad, I figure now is the time to get rid of my desktop and get something a bit more portable.

As for requirements, I'd like it to be able to play newer games in pretty high settings. Would like an SSD but that's not necessary. I don't need the top of the line stuff. Everything else I'll be using it for, work, typing up documents, etc doesn't call for extreme hardware.

From what I've been reading, the Lenovo y500 series is pretty good but I'm not sure which one to pick from within the line.
 

dangall209

Honorable
Jun 12, 2013
2
0
10,510
Depends how much your willing to spend and whether you can wait. Newegg had an excellent sale on the y500, the i5 with the GT650m GPUs i think, a couple of weeks ago. The sale is over now but will probably be back if you wait. I got the i7 with 8 gigs of ram and the GT650m GPUs. The ones on the Lenovo site have upgraded to a single new GPU however (GT750m) as opposed to the SLI in the older ones. The ones with the GT750m come in at a very nice $799 for the cheapest one (as of this writing anyway, its a temporary sale I think). The major difference between the models is probably the 16GB SSD for caching in the higher end ones. But if you don't care about that just get the $799 model. There is also a difference in ram (8GB for cheapest 16GB for best) but thats pretty cheap and easy to upgrade whenever you want. OH, i forgot the display in the $799 model is not as good as the next step up! 15.6" HD LED Glossy Wedge 1366x768 vs 15.6" FHD LED Glossy Wedge 1920x1080
 

Selphy

Distinguished
Aug 23, 2011
6
0
18,510


I dont' mind waiting. I'm trying to sell my PC at the same time. But I'd like to know what to look out for so I can potential snatch it up if I find it on sale.

Price-wise I'm hoping to spend at the most $1000 maybe? There's always wiggle room but that's my ideal spending.