I'm looking at the lenovo y410p but feel conflicted...

[Promit Ghosh]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

 

[Y0GI]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

Can you gey by with 480 GB total storage? I know that I couldn't.

Can you afford an additional $300? Only you can decide. If it were me, I'd go with the caching option.

Good luck!

Yogi

 

[Promit Ghosh]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

Can you gey by with 480 GB total storage? I know that I couldn't.

Can you afford an additional $300? Only you can decide. If it were me, I'd go with the caching option.

Good luck!

Yogi

hmmm I can get by with 480 but I'd rather save 300 if the speed is the same and I end up with more storage. while spending less. If the power consumption is significantly different and much lower on one of the setups I'd definitely lean towards that.

 

[Y0GI]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

Can you gey by with 480 GB total storage? I know that I couldn't.

Can you afford an additional $300? Only you can decide. If it were me, I'd go with the caching option.

Good luck!

Yogi

hmmm I can get by with 480 but I'd rather save 300 if the speed is the same and I end up with more storage. while spending less. If the power consumption is significantly different and much lower on one of the setups I'd definitely lean towards that.

The SSD will definitely be the fastest and consume the least power.

Yogi

 

[Promit Ghosh]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

Can you gey by with 480 GB total storage? I know that I couldn't.

Can you afford an additional $300? Only you can decide. If it were me, I'd go with the caching option.

Good luck!

Yogi

hmmm I can get by with 480 but I'd rather save 300 if the speed is the same and I end up with more storage. while spending less. If the power consumption is significantly different and much lower on one of the setups I'd definitely lean towards that.

The SSD will definitely be the fastest and consume the least power.

Yogi

Considering that I'd be just fine with 480 gb, would it be worth the 300 to get the full SSD instead of buying the ssd cache + hdd? The cache + hdd cost $50 more than just the hdd, if that factors into your decision?

 

[jaguarskx]

The SSD will make the laptop feel more responsive because read / write speeds are much higher compared to a HDD. The SSD cache is will only improve performance if the data the CPU is looking for is in the SSD cache. If it's not there, then it needs to access the HDD.

If you want fast boot times and you want programs to load quickly, then go for the SSD. It will not improve game performance other than load times. I think a laptop with a SSD can boot into the Win log in screen in under 15 seconds vs. probably 45 - 60 seconds with a HDD.

 

[jaguarskx]

The SSD will make the laptop feel more responsive because read / write speeds are much higher compared to a HDD. The SSD cache is will only improve performance if the data the CPU is looking for is in the SSD cache. If it's not there, then it needs to access the HDD.

If you want fast boot times and you want programs to load quickly, then go for the SSD. It will not improve game performance other than load times. I think a laptop with a SSD can boot into the Win log in screen in under 15 seconds vs. probably 45 - 60 seconds with a HDD.

 

[Y0GI]

I'm really really not sure. I've heard of a multitude of problems, from a bad battery life (<4 hours just doesn't cut it for me, especially when we're only talking about normal use and not gaming of any kind) to wifi issues, so I'm really hesitant about getting this laptop.

Spec-wise it's a great bang-for-buck and that's really the main reason I'm looking at it; no other laptop offers what it does sub-1k in pricing.

Another question is about specs themselves.

Would it be better to get a 1 TB drive with 24 GB SSD caching or go for a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD?

The one with ssd caching is 850 bucks, but if i go for getting a 480 gb SSD then it's going to cost me an additional 300 dollars.

Can you gey by with 480 GB total storage? I know that I couldn't.

Can you afford an additional $300? Only you can decide. If it were me, I'd go with the caching option.

Good luck!

Yogi

hmmm I can get by with 480 but I'd rather save 300 if the speed is the same and I end up with more storage. while spending less. If the power consumption is significantly different and much lower on one of the setups I'd definitely lean towards that.

The SSD will definitely be the fastest and consume the least power.

Yogi

Considering that I'd be just fine with 480 gb, would it be worth the 300 to get the full SSD instead of buying the ssd cache + hdd? The cache + hdd cost $50 more than just the hdd, if that factors into your decision?

Are you referring to a "Hybrid" drive (SSHD)? If so, Seagate has some data that shows that the SSHD is "almost" as fast as an SSD, BUT the SSHD will still consume "almost" as much power as a HDD, which is significantly more than an SSD does.

Yogi

 

[jaguarskx]

The IdeaPad series has a mSATA port that allows the installation of a mSATA SSD drive to be used for caching purposes.

 

[Promit Ghosh]

I'll probably go for the SSD; I think I'd like the constant snappiness better since I don't need all the space.

However, is this laptop worth it? I've heard of a multitude of wifi issues and really poor battery life, even poorer than other laptops in its class with similar specs for some reason o.o

 

[whyso]

DO NOT go for the SSD. You have a Msata port. Just buy a 128/256 GB Msata drive and put it where the 24 GB caching drive was. This way you get fast performance (obviously install windows and programs on SSD) and lots of space. Power use will be a little higher though.

 

[Promit Ghosh]

DO NOT go for the SSD. You have a Msata port. Just buy a 128/256 GB Msata drive and put it where the 24 GB caching drive was. This way you get fast performance (obviously install windows and programs on SSD) and lots of space. Power use will be a little higher though.

I don't think the lenovo has an msata port; it has the NGFF (M.2) which is extremely hard to find on the market.

Also, after doing some more reading, if you don't get the laptop with the caching drive, lenovo removes it in order to cut costs, so you have to buy the caching one if you want caching, and if you buy it was just the 1TB HDD then there won't be an NGFF port.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Yeah, I've done some research and confirm that the new IdeaPad have switch from mSATA to M.2. Perhaps M.2 drives will become a bit more widely available later on.

I don't know if Lenovo has two mobos for the IdeaPad laptops (with M.2 and without M.2), but I do know that Dell do use two slightly different mobos for their laptops. If you order a Dell laptop with a SSD cache then you get the mobo with the mSATA port. If you opted no to go for the SSD cache, then the mobo used does not have a mSATA at all.

 

[Promit Ghosh]

^^^

Yeah, I've done some research and confirm that the new IdeaPad have switch from mSATA to M.2. Perhaps M.2 drives will become a bit more widely available later on.

I don't know if Lenovo has two mobos for the IdeaPad laptops (with M.2 and without M.2), but I do know that Dell do use two slightly different mobos for their laptops. If you order a Dell laptop with a SSD cache then you get the mobo with the mSATA port. If you opted no to go for the SSD cache, then the mobo used does not have a mSATA at all.

i believe this applies for the lenovo laptop as well

 

[whyso]

DO NOT go for the SSD. You have a Msata port. Just buy a 128/256 GB Msata drive and put it where the 24 GB caching drive was. This way you get fast performance (obviously install windows and programs on SSD) and lots of space. Power use will be a little higher though.

I don't think the lenovo has an msata port; it has the NGFF (M.2) which is extremely hard to find on the market.

Also, after doing some more reading, if you don't get the laptop with the caching drive, lenovo removes it in order to cut costs, so you have to buy the caching one if you want caching, and if you buy it was just the 1TB HDD then there won't be an NGFF port.

Really? Did not know that. I have a lenovo y580 and was able to drop a 256 GB plextor drive in no problem despite not ordering a caching model. They must have changed it for newer models.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Yeah, it started with the Y410p and Y510p which is why I initially thought they had mSATA ports.

 

[jaguarskx]

I you want the ability to upgrade to a large m.2 SSD drive, then your only option is to order the Y410p with a SSD cache. However, I recommend you wait for prices to fall on m.2 SSD drives because they are expensive now. Crucial sells a 120GB mSATA SSD for $110. I have seen a similar capacity Crucial m.2 SSD listed for $240.

If the battery life is simply too short, then you will have to look at other laptops. Or purchase a 2nd battery from Lenovo probably for $80 - $100 so you can swap batteries when the 1st one runs low.

 

[Promit Ghosh]

hmm...

in the end I just need a laptop that can play League of Legends and Combat Arms, so if there's anything out there that can do that and get a solid 6 hours battery life I'm definitely open to suggestions!

 

[Promit Ghosh]

ahh nvm!

hey, i just found out about lenovo's new t440 series that will come out this month (hopefully)!

it has a nvidia gt720 and a quad core processor, as well as 12 hours of battery life without their life extension tech where you can hot-swap batteries since the laptop has integrated and detachable batteries (so 2 total).

it's amazing stuff o.o

 

[jaguarskx]

The new ThinkPad T are not expected to come out until November from my research. I am interested in the T540 myself.