STRONGLY considering buying this - want to know if it's as worth it as i think it is, or if i am fooling myself by seeing the bright and shiny specs. thank you!
p.s. i know it's refurb, i have had positive experiences with lenovo refurb in the past so it dont bother me
IdeaPad Y500 - Price $968; after tax and such close to $1000
IdeaPad Y500
Model Highlights
Part number: 59RF0253
Condition
Refurbished
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
Operating system
Windows 8 Standard 64 - English
Graphics
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Graphics (SLI)
Memory
16GB (2 X 8GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
Display
15.6" FHD (1920 X 1080) TFT color, VibrantView, LED backlight w/720p HD Camera
Pointing device
One-piece touchpad, multi-touch
Hard Drive
1016GB (1TB, 5400RPM and 16GB Solid State) Serial ATA Hard Drives
Optical Drive
No Optical Included
Battery
Lithium Ion 6-cell, 72Wh
Network Card
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 (2x2 BGN & BT4)
Bluetooth
Bluetooth
WWAN
No WWAN Supported
Finger Print Reader
No Fingerprint Reader
Warranty
1 Year Standard Depot Warranty
Form Factor
Laptop - Black
INCIDENTALLY, on another forum someone mentioned the following, i am posting his reply, and my response, which provide additional insight.
QUOTE-What do you plan on doing with that? The Sager 7352 is configured better for gaming and is priced a tad bit cheaper. The NP8230 comes with the 770M but is a little over 1k. I would go with those if your focus is gaming. If you want to use it at work, a Lenovo mgiht look better and may make a better choice considering they are priced similarly and the Lenovo might look better at work.
REPLY-i would like to do gaming (moderate, i suppose) + work, and i want a laptop good enough that i wont have to buy another for at least 5 years (or as close to that as possible) i am good at taking care of my stuff (my last laptop, an hp 8710p, lasted over 5 years. but its just TOO underpowered now)
i definitely would like something that will look nice and respectable, but also want the most bang for my buck.
also, i am confused by your suggestions - both of the computers you mentioned have the new 4th gen cpu, but fall short in most other specs without shelling out some serious dough.
for instance; y500 comes with 16gb, to get that in the sagers, you need to shell out a coupla hundy. hdd on the y500 is 1tb + an additional 16gbssd (not a hybrid either (which have their own issues) but an actual second drive) the sagers come with 750 non-ssd, to get any ssd or any 2nd hdd requires, again, xtra cash. even without bringing it up to the specs of the y500 it came out to over 1400 on the 8230 and over 1200 on the 7352 (thats before tax, mind you.) the graphics cards are very similar in the 7352 and y500 (you mentioned the 7352 as being cheaper? i dont understand. even the base model is more expensive) the 8230 is more impressive, but not massively so. both are tier 1, high end graphics solutions.
i am not stuck on the y500, i couldnt care less about it and dont want to sound like i do. in fact i was going to get a g73sw,until enough people advised against it that i decided it was worth shelling out a few extra dollars for a more modern rig.
is it really worth the extra money for haswell over ivy bridge? from my research (i admit i am no expert) it sounds like the difference between the two is underwhelming, most sites say you will see a small difference in applications, and an even smaller difference in gaming (10% at the low end, 20% at max. one place said 30% and got slammed by lots of people claiming it was not true) in any event, it seems haswell will be no more "future-proof" (what an inherently stupid concept vis-a-vis computers) than anything else, as many believe that intel will soon develop either A) a better architectured chip with advanced connections and cooling ability, or B) a chip with more cores. many seem to see haswell as a stepping stone to the next gen altogether. (I will grant that some mentioned that future applications will take advantage of certain features available to the haswell architecture, but again, most say that the improvement even that will top out at around the 30% range)
that is just based on my (again, meager) research abilities. i still respect the opinions given here (you guys were right about the g73sw) so i would like to hear back about this more. (in addition, 1k was really around my top range (i mean a hard 1k, like after tax and shipping 1k) if it was really a serious difference in value going down the line (meaning i will be kicking myself about not spending the extra few hundy in 3-4 years time) then i will overextend myself. i dont want to regret not doing it, as i wont be able to shell out this kind of money anytime again in the near future)
thank you!
I really appreciate the help!
p.s. i know it's refurb, i have had positive experiences with lenovo refurb in the past so it dont bother me
IdeaPad Y500 - Price $968; after tax and such close to $1000
IdeaPad Y500
Model Highlights
Part number: 59RF0253
Condition
Refurbished
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
Operating system
Windows 8 Standard 64 - English
Graphics
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Graphics (SLI)
Memory
16GB (2 X 8GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
Display
15.6" FHD (1920 X 1080) TFT color, VibrantView, LED backlight w/720p HD Camera
Pointing device
One-piece touchpad, multi-touch
Hard Drive
1016GB (1TB, 5400RPM and 16GB Solid State) Serial ATA Hard Drives
Optical Drive
No Optical Included
Battery
Lithium Ion 6-cell, 72Wh
Network Card
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 (2x2 BGN & BT4)
Bluetooth
Bluetooth
WWAN
No WWAN Supported
Finger Print Reader
No Fingerprint Reader
Warranty
1 Year Standard Depot Warranty
Form Factor
Laptop - Black
INCIDENTALLY, on another forum someone mentioned the following, i am posting his reply, and my response, which provide additional insight.
QUOTE-What do you plan on doing with that? The Sager 7352 is configured better for gaming and is priced a tad bit cheaper. The NP8230 comes with the 770M but is a little over 1k. I would go with those if your focus is gaming. If you want to use it at work, a Lenovo mgiht look better and may make a better choice considering they are priced similarly and the Lenovo might look better at work.
REPLY-i would like to do gaming (moderate, i suppose) + work, and i want a laptop good enough that i wont have to buy another for at least 5 years (or as close to that as possible) i am good at taking care of my stuff (my last laptop, an hp 8710p, lasted over 5 years. but its just TOO underpowered now)
i definitely would like something that will look nice and respectable, but also want the most bang for my buck.
also, i am confused by your suggestions - both of the computers you mentioned have the new 4th gen cpu, but fall short in most other specs without shelling out some serious dough.
for instance; y500 comes with 16gb, to get that in the sagers, you need to shell out a coupla hundy. hdd on the y500 is 1tb + an additional 16gbssd (not a hybrid either (which have their own issues) but an actual second drive) the sagers come with 750 non-ssd, to get any ssd or any 2nd hdd requires, again, xtra cash. even without bringing it up to the specs of the y500 it came out to over 1400 on the 8230 and over 1200 on the 7352 (thats before tax, mind you.) the graphics cards are very similar in the 7352 and y500 (you mentioned the 7352 as being cheaper? i dont understand. even the base model is more expensive) the 8230 is more impressive, but not massively so. both are tier 1, high end graphics solutions.
i am not stuck on the y500, i couldnt care less about it and dont want to sound like i do. in fact i was going to get a g73sw,until enough people advised against it that i decided it was worth shelling out a few extra dollars for a more modern rig.
is it really worth the extra money for haswell over ivy bridge? from my research (i admit i am no expert) it sounds like the difference between the two is underwhelming, most sites say you will see a small difference in applications, and an even smaller difference in gaming (10% at the low end, 20% at max. one place said 30% and got slammed by lots of people claiming it was not true) in any event, it seems haswell will be no more "future-proof" (what an inherently stupid concept vis-a-vis computers) than anything else, as many believe that intel will soon develop either A) a better architectured chip with advanced connections and cooling ability, or B) a chip with more cores. many seem to see haswell as a stepping stone to the next gen altogether. (I will grant that some mentioned that future applications will take advantage of certain features available to the haswell architecture, but again, most say that the improvement even that will top out at around the 30% range)
that is just based on my (again, meager) research abilities. i still respect the opinions given here (you guys were right about the g73sw) so i would like to hear back about this more. (in addition, 1k was really around my top range (i mean a hard 1k, like after tax and shipping 1k) if it was really a serious difference in value going down the line (meaning i will be kicking myself about not spending the extra few hundy in 3-4 years time) then i will overextend myself. i dont want to regret not doing it, as i wont be able to shell out this kind of money anytime again in the near future)
thank you!
I really appreciate the help!
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