Lenovo Y570 vs V570 (vs Asus?)

[aaron_c]

Hey guys, I'm going to be needing a new laptop soon and have a few key needs that I'll be looking for with it. I'll be traveling with it for work and gone for 1-2 weeks at a time, so it has to be a bit of a do-it-all laptop.

Key Differences:
Y570 GPU: 555m 1GB
V570 GPU: 525m 2GB

Storage: Optional 32/64GB SSD (Y570 only) + same HDD options as V570

- Which GPU will likely perform better overall? I will be using it for just about anything you can think of, from HD video to OpenGL metaverse programs such as Second Life (which seems more demanding on max settings than Battlefield 3, on my custom built PC, for some reason).

- What is the benefit to having the additional small SSD with the Y570? Faster boot/load times?

Asus also makes the N55SF, with a 555m 2GB GPU, which I've been looking at.

Anyone see a laptop that stands out between these three? If you have another suggestion, here is a criteria list:

1. Price: $1200ish would be my absolute max, would like to stay around/under $1000
2. Size: 15.6"
3. Screen Res: Unsure (don't know enough about the differences yet)
4. Use Environment: Needs to be portable and desktop-capable
5. Battery Life: Should always be near a power source, but 3-4 hours would be great.
6. Gaming: Occasionally, nothing serious, mostly things like Second Life as mentioned before (Nvidia GPU is a must for the OpenGL support, I'm told).
7. Uses: It will spend most of it's life multitasking like crazy. On the job it will just be doing some heavier word processing/excel/accounting technology stuff; downtime will be watching movies and videos with clearest possible image, Second Life, things like that.
8. Storage Capacity: not that big an issue, I carry a 1TB external in my bag always. 320-500GB would suffice.
9. No specific sites to order from, although I do like newegg.
10. Product Life: 4-5 years
11. Optical Drive: DVD, Bluray, writer probably not necessary
12. Brands: I like Asus and Lenovo for their reliability; sturdy construction is a must. Haven't been a fan of my HP or Toshiba laptops for this reason and for customer service (granted they have been lower end products).
13. Live in USA
14. Fast boot-up times would be fantastic.

 

[jaguarskx]

The GT 555 will out perform the GT 525. The Y570's GT 555 is actually an overclocked GT 550. Don't know about the Asus though. Having 2GB of RAM means nothing since it only comes in useful when playing games above 1920x1200 resolution. The GT 555 is too slow to handle that resolution so 2GB of RAM is pointless.

To the best of my knoledge the Y570 only has one resolution; 1366x768. The Asus N55SF has a choice of 1366x768, 1600x900 and 1920x1080; depending on the model or how you configure it. personally, on a 15.6" laptop I would get 1600x900 because it is comfortable for me to look at. I have not seen 1920x1080 on a 15.6" laptop so I don't know if text will be too small for me to read comfortably.

Gaming wise, the higher the resolution, the lower the performance. You can counter this by using lower resolution for games. There is a very small decrease in image quality and since the laptop's screen is small compared to a 24" monitor, the decrease should be even less noticeable. The GT 555 should be able to handle some games at 1600x900 with good frame rates; depending on the game. Metro 2033.... no.

High resolution makes multi-tasking much easier. I find it a bit annoying to multi-task on a 1366x768 resolution screen. 1920x1080 resolution allows you enough desktop space to view two documents side by side.

Watching HD movies is best on a 1920x1080 resolution screen because that is basically the native resolution of the movie. Playing HD movies on a lower resolution screen means there will be a slight hit to video quality. Generally you will not notice the difference unless you keenly look at two laptops with different resolutions playing the same movie.

On the other hand if you are watching a lower resolution movie, like a DVD, then the higher the resolution of the screen, the more the movie will be stretched to fit the screen. Stretching a movie has a bigger impact on video quality than shrinking it down to a lower resolution. You will likely notice the difference in video quality when playing a DVD movie in a windows at it's native resolution compared to stretching it out to fill the screen.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Y580 offers a 1920x1080 resolution screen option and it also come with a nVidia GT 650 which is more powerful than the GT 555. Roughly comparable or slightly faster than the older GT 560.

 

[jaguarskx]

SSD allows for faster load and save/shutdown times. If used to replace a HDD, then it also reduces power consumption of the laptop as a whole a little bit.

 

[aaron_c]

Looking at the Asus K53 series, might it be a better option than the Ideapads or the N55?

 

[cybersheep]

i have the lenovo y570 and i love it
ask me anything
the ssd is amazing because you dont actually have to save anything to it, it just caches your most opened programs (OS and all startup programs + 1 or 2 games)

 

[aaron_c]

i have the lenovo y570 and i love it
ask me anything
the ssd is amazing because you dont actually have to save anything to it, it just caches your most opened programs (OS and all startup programs + 1 or 2 games)

Awesome! What do you like most, and least, about it? Also, does it feel sturdy enough to travel with daily? My Toshiba Satellite L505 has been travelling with me 3-5 days a week for about 3-4 years now, and it's starting to show (in the form of chips in the paint/finish, creaks and rattles, fan noises, etc).

 

[cybersheep]

Awesome! What do you like most, and least, about it? Also, does it feel sturdy enough to travel with daily? My Toshiba Satellite L505 has been travelling with me 3-5 days a week for about 3-4 years now, and it's starting to show (in the form of chips in the paint/finish, creaks and rattles, fan noises, etc).

its definitely sturdy
i actually bought it to game on the go and it exceeds expectations for a laptop in my opinion, the ssd is my favourite part no doubt, boots up in 10 seconds and has a large hard drive aswell.
only downsides i can think of is there is only one exhaust fan on the side (left side) so if you put it near anything under load it will literally melt it, it actually melted my friends mouse
i sorta wish they also put an i5 in here and dropped the price because the i7 is over kill.

are u looking to game on it?

 

[aaron_c]

I don't think I will really do a whole lot of 'gaming' on it, but who knows. The only game I play is BF3 on my custom PC build + 37" LCD TV, so I just don't think it would be the same experience on a 15.6" laptop even if it could handle it.

I would like to be able to do Second Life which has the OpenGL (and gets the same or lower FPS on max settings than BF3 sometimes), as I do some content creation with programs like blender and such from time to time.

 

[aaron_c]

Best answer selected by aaron_c.