[-Allen-]

For around the same price (~$840) I'm able to get either the Lenovo y410p with the 4700mq and a single GT750m or the y500 with the 3230M and SLi 650M's. Besides the obvious differences I've listed above, the y410 is 14inch at 1600x900 while the y500 is 1080p at 15.6, and slightly bulkier/heavier. Obviously, battery life will be shorter on the y500 as 2 GPUs are running.

Y500: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=80752&vpn=59359560&manufacture=Lenovo%20Consumer&promoid=1300

Y410p: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/ibmeppfriendca/StdAffinityPortal/en_CA/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=458&Code=59369925&category_id=6AFE7939B43C04357F8A18B2DFF36075 (price is actually $830 since the discount hasn't been applied)

Which would you guys suggest I get? This will be a college laptop with some occasional gaming. I feel somewhat inclined to get the y500 just because it seems like a better deal, but I wouldn't want a powerful gaming laptop to become an excuse for slacking off. I'm also a comp sci major, so I'm not sure if the larger resolution would be much more beneficial for coding or consequently if the weaker CPU gets in the way of running programs (this I honestly have no idea about).

 

[Lombax]

As a pretty active recommend-er on this subforum. Im stumped.

Personally I would go with the Y410p, because I prefer more processor over GPU, and I wouldn't be able to purchase a last-gen new computer. I think a smaller, lighter computer with better battery will also suit college much better. (yet I got a 17.3" gaming laptop for college....Im such a hypocrite).

But you have a tough decision ahead of you. BTW, the 650M SLI does NOT have Optimus, 3 hours MAX battery life. You should be able to stretch the Y410p to 5 hours.

 

[-Allen-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lombax

As a pretty active recommend-er on this subforum. Im stumped.

Personally I would go with the Y410p, because I prefer more processor over GPU, and I wouldn't be able to purchase a last-gen new computer. I think a smaller, lighter computer with better battery will also suit college much better. (yet I got a 17.3" gaming laptop for college....Im such a hypocrite).

But you have a tough decision ahead of you. BTW, the 650M SLI does NOT have Optimus, 3 hours MAX battery life. You should be able to stretch the Y410p to 5 hours.

Darn it... And here I was hoping that it was a clear choice to everyone but me.

From what I've read, the y410 doesn't have Optimus either, though it may be possible to manually switch between GPU's. Despite this, the battery life is apparently still not reaching 5 hours, but rather around 3-4 hours with causal use. 5 hours is probably the number Lenovo pulled when they let it idle with everything turned to a bare minimum. Surprising though the advertised 3 hours on the Y500 is accurate, since Notebookreview claimed that surfing the web got a little over 3 hours.

Would you still recommend the Y410 if the battery is actually only 30-60min longer lasting instead of 2 whole hours?

 

[Lombax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Allen-

Darn it... And here I was hoping that it was a clear choice to everyone but me.

From what I've read, the y410 doesn't have Optimus either, though it may be possible to manually switch between GPU's. Despite this, the battery life is apparently still not reaching 5 hours, but rather around 3-4 hours with causal use. 5 hours is probably the number Lenovo pulled when they let it idle with everything turned to a bare minimum. Surprising though the advertised 3 hours on the Y500 is accurate, since Notebookreview claimed that surfing the web got a little over 3 hours.

Would you still recommend the Y410 if the battery is actually only 30-60min longer lasting instead of 2 whole hours?

The Y410p has switchable graphics. Not Optimus, because it has to be done manually in nVidia control panel. Im pretty sure the SLI cannot switch to Intel HD at all. On the same thread owners said they could get 5 hours on Intel HD.

 

[-Allen-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lombax

The Y410p has switchable graphics. Not Optimus, because it has to be done manually in nVidia control panel. Im pretty sure the SLI cannot switch to Intel HD at all. On the same thread owners said they could get 5 hours on Intel HD.

Hmm... Do you think the same thing can be done if I physically remove one of the 650m's from the ultra bay? My main concern with this is durability though- I'm not sure if constantly adding and removing the GPU will degrade it significantly.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Allen-

Hmm... Do you think the same thing can be done if I physically remove one of the 650m's from the ultra bay? My main concern with this is durability though- I'm not sure if constantly adding and removing the GPU will degrade it significantly.

I would just go with the 4700 cpu laptop then. It could potentially be better for gaming anyways. If I recall, all mobile i5 cpus are 2 cores with 2 threads. Since more games are optimized for 4 full cores, it would probably be a smarter way to go.

Your links aren't working for me, but from what I gather, the Y410p is a 14 inch laptop running at 1600x900. For a single GTM 750, it might not be that under powered. Running games at the lower resolution might be fairly feasible for it.

I believe I have a GTM630 in my laptop running 1600x900 on a 17 inch laptop, and I can play skyrim just fine. So that laptop should crank out some good games.

Plus it is smaller and weighs less than the 15 inch, so carrying it around school will be easier.

The only thing that would drive me insane as a student about the 14 inch is that it does not have the number pad. IDK what you are majoring in, but if it is anything math or science related......yeah.....spend the extra money on the Y510p and get the i7 1920x1080 http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=2222137178&vpn=59375625&manufacture=Lenovo%20Americas&catid=10

 

[Shiftstealth]

A point i'd like to make that no one else has is that i would hate the ultabay idea. A video card exhausting hot air onto my hand while playing video games? I'll pass.

Also the quad core is a much safer choice. I tried BF3 on a few laptop i5's and they all get limited to 30-40 FPS. Regardless of the GPUs

 

[-Allen-]

Thanks guys!
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tjj226 Angel

I would just go with the 4700 cpu laptop then. It could potentially be better for gaming anyways. If I recall, all mobile i5 cpus are 2 cores with 2 threads. Since more games are optimized for 4 full cores, it would probably be a smarter way to go.

Your links aren't working for me, but from what I gather, the Y410p is a 14 inch laptop running at 1600x900. For a single GTM 750, it might not be that under powered. Running games at the lower resolution might be fairly feasible for it.

I believe I have a GTM630 in my laptop running 1600x900 on a 17 inch laptop, and I can play skyrim just fine. So that laptop should crank out some good games.

Plus it is smaller and weighs less than the 15 inch, so carrying it around school will be easier.

The only thing that would drive me insane as a student about the 14 inch is that it does not have the number pad. IDK what you are majoring in, but if it is anything math or science related......yeah.....spend the extra money on the Y510p and get the i7 1920x1080 http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=2222137178&vpn=59375625&manufacture=Lenovo%20Americas&catid=10

I was also considering the Y510p, but the price recently shot up from $850 to around 1k recently on Lenovo's site so I didn't want it anymore for obvious reasons. You bring up a good point with the numberpad though... I'm a computer science major so I'll be spending my fair share of time on the computer, but honestly, I don't remember a single moment in my life where I actually used the numberpad extensively since I'm so accustomed to just the regular line of numbers. I'm not sure if that will change in the next few years though.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiftstealth

A point i'd like to make that no one else has is that i would hate the ultabay idea. A video card exhausting hot air onto my hand while playing video games? I'll pass.

Also the quad core is a much safer choice. I tried BF3 on a few laptop i5's and they all get limited to 30-40 FPS. Regardless of the GPUs

I'm not TOO worried about the heat issue since the heatsinks at both sides seem pretty good.

I was under the impression that very few current games actually make good use of multicores, and that it would only really benefit games released after the next-gen consoles. Wouldn't a single 750m always be the bottleneck even if 8 threads were all utilized on the 4700mq though?

 

[Shiftstealth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Allen-

Thanks guys!
I was also considering the Y510p, but the price recently shot up from $850 to around 1k recently on Lenovo's site so I didn't want it anymore for obvious reasons. You bring up a good point with the numberpad though... I'm a computer science major so I'll be spending my fair share of time on the computer, but honestly, I don't remember a single moment in my life where I actually used the numberpad extensively since I'm so accustomed to just the regular line of numbers. I'm not sure if that will change in the next few years though.
I'm not TOO worried about the heat issue since the heatsinks at both sides seem pretty good.

I was under the impression that very few current games actually make good use of multicores, and that it would only really benefit games released after the next-gen consoles. Wouldn't a single 750m always be the bottleneck even if 8 threads were all utilized on the 4700mq though?

Edit: No the i7 4700mq is a very good cpu. I think its on par with like a desktop 2600k at stock.

Games coming out for the xbox one and ps4 will be made to work on 8 threads because they use an 8 core jaguar cpu.

 

[-Allen-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiftstealth

Edit: No the i7 4700mq is a very good cpu. I think its on par with like a desktop 2600k at stock.

Games coming out for the xbox one and ps4 will be made to work on 8 threads because they use an 8 core jaguar cpu.

Do you think that with newer games, a single 750m with the 4700mq would be on par with the i5+Sli 650m's just because the games are optimized to run on that many threads? I don't know too much on the subject, but I always assumed that once the GPU is running at 100% usage in games, a stronger CPU wouldn't make a large difference.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Allen-

Do you think that with newer games, a single 750m with the 4700mq would be on par with the i5+Sli 650m's just because the games are optimized to run on that many threads? I don't know too much on the subject, but I always assumed that once the GPU is running at 100% usage in games, a stronger CPU wouldn't make a large difference.

Linus did a video on this a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4PDoy-mi0A

 

[Tobiman]

I had the Lenovo Y500 i5 3230m and 650M SLi for 6 months approx. I just shipped it out to the new owner today. Only lost $25 on it and I doubt you can even consider that a loss after having it for that long. It ran ALL my games very well. You could always hook ti up to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, if you are worried about heat which isn't too bad. It does get hot though but it's mostly the main GPU not the one in the ultrabay.

IIRC, newegg has the i7 4700QM 750M SLi for $1100 approx which is the best gaming laptop deal atm. If you are tight on cash, the i5-3230M 650M SLi option isn't that far behind in terms of performance.

 

[Tobiman]

Funny enough, the person that bought it off me was going to give it to his son for college. Also, the Y500 is lighter than your usual 15" laptop because it's mostly made of thin plastic but you wouldn't know until you touch it.

 

[-Allen-]

Thanks to everyone who helped! I really wanted to get the Y500, especially after reading this:
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tobiman

I had the Lenovo Y500 i5 3230m and 650M SLi for 6 months approx. I just shipped it out to the new owner today. Only lost $25 on it and I doubt you can even consider that a loss after having it for that long. It ran ALL my games very well. You could always hook ti up to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, if you are worried about heat which isn't too bad. It does get hot though but it's mostly the main GPU not the one in the ultrabay.

IIRC, newegg has the i7 4700QM 750M SLi for $1100 approx which is the best gaming laptop deal atm. If you are tight on cash, the i5-3230M 650M SLi option isn't that far behind in terms of performance.

However, I had to go with the Y410 for the better battery life and portability. Figured if I wanted to do any serious gaming, I should wait until after I graduate and do it on a desktop.