Lenovo using optical bay drive for SLI module

Not sure if it's been discussed here. The Lenovo Y500 supports SLI 650m through an proprietary add-on module that uses up the optical bay.



It incorporates a sli connection from the mainboard to a connector at the backend of the bay. This is a pretty clever approach.

A MXM3.0b card could fit inside a 5" optical drive module. The heat dissipation for this will need to be well designed.

Do you think we will see manufacturers like Alienware, clevo, MSI, etc... doing something like this in the future? Clevo already has SLI notebooks, but those things are behemoths, easily being over 11lbs. This is doable in the 15 - 17" notebooks that only have one mxm slot.

 

I think that is going to run so hot unless it's got a intake on the bottom of the case.

Looks good however i don't see any other makers doing this.

 

I'd be surprised if it were possible with a high-end gpu like the 680m/7970m. Cooling would probably be an issue. One of the main reasons sli notebooks are so large and heavy is cooling, so I don't see this working for 15-17" gaming notebooks.

 

The Y500 has a fairly bulky chassis (1.4" thick) compared to similar mid-range laptops (most are closer to 1" these days), so perhaps the cooling is not so bad.

 

That's pretty thin for an sli notebook, even compared to high-end single card laptops like the M17x and NP9150. It's even thinner than the Sager NP6165, which only has a single 650m. Not saying the cooling is bad or anything, I'm actually pretty impressed that it handles two 650ms while being that thin.

 

No idea, but I would assume hopefully they've tested this feature. Is it possible dual 45W 650ms do not require as much cooling or space as a single 100W 680m? The Sager NP9150 is 1.69" thick, not much bigger than the 1.4" chassis on the Lenovo, and it is available with 680m.

In contrast a number of other comparable mid-range general purpose laptops shipping with a single 650m are significantly thinner than the Lenovo, for example the hp dv6-7200 Quad (1.15"), rMBP (0.95") and the Asus U500VZ (0.88"). Even the Razer Blade, which has a 75W 660m is only 0.88" thick.

 

Yeah, I was just thinking in terms of more traditional notebooks. Those "ultrabookish" laptops with dedicated gpus can have crappy thermals. Also, didn't know the 650m was only 45w (even though I used to have one lol.)

 

curious, how will the sli 650's compare to a single high end GPU? I had something similar in theory to this a few years back, my Toshiba X205, which had SLi 8600mGT's. Was definitely faster than a single 8600 most of the time, but wasn't a high end solution over all and had the normal SLi annoyances here and there. This Lenovo seems like the same thing with newer cards.... look forward to seeing performance.

 

Two 650ms is roughly on par with a 670mx. They both score around 3500 (Graphics score) in 3DMark 11.

 

There's also a fairly good price on the SLI-configured Y500 from Newegg now for those of you who are interested, at $900 with free shipping. Pretty solid for the price, I think.

 

Killer deal, assuming it's not a refurb. I can't think of another way to get more performance out of a laptop for $900.

 

Wow, that's a great deal. Only nitpick would be dual core i5 (Seems a little off with two GT650M's strapped to it), but really can't be beaten for under $900.

 

15" with 2xgpus is tottally possible. just remove the ODD. it occupies an insane amount of size and space compared to the notebook total volume.
this notebook shows how easy it is to design and produce an upgradable notebook. even in this limited and crippled capacity is still very profitable to sell them.
unfortunately lenovo won't sell other cards to upgrade the 650M in the future.
in a perfect world you could go to any store and buy a graphic card to add it to your notebook. just like you do with desktop graphic cards. all you need to do is to follow the standards like mxm that has been around for more then a decade.

 

I think if it were possible (or reasonable) to add 680m sli or 7970m cfx to a 15" notebook it would be done by now. Even 17.3" laptops sometimes have issues cooling dual gpus.

 

it's easy. just put 2x mxm cards next to each other, then add the cpu next to one of the cards, design the notebook around it and forget things like a huge battery, ODD, 3x 12.5mm HDD's. sure it won't be thin and light but it won't be a 18" monster.
that's a 17" sli notebook

and here's a 15" Clevo P150

tottaly fits

 

LOL insane deal, what the hell did not expect this in a thousand years, not by Lenovo.

 

single 670 offer better performance than 650sli
so why bother?

 

yeah why bother really. there isn't any real benefit... not even in size or power consumption or anything. but still, great concept. imagine if instead of a 650M you had a 670M or 680M. that would give a real boost.

 

Review Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Looks to be around the same performance as the old 675M. Micro-stuttering is shame, but for less than $1000, there's nothing else that offers the same amount of features and performance.

 

This was pretty much the consensus several years ago when I had the Toshiba w/ dual mid range 8600's... problem is a lot of games don't scale as well with sli so it was always a struggle. Single faster was the proven better choice.

Now dual high end cards are a different story but that doesn't apply here.

 

I guess because it's cheaper, perhaps?

I don't know, are there some laptops with 670MX available for $899?

 

imo AMD has better price performance gpu's that would make a better deal in other notebook. but still not bad for lenovo.

 

Although I'd rather get a laptop with a single, high-end GPU; I like ideas and features like these.

Makes me think of Lenovo's W700ds.

 

Only thing i would like would be to use soothing like this in a laptop that did not have a good gpu. pop it in gt 650m

 

It is a great deal for the performance. I like the idea, although I doubt they could put anything more than a 50-60W TDP GPU in there. As long as SLI drivers are solid, then why not? Definitely a lot better use of space than internal optical drive. But yeah dual core CPU is a bit of a bummer. Seems they should at least be able to fit the i7-3610/30QM in there for similar pricing to the dual core.

It also seems like no Optimus, so battery life probably not so great, but it won't have to fuss with switchable, so who knows. The 5400RPM HDD is also a bit of a downer too. Can't they throw in a 7200RPM at least?

 

It's actually a very solid gaming laptop considering the price, at least here in the dark North where we don't have options like Clevo, Sager etc.

My other options were pretty much Asus G-series, a base model with a single GTX 660M costing 100€ more. G-series is too bulky for me, weight being around 4 kilograms if not more.

My only complaint so far is the touchpad, but then again that's what i have a Cyborg 7 for.