Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 and Y400 Announced - Dual Graphics Capabilities

I was told that the ultrabays will be available at a later date o.o

 

I am still hesitant on how things will work. Has anybody on put an order and which version?

 

I'm holding off until the sli model has some sort of coupon. 1,500 is way too much.

 

lenovo offered Y500 with 20.0GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz, is it true?!!
it means Y500 has 3 slots for ram?

 

Quick FYI - the user manuals and service guides are up on Lenovo's site - the user manual describes how to remove the ultrabay units but no info on how they work.

 

Sure hope so! But think it might be in the direction of 4GB onboard (soldered) and 2x8G) to plug in in the two slots.
I still think the specs on the lenovosite are correct (16GB IdeaPad Y500 - Powerful Gaming Laptop (US)) but untill someone opens one laptop and checks, we don't know nothing... (fingers crossed)

 

I think all of the models are SLI capable, its just that specific model already has a second graphics card installed into the ultrabay (notice that it doesn't come with an optical drive).

What I really want is a y500 model that has a 1080p screen but doesnt come with the unnecessary 20GB memory and is a little cheaper.... memory i can upgrade on my own but screen quality I cannot.

 

per the user manual - there are only two memory slots - see my post about the service manual

 

20GB of RAM??? i swear something isnt adding up right, between the price and lenovo hiding the way this thing works,something just seems really fishy with this laptop, and i have a really bad feeling about it

 

Again...see my post. If there is 20 gb max then four is soldered on. There are only two replacable mem slots.

Sent from my super awesome phone thingy.

 

Riceroni,

What I really want is the better gpu for gamming... I was about to pull the trigger on the y580, but then I saw the y500 with sli.

So your saying I can get the cheaper model and have sli? I want to stay in the 1,000$ mark.

 

Explosion-

Well SLI is just a parallel processing technology for graphics cards. Since the y500 comes with the 650m pre-installed, and the ultrabay is marketed to be able to accommodate another graphics card, I dont see why you couldnt just buy the cheaper model and then install another gpu thru the ultrabay and have SLI. The only thing is, you are going to have to buy the ultrabay accessories from lenovo separately, which might cost a fortune...

 

What does anyone need 20GB of RAM for? Can any game use that much RAM? I don't do video editing but is that what it's for? Seems like a crazy amount of RAM to me. Do any of you need that much RAM for your apps/software, and if so what are those apps?

 

1920x1080 on 15.6" screen would result in 141 ppi or about a .18 dot pitch(I used this calculator DPI Calculator / PPI Calculator which btw is pretty cool!). Wouldn't text and icons be extremely small, and maybe too small on that screen? Or does it render it larger than the calculator suggests? The 1366x768 would be about 100 ppi or .25 dot pitch which may be a better size for regular viewing. What do you all think? My MacBook Pro 13" is about 113ppi or .22 dot pitch which at times is too small for my liking, but I have adjusted to it and sometimes have to enlarge text to make it easier on the eyes.

Also, what happens if I play a 1080-HD movie on the 1366x768 screen, will the graphics driver or player seamlessly convert it to 1366x768?
Thanks.

 

I think that 20 GB of ram are totally overkill. You may need this amount just if you're using your computer for some scientific simulation software or some other really memory hungry task. 4GB is still fine for some time (OSes are becoming memory hog as well..) I would go for 6-8

1080p is always better than a 720p IMHO. The text will be in general more crisp and if it's too small you can always scale up the text, if you've a 720p you are stuck with that resolution regardless. The only advantage to choose a 720p is because it's cheaper.
For the 1080p movie thing, yeah it's just automatically converted, no problem at all.

BTW. For canadian users, Lenovo has updated the page, now it shows offers for the FHD configuration (!!!!!) and est shipping date is on 28th Nov!

Has anybody any info about the build quality? I've heard that the Ideapad 580 have a really filmsy metal cover. I really like the dark metal look of the Y500 but I really don't want something thin and filmsy.

 

@gabriele.lanaro Thanks for your input! The text of the x768 screens I recently looked at did appear to be a little raw. The store didn't have any 1080 notebooks for me to compare. Thanks again.

 

Looks like the price for the base model y500 is now 849$ usd and the y400 749$ but the sli version is still pretty high

Considering the prices are the same, but the extra upgradability of the y500, is the y580 worth getting now?

Edit: Yep the specs are the same aside from the GT650/GTX660.

 

Lenovo site says y500 battery life is 3 hours? I am on the fence to get Y580 and wanted to know apart from the GTX660m on the Y580 is there anything else I am missing or little less on the Y500. Looks like Y500 doesn't have the HD Graphice 4000. Is that correct or they are not mentioning it.

Thanks for your response

 

As far as i know doesn't the i7 chipset come with HD4000?

 

Thanks Ronny. I thought so as well but a battery life of 3 hours made me think if that isn't the case. Also how does Gt650m compare with the GTX660m. Will there be a huge difference and very minimal that we won't notice.

 

Same hardware, different clocks in favor of the gtx660 roughly 10-15% faster than the gt650 but the 650 can easily overclock to the 660.

 

I think that Y580 have slightly better specs and more battery life. To justify the price the Y500 should better materials, deaign and build quality.

I can't understand why they didn't put a gtx660 and why it has a so poor battery life

 

Sorry but i didn't have the time to read all the pages in the topic.

I was thinking to sell my DV6 with AMD Dual graphics and go to Y580.

But i realized that i want something more compact and more mobile. I was ready to buy 3 days back a Y480.

Does anyone know - because the most important part is this one - if the new forthcoming Y400 besides the SLI capability has DDR5 on the GPU part ?

Because if it doesn' t it will be a big fail for gaming. GT650 according to NVIDIA comes with DDR3 and DDR5

Also since GT650 and GTX660m are similar items with Kepler core we have any chance if we flash the GT650M to

GTX660M ?

 

Has anyone seen benchmarks for gt655m sli?

 

i can't find one to save my life >.>

 

Same. The performance of the 560m SLI combination is about on a level of a single GeForce GTX 580M. So I would assume 650m SLI is in the ballpark of 675m. If this is the case I would probably buy lenovo y500 over clevo p150em or msi gx60. I like concept of ultrabay, prefer lenovo's design, and lesser weight. Plus I haven't had any issues with my current laptop y460.

With barnes & noble discount model with SLI is 1300; hopefully next week's discounts will bring it down by 100-200$

 

Guys, is there any info whether the 650m in Lenovo's y500 are DDR3 or DDR5?

 

Hey guys i thought i might add a note that lenovo changed the amount of RAM from 20gb to 16gb which makes more sense now, sill an over kill but it makes more sense

IdeaPad Y500 15.6" Laptop | Shop | Lenovo | (US)

 

does the y500 have any 2nd hdd slots, or is it only possible to get a 2nd hdd from the ultrabay or w.e

also i dont see and y500s that have the gt 655m



ohya and does anyone know that way to get like a 5-10% discount or something on the products? i remember seeing a way to get a discount on some forums but i forgot what it was.
EDIT: nvm i think it was that barnes and noble thing, dunno if it works for canadians lol

Now i dont know if i should buy the laptop now or wait; not really sure when the discounts are going to expire ><

 

Hey can anybody tell me about this barnes and noble discount thing and how to get it?

 

Barnes and Noble Gold | Lenovo | (US)

You're supposed to be a teacher, student, etc. but they don't seem to regulate it so just about anyone can sign up. It can double the coupon savings in some cases. Just create an account and log in.

 

OK thanks. And does anybody know how/where i can get the 2nd GT650M to put in the ultrabay?

 

No one knows yet lol

 

Do u guys think itd be a good idea to buy it now when its on sale? or should i wait til black friday?

 

I've decided to wait until black Friday/cyber Monday. Bought my current Lenovo 2 years ago on cyber Monday with big discount, hopefully, there will be some this year.

 

Hi guys,i am considering to buy laptop these days but not in turkey my brother is gonna come from san francisco a month later so i want him to buy a laptop for me.i ve just learnt a day in usa which is called black friday(shopping day) so on that day maybe laptops ll be sold cheaper.
Might lenovo shop discount on that day for y500 or y580?or on 26th y500 ll be available on other website for cheaper price(under 850$)?thank you in advance

 

does this work for the canadian site, or is there anything similar for canada

 

This dutch site sells the y500 with gddr5 memory on the 650m, I'm not sure wheter it is true.
Lenovo 15.6" Y500-MBG2BMH - i7-3630QM/8GB/1TB en 16GB

 

I do believe since it'll be sli'd they are gona make em gddr5 but still no solid info out yet dammit lenovo -.-

 

The US site has the SLI model available, with the i7-3632QM 2.2GHZ processor, 16GB ram, and of course no optical drive. However there is no discount on this model at the time of this posting. Unfortunately for me, Canada does not yet offer the SLI model.

Im wondering if you order the SLI version, is it also possible to order the optical drive ultrabay addon so you can switch it out when you need it, or would it be better to buy an external drive?

Ive been following this forum here: Y500 FHD+ i7+GT650M dual GPUs@RM3799 in MY which has been updated progressively since the announcement in August. It has unboxing images and additional info apparently leaked from a Lenovo insider in China.

 

It seems that in this chinese forum there is some more info regarding the Y500 (google translated version):

Google Translate
I still haven't found anything regarding the inclusion of the HD4000, I'd really like to have one of them (better linux drivers compared to nvidia drivers -- no suspend to ram). Do you know if all the i7 CPUs come with the HD 4000, and if it's likely for the Y500 to have the possibility to choose one or another?

Ugh I should learn chinese!

 

Is it just me or the exhaust are on the right side and most are right handed users with their mouse and will feel hot air coming out of the right side lol

 

Stock vs Stock. You can't really say the gt 650m can be overclocked to gtx 660m levels because then the gtx 660m can also be overclocked beating the gt 650m OC.

so GTX 660m > Gt 650m regardless if its stock vs OC

 

Is this legit:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,LENOVO INVALID score: P3621 3DMarks

dual 650m SLI = SCORE P3621

 

I dont quite think thats so great, how much performance over t a single 660m

 

So... just afer I ordered this laptop some bechmarks and tests on this forum: ideapad.it168.com/thread-2722558-1-1.html - Translator

Everything seems good except for the fact that it seems that it's not possible to see the integrated HD 4000 card (optimus thing). And I think this is also the reason for the ridicolous battery life. I think that this is due to the fact that the laptop is set up to use SLI and the switchable graphics and SLI aren't compatible with each other.

For this reason I'm cancelling the order and I'm taking the Y580 instead of the Y500 no-SLI. I hope they'll let me cancel the order, after all it's passed just one day... finger crossed

 

Just ordered the SLI verion with the Black Friday coupon for $1300 after taxes. Im really concerned about the integrated HD4000 CPU and whether it works with the SLI so I was wondering what is the return policy if i don't open the case?

One thing I did find interesting was if you go to the driver support site from lenovo under graphic drivers it list drivers for both the INTEL GPU and the Nvidia GPU so maybe I can try my best to hold off opening the package when it does arrive.

I really wanted the Y400 with sli and 1080 screen but i guess by the time that happens no more black friday prices...

 

SLI benchmarks are pretty good so I bought sli version for 1,161.75 plus taxes. Pretty good configuration for that price.

 

I'm searching even for more info regarding the HD 4000 mistery. From the same chinese forum I've found this:

ideapad.zol.com.cn/60/160_592851.html - Translator

That the installation guide for windows 8. The drivers for the intel HD 4000 are provided but (it seems) he wasn't able to istall them. I don't speak chinese so unfortunately so I can't tell for sure. (if someone does, PLEASE help us). I really don't know what to think

 

looks legit

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P3634 3DMarks

about the same as 1x gtx675m, which was expected.


However, i don't know about realworld performance of SLI.

for example, 3dmark will score favorably for AMD radeon crossfire, but realworld performance is total crap.