Should I Get The Y580?

Right now I'm very close to pulling the trigger on the lenovo y580. It has everything I need: good build quality, fhd screen, good graphics card, looks nice (i like a simple, classy look), and good temperatures... except for the hard drive! I've heard that the hard drive overheats and while this won't be an immediate problem in a few years it might die. I live in the tropics, it isn't crazy hot but its really humid. Now I could solve this by buying an sdd which I am considering doing. However I don't want to lose all the storage that comes with the hdd so I will have to buy a external case for it and figure out how to transfer windows and programs to ssd and it will be a pain in the *** . I might not even be able to do it and I will have waster a couple hundred bucks.

Are there any laptops at a similar price point with maybe better build quality and heat handling? I don't mind sacrificing a bit of performance spec-wise, I would rather a solid laptop that will last me a good couple of years. If no one has any suggestions I will probably just grab the y580 and buy a cooler, maybe buy an ssd eventually.

 

i just picked up a 240GB mSATA SSD (Mushkin Atlas) and installed Windows clean.

extremely easy.

some good directions here in the forum, and the laptop is ridiculously fast. I couldn't be happier.

 

yea i love this laptop.. yea the drive heats up.. but thats all.. everything else stays cool and works amazing! replaced mine with an SSD and i couldnt be happier! only thing is for storage, i would say replace the cd/dvd drive with a HDD and put an SSD in the actual hard drive bay

 

Hello, do you think it is worth waiting for MSI GX60 over this laptop? Both seems to be at same price level, with Lenovo having better CPU and MSI having quite better GPU. I´ll be using it primarily for gaming so GPU might seem more important but GW2 and other MMO seems to be much more reliant on CPU than other types of games.

 

Hey thanks for the reply, could you possibly link me to some directions?

 

I believe this thread was being referred to:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/690046-lenovo-y580-clean-install-guide.html

 

Are there any good deals for a bit lower a price than the y580? Like maybe a laptop for a couple hundred dollars less with a hd screen, graphics card, ivy bridge processor, and good build quality? I just feel like $940 (barnes and noble discount) is a lot of money to put into a laptop. I'd rather pay like $700 - $800 and get a less powerful pc? Unless this is such a good deal that I shouldn't go for any less?

 

for your price, you can get an i7 with gt630m or 640m, 1366x lcd, dvd burner.

you'll probably have to keep checking Dell outlet.

yes, 940 is a lot of money. maybe you should just wait for lenovo's early black friday sale. last year, they had it in october.

 

Ok I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy the y580. The only thing putting me off is the hdd at this point. I don't think I'm going to put in an ssd, at least not while the hdd is still running. I will be doing gaming a few hours a week on a cooler. Is it reasonable to expect this laptop to last about 3 - 4 years (or more if possible) without the hard drive dying from overheating? If I regularly backup my information should I really be worried about this problem? I'm just wondering if this has been blown out of proportion or if its actually a deal breaker.

 

i think of it this way.

while 60C is a little too hot/warm, and I like to bich about it, no one really knows what effect it will have. It may last 1 year, 3 years, forever. who knows.
and if it dies, it may not necessarily be from heat.
The manufacturer of the 5400rpm hdd says operating temperature should be <=55C, while 7200rpm hdd should be <=60C.
I would hope an extra 5C isn't enough to kill a hdd, and it may not be an issue. But there is a correlation between excessive heat and eventual hdd failure. However, "eventual" is an unknown, and only a small percentage of all hdd's fail.
With a cooler, you may be increasing the life of the hdd, but even a small percentage of cooler hdd's fail.
If you're gaming only a few hours a week, your hdd will remain cool the rest of the time.

It's really a 'try your luck, hope for the best' kind of situation.

if you backup your info, this is but a small concern.

 

How late in the month did the lenovo sale come out?

And thanks for the hdd info, I think I will take my chances with the hdd, at least for a year or two.

 

don't remember. google lenovo black friday 2011. but it was in october