Y560 0646-2EU (i5 and SSD)

I've been looking for a new laptop for college and had it narrowed down to the y460, 560, asus k42j and acer 4820tg.

I finally chose the y560 due to the larger screen, faster memory, faster hard drive, and relatively light weight. The model offered on lenovo's site has an i7 720 and 500gb 7200 rpm drive. I came across a slightly different model not offered on their site which has a core i5 450, 32 gb SSD and 500gb 5400 rpm drive, I think this would be perfect for me as I don't need the performance of an i7 and prefer more battery life, the ssd is also an added bonus. Both are the same price, around $970.

Would this model support graphics switching between the 5730 and the integrated graphics of the processor?

 

That processor does have integrated video, so unless Lenovo artificially castrated it, switchable graphics should be supported.

 

what is switchable graphics?

 

Thanks for replies, I have another question, the SSD and hard drive aren't independent, it's the "RapidDrive" feature which is some sort of hybrid using the pci-e slot while the hdd uses the sata port. I've read on the lenovo forums that the OS is actually installed on the hdd rather than the ssd, is there a way to manually install the os and certain applications/files onto the ssd manually?

edit: About the switchable graphics, do all laptops with core i3/i5 and discrete graphics support this or is it something enabled by the manufacturers, or something else?

 

It depends on the graphics card. For example some of the new nvidia cards automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics, but ati cards have to be switched manually. The cpu must have integrated graphics, which the i7's do not have. I thought the rapiddrive automatically took heavily used data and copied it to the SSD to boot faster.

 

it allows you to switch between integrated and discrete gpu.

 

The model I'm looking at has an i5, I'm guessing there will be a way to switch manually in the ATI control panel or something like that. Rapiddrive looks promising, if the y560 supports switchable graphics then it would be an easy decision with the rapiddrive included on the i5 model, however if it's not supported I may as well go for the i7 since the battery life won't be too much different due to the ability to shut off unused cores (is this correct?). There is a deal on tigerdirect for $899 with the i7, I could get this and simply buy a separate ssd.

 

Yes, there is a switch on the laptop that allows you to switch graphic cards and can also be done by right clicking on the desktop and selecting "Configure switchable graphics."


And by the ATI control panel like you said.