Y580 Build Quality & using a laptop as your main computer?

New comer to the Notebook review forums here, sup everyone.

I've got a quick question for everyone concerning the Y580 and Lenovo laptops in general.

I'm in need of a new desktop computer and I'm contemplating the idea of purchasing a high end graphics capable laptop like the Y580 to use as my main computer, seeing as I'm increasingly becoming mobile. Lenovo probably has the best build quality of any Windows Laptop manufacturer and my biggest concern is heat dissipation. I read this review and as I suspected a CPU/GPU heavy weight like the Y580 can reach some blisteringly high temperatures under "extreme" circumstances*.

*I'm aware that the Extreme Circumstances were a benchmark.

My question is this, would running a laptop like the Y580 for 6 to 12 hours a day, 365 days a year for 4-6+ years destroy this laptop? (I'd probably invest in a cooling pad as well)

(100% yes I'm sure..) But my question is concerning Lenovo's build quality. Has anyone used a previous Lenovo laptop as a main computer? If so, is it still functional? And has anyone ever fried their previous Lenovo laptop because of overuse? Was it the CPU or GPU that died?

My current desktop 5 years old and needs replacement. Even worse is my laptop, which is a first generation netbook with an Atom Z270. (It lags opening pdf documents) Do I kill two birds with one stone, or will the two birds kill me?

Thanks everyone!

 

I run my Y570 24/7 on HIGH PERFORMANCE it's stable as a rock

I've owned many notebooks before

Asus G73Sw
Toshiba Satellite L655
Toshiba Satellite L750
HP DV5

this by far has the highest build quality!

Go for it
the Y580 could only be better than the Y570

 

My wife and I have had laptops as our only machines for 7+ years.

Note: I am speaking in generalities not about Lenovo's specifically here... but as long as you
a) keep the air vents reasonably clean of dust
b) don't put them (by accident) in a laptop bag without sleeping/turning off
c) don't use them on your lap (or worse on a pillow on your lap!) without a cooler

components like the GPU and CPU are generally fine.

The components that tend to go out after a number of years are the moving components: fan/hdd/hinge joint and the parts that go in and out (power supply connector soldered on motherboard and headphone jacks, etc.

Note that generally the Nvidia 660m in the y580 isn't "high end graphics" in that it's the top of the line model that can play all games on ultra and will be able to for the next couple of years! If you are a hardcore gamer (which it doesn't sound like you are) I'd spring for system with an AMD 7970m or wait for more models to be released (something in between the 660m and 680m maybe)

That being said I dig the 660m as a upper middle range card that is very power efficient (not as hot) although I've been waiting for more reviews of the y580 cooling system (and people repasting their GPUs) before I pull the trigger. I was seeing reports of Asus laptops with 660m's running furmark with GPU temps ~20 degrees cooler for instance. (Although from everything I've read Lenovo overall has better built quality then Asus)

 

Agree with all the previous comments. You should be able to get 4-6 years as long as its taken care of. If you do heavy gaming on it it will not last as long. Heat is the one thing that irritates me about many laptops. They just do not cool down properly. I am returning the HPDV7 because of its heat problems. I played Bioshock an older game on it and it got extremely hot within a few minutes. Otherwise it was a great laptop. Extreme heat WILL shorten the life of the laptop by a couple years. Of course you really do not have to worry so much about all this if you do mostly web surfing,

I may get the Lenovo as well once we get some people here posting their reviews. Otherwise I may just go back to a desktop and get a tablet for portability. I just dont want to spend $1000+ on something that will only last 2-3 years.

 

User reviews should start coming in soon. My 580 will be here on Monday and I will be writing something up on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

I'm really interested in the build quality. This is my first Lenovo and hopefully I won't be disappointed.

 

I'm currently using a Y570 as my main computer. It's a solid build, although I did have to send it back for repairs after two months. It's now been 4 months since then and it's working fine.

I wouldn't recommend it if you go mobile a lot. It's heavy and the battery life isn't the best. It's definitely more of a portable desktop replacement than a "Road Warrior" class laptop.

If you want quality, consider the Thinkpad line. I have a T61 from 2007 that's still running good. Those laptops are built like tanks.

 

Thanks everyone! I haven't been home much over the past few days, so bare with my sporadic responses.

Good to know. I have a friend who bought a Toshiba Satellite in 2007 and it only lasted him two years. First the hinges broke, then the keys began popping off and finally the screen went out. Can't say he took the best care of it, but it really felt "cheap" anyways.

I have a buddy whose business supplied him with a Lenovo Thinkpad and I even though it was plastic, it felt well made. And that was over a year ago, so it made that big of an impression on me.

After I made this post I was looking at the unreleased GTX 680M, which I didn't even knew existed in a mobile form. AMD 7970m laptops are made by a few miscellaneous brands, none that I'm familiar with, so build quality worries me. Plus, the prices are a bit up there.

Gaming? I use to be a hardcore gamer, but I gave all that up. Too much wasted time.

I'd still like to be able to play Battlefield 3 and Ultra graphics would be nice, but I could probably survive with high settings. My plans are to purchase a 2560x1440 monitor and I was going to hook it up to the Y580 via a HDMI to DVI converter. (Both are digital, easy stuff) I do a lot of programming these days and big displays are always a plus. I obviously don't need much graphics power for writing code, but I do a lot of graphic design as well. My current computer can't even render 1920x1080 video! (It can, but it takes over an hour to do 10 minutes of footage)

A) I'm pretty crazy about that, I use to repair computers when I was younger and living in a dry climate, that was something I always stressed to people. Clean out your ducts!!
B) Eh, I did this once with my netbook and freaked out. It got really hot for a tiny machine.
C) I'll have to work on the "lap" thing, although I usually am using a tablet when I'm in a position like that. Getting a cooling fan will be my first investment.

20* cooler is a HUGE deal. I'll take the 660M over anything if that's the case.

Thanks for the information, very reassuring.

I take good care of all of my electronics. (I die a little inside when people drop their smartphones) But there's only so much you can do when it comes to heat.

That's what I'm worried about, a laptop like the DV7 which has a tendency to overheat. Luckily, Ivy Bridge is pretty energy efficient when running at stock clock speeds, same with the GTX 660m.

If I get the Y580, it'll be more like a desktop that I can use as a laptop, than a laptop I use as a desktop.

Likewise, I guess I just need to wait for some review to roll in.

Can't wait to read it! I hope it runs cool.

This is almost exactly what I wanted to hear. (Minus the repairs part, but that happens)

I currently am not "very" mobile, but I foresee it happening in the near future.

----

If I get the Y580, I'm going to swap out the internal HD with a Crucial m4 256GB SSD, throw the 1TB HD in a USB3.0 case, eSata to USB 3.0 for my external RAID, use a HDMI to DVI for a 2560x1440 monitor and do VGA out to a 1920x1080 monitor. (VGA @ 1080, ew, I know)

I'll be down grading the eSata drive and 1080i monitor to a standard lower than what they're rated. So that's a bummer.

Also, if I was going to build a PC, I was going to do a GTX 680, 2011 socket mb with triple SLI support, a 3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (Don't judge me) and a dual radiator liquid cooling system. So I'm torn between computer rig of the gods versus damn nice portable laptop. The biggest downside to the build-your-own PC is that it's a lot of work and I'm lazy. The pro? Super customization.

I have this stupid complex that I'd like to get the best of both world, but I can't. As of the present, I'm leaning towards a desktop, because I know I'll fry the Y580 if I use it as a desktop. I already have to overclock my fans on my current desktop because it'll overheat when I run Photoshop/Illustrator and am testing graphic intense CSS3 elements that strain my CPU.

Eh, I'll just wait for now and keep the Crucial m4 on my desk to remind me of what's in store. *Waiting for reviews*

 

The other thing I would consider is that whenever these new product lines come out, there always seems to be major problems. If you look back far enough, there were tons of complaints about the Y570 (although actually, there still are). I bought my Y570 several months after the line started, and aside from that motherboard replacement it's been fine (none of that GPU stuttering or other problems that people report).

So you may want to consider waiting a few months before going with the Y580.

 

I hear you, I'd like to cross reference at least 3 or 4 reviews and hear what people are talking about before taking the dive.
*As I sit here staring at the Crucial m4 I bought on sale*

I'll probably make the decision over the next 20 days.
And as with any product, there's always issues. I'm big on mobile and I have the new HTC EVO LTE, awesome phone, but the thing has HORRIBLE antennaes. Dropped calls like crazy. It took about a month before this was apparent to me. (Great phone though) So we'll see what pops up with the Y580.

 

IMO desktops are dinosaurs and the only people who should buy them are those prepared to install the most conducive components for gaming or components to run high end graphic programs. There's nothing you can't do on a laptop that you can with a desktop apart from high end gaming or running high end graphic programs.

Anyone who would buy a high end laptop to game is either rolling in cash or insane, seeing that your laptop of approximately $3000 will be worth $1800 next year, which means your high end laptop would have depreciated by lets say one Y580 laptop!

As far as your query about lenovo laptops, I owned the Y570 and it was solid, but after I became a member of their forum I started to become concerned about the number of people having problems getting their still under warranty laptops serviced, so I sold it. The hard drive just started dying in the still under warranty HP DV6 6135tx I'm using. After using all the diagnostic tools available on the HP which let me know to get in touch with HP to get service. I emailed them about the diagnosis, they then let me know I could have the laptop picked up for service or they could send me out a new hard drive, 4 days later a DHL driver dropped off a new hard drive ( I had a 5400 rpm drive they gave me a 7200 rpm drive as well) SWEET thank you HP!

Some on the Lenovo site with the same problem waited 3 weeks for service not as good and some even had to pay for the shipping, I too am very interested in the Y580, but I'm also very concerned about what kind of a hassle it could turn out to be if things go wrong. When you buy a product you not only pay for what you get but also for the people who stand behind the product, from what I observed Lenovo guys are frequently MIA!

 

In US the lenovo service is pretty good. my wife once had to send in her thinkpad for a failed HD and the turnover was less than a week.

Once a while there was a mess up by lenovo but on the other hand there is a silent majority of people who had satisfactory warranty service.

 

...and having better and bigger display, better sound card, better wireless (or LAN), lower noise levels with much lower heat, better overall performance, faster HDD with more options to install new one, more RAID options, much easier to upgrade anything, some additional components like built-in CF reader. And all of this for much lower price.
The only disadvantage is mobility.

Sorry. I couldn't help my self.

 

bigger display ~~ Most now a day use an external when at home
better sound card ~~ Seeing you'd be chained to your desktop why wouldn't you be using your home system any way?
better wireless ~~ better wireless? there's nothing better than free wireless at any number of hotspots
lower noise levels ~~ Tell that to the fan I had to install to the desktop I some times use.
much lower heat ~~ To buy a motherboard with a cooling system to play lets say BF3 could cost as much as a cheap laptop.
better overall performance ~~ I very happy with the performance I get from the HP DV6 6135tx
faster HDD ~~ faster SSD HDD?
AS for the rest, I generally update to keep in touch with the newer architecture, to update a laptop every 12-18 months will cost you as much as updating a decent GPU in a desktop

And if you installed the components so as to have better than an off the shelf laptop, you'd be looking at paying near to or as much as a laptop and you'd be still chained to your desktop.

Sorry. I couldn't help myself either.

 

Actually, I found that building a comparable desktop would've cost more than the Y570. I would've had to cut some corners like getting an i3 or i5 processor instead.

If I had an unlimited budget, I probably would've gone the desktop route, since I can still use my T61 on the road.

 

ok, ok. No point in arguing here - clearly we have different perspective and since I could easily answer to your points I'm pretty sure you could do that too and I don't want to start some flamewar on "PC vs console" level. Just don't make so absolute statements because it can mislead someone - this topic is not so obvious - there are so many factors in life

Edit: post below - exactly!

 

I think the point is that, you give up some things for the portability that a laptop offers.

Yes, we are on the notebook forum and even I have a new laptop incoming, but desktops have something that laptops will never quite match. It's the amount of power you get for the same amount of money.

I just spent roughly $1200 on the Y580 (with a 3 year warranty) because I need a new computer. I need a laptop, but if I had spent that same $1200 on a desktop, I could have built something significantly faster in every way. Better processor, more ram, bigger hard drive, MUCH faster video card. You get the point.

There really is no comparison when it comes to performance when you spend the same amount. There is also no way to argue which has better paths to upgrading in the future. Every single part of a desktop can be upgraded with very little effort. That's simply not the case with laptops. There is no debate when it comes to this.

I do agree that very few people these days actually need a desktop, but that's another discussion.

If you need any amount of portability, then the compromises you make going with a laptop are worth it. 99% of the time my 580 is going to be attached to an external display. It is my desktop that I occasionally carry around.

That is a perfectly valid way to use a laptop these days. For browsing on the couch, I have my iPad

 

My point was no one really needs a desktop when the laptop can do the job, I do know that the desktops in some aspects of computing rules but for the masses I believe the laptop is the way to go.

No offence taken and I hope none given.

 

Most of the case has flex (palmrest mostly and keyboard) compared to the DV6. The palm rest feels good on the DV6 whereas the Y580 feels cheap..

I mean, it looks like Lenovo is stuck in the 2000's with their design. It's hideous! The DV6 has nice looks.

Idk if it's worth keep the Y580 just for the graphics card. I have both sitting in front of me but just cannot decide.

 

After experiencing the heat issues of the DV7 (the DV6 has it as well) I say go for the Lenovo.

 

If you experienced this heat from a HP with the first gen i7 I agree, but I have owned both the first and second gen i7 from HP and I find the second gen HP's to be faultless when it comes to heat, we had 3 in this household not one had heating problems.

 

The palm rest heat people are complaining are those with Pavilions equipped with Ivy Bridge i7's (third gen). It appears that the new Pavilions are quite poor in the cooling department when under load.

 

Well I was looking into dropping a coin on one of three laptops, the Y580, the DV6 7000 series with the GT 650m or the Samsung 550P5C-S02AU with the GT 650m. Since the GTX 660m in the Y580 would really be not much better than the GT 650m if at all better seeing it's most probably crippled like the GT 555m in the Y570 is. I only wish I could find a good review of the Samsung but there isn't any but one from a retailer wish I'm taking with a grain of salt.

Although the heat issue wouldn't effect me that much seeing I would hardly ever use the DV6 as a mobile unit, but it's still good to know of the issue seeing it would effect the resale value because I generally don't keep them that long.

 

The 660 is not "crippled" in the 580 and is definitely better than the 650. It's fine if you want either of those two machines for other reasons but don't make a decision based on an assumption that isn't true.

 

It's a true 660m card and not gimped. It's just slightly better than the 650m. Some will opt to over clock the 650m just a tad bit and it will be somewhat equivalent to the 660

 

If it's a true 660m shouldn't it be a fair bit better according to Notebook Check? And I did say the card in the Y580 would really be not much better, which is kind of saying "slightly better".

I doubt I'll buy the HP if it's going to be like sitting in front of an oven again like the first HP i7's I had and I'm not sold on the after sales service from Lenovo or their crappy Driver & Download site... WOW it's almost like prospecting for gold, the Samsung's odds are starting to shorten.

 

I feel you on that..it's impossible to find a decent laptop manufacturer. Might as well buy an Apple

The 660m has a higher memory clock I believe. It's literally a few places from the 650m. I don't know if I should stay with the 580 solely for that. The build of the laptop is OK at best. My DV6 blow it out of the water in terms of style and some sturdiness.

 

I'm very confused by your post. My Y580 has almost no flex in the palmrest aand the little flex there is in the keyboard is barely noticeable... My reference point of course is an asus k52. But still I find the build quality on my y580 to be excellent. I also think it looks very good...

 

No it was 3rd gen i7.

 

Hmmm I'm comparing it to a same day brand new DV6. I find the palm rest and some of the chassis on the DV6 less creaky than the Y580. Maybe I got a bad unit..the left side of the palm rest is creaking with low pressure. Even when I moved my wrist back and forth, it made creaking noises. Hmm

Edit: I meant right side

 

Thats really odd... My y580 feels like a rock. No creaking or flex whatsoever

 

Same here. Mine is extremely solid. There is some flex in my keyboard slightly left of center, but I have to apply a decent amount of pressure.

I am very happy with the build quality.

 

I have to say that I'm very pleased with the build quality. Everything seems to be solid except for the slight flex in the keyboard left of center like Syed stated. I'm definitely pleased with it after my negative HP dv6 experience with its build quality.

 

Wow, I'm really surprised that this is still alive.

For the price, this seems to be the best high-range multimedia PC you can buy. Mid-tier for gaming and pretty well rounded. Build quality seems to come off as "acceptable" at best. Not bad, but not amazing.

I was looking at the Asus n56VZ for this reason, it's build quality looks superb, but the GTX 650m it packs is gimped, running only GDDR3, not GDDR5 as in the Y580.

Either way, it's the thermals that freak me out the most. The Y580 seems a bit inconclusive, especially since there's zero professionally reviews. Although Draghmar's came pretty damn close.

So why do thermal scare me? Overheating and parts frying. I know it's going to happen. Because of this, I became quite interested in laptops with MXM3, specifically the Sager NP9150, which Notebookcheck reviewed it's last gen model here. MXM3 would allow me to swap out the graphics card if it fried, which is something that I see on a pretty common basis. (I repair computers as a small side job, although I only see broken computers, so bad comparison? I've seen mostly 2-4 old laptops with fried graphics)

The problem there is the NP9150 has mediocre thermal ratings, which kind of turns me off. Also, it's equipped with the GTX 670m. Which is "yay more power," but boo Fermi. Same with the 675m. I could get the 680m, but it's $400 extra and screw that. So, if I want something on the 28nm I could opt for the ATI route and get a 7970m, but that's an extra $200, which would also loose me Optimus and get me ATI's half-baked variant. On top of that, the 7970m puts of a bit more heat than any of the GTX cards (especially Kepler), so that send me full circle - THE HECK DO I BUY!? - The only other pro is that the NP 9150 is extremely moddable. (I'll probably end up with an extra +$500 in mods, including the video card)

So I'd end up paying $1500-1600 for a future proof(ish) Sager, or I shut up and buy the Y580 for $1200 after tax.

If anyone is curious. The reason I'm so paranoid about this is because of my current situation. I ran a Pentium 4 3GHz + Geforce 7600GS 512MB for 8 years from 2002 to 2010. During that time span I went through 2 ATI 9800 Pro 256MB video cards. (Hence another reason I don't want to buy ATI and why I'm scared about frying video cards) Although I don't play computer games anymore, so it may not be the biggest issue, but I'll probably start again once I upgrade - I do a lot of graphics though, Premiere, AE, Photoshop. So OpenGL will take advantage of this.

Also...

In 2010 my cousin upgraded to a new 2010 i7 iMac and have me his old one. At the time, the thing was pretty sweet, too a lot of getting use to coming from Windows and I never really liked Apple to begin with. (Still not a fan, but their build quality is nice) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz and ATI 2600 HD 256MB. (I hate this video card with a passion) The display is what makes it to be honest... What breaks it? If I wanted to upgrade to a dumpy video card that's barely anything better than what I have, $600. I can't modify or future proof it at all. If it breaks, than effe my life.

I keep the thermal super cool on this thing, I O/C the fans when it get's up in temperature. Sure, I'll use a cooling pad when I get a laptop. But I want that perfect mix of everything. It's such a pipe dream though...

Decent price. Good build quality, superb thermals, MXM3, GTX 660M, 1920x1080 screen, then the rest is second. (Chiclet keyboard would be nice) Heck, even battery life is what ever. If it gets 3 hours I'll be happy.
(Thank you Ivy Bridge)

TLR

Someone go play BF3 for 3 hours for me and get back to me on the thermals, lol. I'm sure it's been posted somewhere, but I haven't been around.

 

My sister's 13 inch Macbook is hotter than my Sandy DV6 doing only browsing and downloading torrents so I wouldn't be worried about heat on either Y580 or the new DV6. She doesn't play any 3D games so it can still get hotter on high loads.

 

B3RL1N -- you and I are in the same boat deciding between Sager and the Y580. I'm leaning toward the 9150 for the exact reasons you stated.

I'm not happy about the gigantic power brick though.

 

If you are concerned about thermals and not scared of weight why not entertain a ROG G55 Asus? Realistically if there is a design flaw and high temps start frying motherboards you'd have to wait for at least 6 months at which point another, better system will be 6 months in the future and if you wait for that it will have some theoretical flaw which will prompt more waiting. It's an endless cycle. If you want the system get it now and be happy with it - it's a fantastic machine for the kind of money it costs.

 

I'm more concerned about the Fermi/ATI graphics and the cooling issues. Portability is a bit of a "what-ever" for me. The furthest I'm going to take this laptop is to College, but I'll end up bringing it over to my buddies house to game it up for the most part. Heck, I may even still take my netbook to College because all I ever do with it is write notes and programming. The extra screen real-estate would be nice though...

See here concerning the cooling problems.

I understand what you mean. I'm pretty big into smartphones, particularly Android phones and there's something new every week. (Kind of like laptops)
It's impossible to stay on the cutting edge without a huge bank account. The big difference between smartphones and laptops is cooling. ARM chips doesn't generate much heat, nor are smartphones "gaming machines," Playstation Phone doesn't count.

I honestly was pretty damn interested in the G55 for awhile, the turn off for me was the terrible battery life. No Optimus is really a stupid move on ASUS's part. Although battery life isn't the biggest concern of mine, so it might "just" work. No MXM, which blows, but the cooling is absolutely stellar. The only thing I hate is the damn hump on the back when you open the screen. I'll end up naming the laptop Egor for sure. There's also no eSata, but I can always do USB 3.0 to eSata (Bottleneck) or put a mini-PCIe eSata card in the slot where the mSata card would normally rest. (I think that's doable..) The weight is kind of bleh, but again, not my biggest concern.

I just found the Lotus P150 SE, which really has grabbed my attention. It's the Sager N9150, but with the option to include a 660m graphics card. The downside(s)? No third party manufactures, only Lotus. And the 660m has 1 GB of RAM, which would suck if I ended up getting a 2550x1440 monitor, that's very non-future proof. Thermals will also be poopy, since it has the same set up as the 9150.

I need to just shut up and buy something. (That's what the manufactures want you to do, lol) My main selling point is thermals, the G55-VW meets that requirement. On top of that, in case of emergency and because of its weight, I can use it as a blunt force weapon.

 

There is no such thing as future proof.

OK, maybe in some scenarios you get close ... or not.

I have a Clevo (all of them get very hot, I mean very, but will work for a decent amount of time). It has MXM. There are better graphics for it than my current (that my cooling solution can handle, yay, lucky me). But a new one is so expensive I would be better off with a new laptop after all. Even from Ebay they are not that cheap. And I would need a better CPU, but none of the latest would work. And after all these years a new battery might be needed. And RAM is behind. And No SATA3. Should I go on?

So this time around I have asked myself, why buy another of these eating money machines that in the end are not that future proof anyway.

In a decent laptop, maybe with extended 3 year warranty, the GPU should run OK during that time. In 3 years time even if you could upgrade the GPU, anything else will not be from the same era.

If you are not that much into gaming, even a 650 will do just fine. And with about 400$ you could buy other stuff.

If in G55 only the battery is the no-go, you could buy a second one. But around 2 hours is OK.

 

Woops, I feel pretty stupid right about now. I used a terrible choice of words in describing what I wanted.

When I said future-proof, I meant survivability. I don't want to buy a MXM capable laptop with a 660M (670/675/7970) and then in two years buy the GTX 860M XV4000 Ultra Premium 3 Graphics/Bacon Skillet video card with optional cup holder attachments. I just want to be able to buy another 660M (670/675/7970) if my old video card was to burn out. Which will be cheaper than buying a new laptop.

The probably of the CPU burning out is probably much less than the graphics card, so that's kind of a what-ever. I've never fried a CPU.

So yeah, my bad. The G55 is looking enticing. The G75 has Asus's own MXM standard, so the graphics card is swappable, but it's $1,400 and has a 17", which I don't care for.

I'm buying this laptop to play GW2 and I still have a month till it comes out, so I'm too worried, lol.

 

X2

Good build quality for the most part. Love the 1080p screen ... it's purdy.

 

I understand, you had some terrible experience in the past and laptops do not seem very trustworthy in this matter either.

Indeed you might be protected better in some scenarios, if you can find a cheap GPU in good condition and you are out of warranty.

For me since I live in Europe and most cheap parts are in US, I would be better selling it as it is and buy a new one.

 

The perpetual state of disposability of laptops really irks me. I'm not a throw away kind of person. So a MXM based laptop would be best, especially since I live in the US and could easily get parts. (Two Sager dealers are in the city I live in)

Regardless of this threads title, I decided two weeks ago that I'd skip on using the laptop as my main computer and just use it as a gaming rig, keeping my current computer as my desktop. My current laptop is a first gen netbook, which lags on YouTube and has a 1024x600 screen. (My phone is better in every aspect) My desktop is an iMac I got from my cousin in 2010, an '07 7,1 version. Core 2 Duo with a ATI 2600HD 256MB. At times, I can barely play Minecraft in 1080.... (In Win7 too)

I'm thinking about selling the iMac online, getting $700 out of it. Then buy a Catleap 1440p monitor for $350 w/shipping and build a desktop. I already calculated the price and it'll cost me about $2,040. Minus $700 and that's $1,340. Or, about $100 more than I'd pay for a laptop. I'd lose portability, which is the only downside.

I'm going to a tech start-up meet today, I'll be rocking my EeePC 1000HA. If I'm the only noob with a netbook there then I'm probably going to be back to square one and be stuck on buying a laptop so I have a decent computer while out and about.

 

If you don't need it, don't buy it. My phone is 6 years old. My PDA about the same age. Both work fine. Sure they are not the latest and greatest, but I don't need more, I understand you.

But my 4 year old top laptop at that time, has a hard life with latest stuff. Takes ages to enconde something. I have to edit my video, it takes about 4 hours. It should be much more less than that. My Lightroom with D800 file is not working well anymore, takes so much time. And so on.

On top of that, even if, let's say I could get a GPU used, but cheap (it's about 200$, most of them maybe +300, new one here is +600), would I still want to put that money in an old machine?

For a light portable thing, I find the Padfone from Asus a very interesting idea. In a complete set-up gives you about 18h of usage. That is quite impressive. And it will be a phone, a tablet and a sort of netbook with keyboard.

 

Am thinking seriously of buying the Y580 this week. How does build quality compare to the thinkpad line?

I have an old t400 that is dying on me, and I'm looking to replace it. The Y580 is appealing as it has the better graphics card compared to the current t430 or t530.

Still sucks that it comes with a glossy display though.

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

I got my y580 today. Not sure how i feel about its stuctural integrity.
I like things to last, i dont think this will last if i use it daily and takin too and back from school or work so it may be sitting stationary most of the time.

I am also not a throw stuff away type pf guy. This does somewhat see very disposable. I like my y580, the screens are not too sharp but it's fast. It has lots of useless software on it. Not sure how i feel about it. Hope it lasts.

 

What do you mean ? It seems that to many people it looks and feels above average in terms of build quality. I'd get a nice backpack to carry it around and wouldn't worry about it. It's a consumer laptop and a lot of it is plastic, but I've seen a lot of laptops with all-plastic cases that felt like crap last for many years...

 

I guess so, I guess I am just used to tougher ones.
I am the type of guy that likes stuff to last. You're probably right, I wont worry about.

 

Hmm... what would you consider a "tougher" laptop? The Y570 seems pretty solid, and I would think the Y580 would be similar if not better made. I've seen my co-workers and classmates laptops, and aside from the Toughbook I kinda thought that the Y570 was a pretty solid build.

 

Ideapads never have been nor will be considered above average build quality. Above average build is more or less suited to Business line laptops Like Dell Latitudes,Macbook Pros,Thinkpads and similar there to. Ideapads are good for what they are but they are a BUDGET line not heavily focused on build quality. They are better build then most other BUDGET class laptops but still fall into that category.

 

You're playing on words.

If I want a budget laptop there are tons of products to choose from around a €400-500 price point (tax included) where I live.
It seems to me there are much more laptops between €400-700 than above €700. That tells me a $1000 or more laptop is not exactly cheap nor what your typical budget-minded buyer is looking for when on the market for a new laptop.

You certainly don't have to spend a lot to get an average notebook that will get the job done for most people. You won't get the same hardware nor the same build quality though as far as I can tell. But fortunately there's something between a budget laptop and a MBP, a Thinkpad or a Latitude.

If MBPs are "above average" in terms of build quality, I wonder, then what's "superior" in your language ?