Y580: go for i5 or i7?

Hi,

I'm almost ready to purchase my first notebook ever, a Lenovo Y580 (after years of having used desktops, always built those myself).

Right now I'm really not sure whether I should go for the i7 model or the i5 model (price difference is 200 bucks).

The i7 comes with a 64gb ssd, 1tb hdd and a bluray player. The i5 comes with a 750gb hdd, no ssd and a regular dvd writer.

Now I don't really care either way about the bluray, I won't miss it if I don't have it. 250GB less storage space is not a big deal either. The SSD, well I'm probably gonna get a 128GB ssd anyway and use that as my OS and applications drive, and the mechanical drive for pure storage.

I will not be playing a lot of games, but I will be using it for photography work (such as processing lots of RAW files using software such as Adobe Lightroom), perhaps some minor Photoshop work, and other than that a lot of multimedia tasks. Maybe even some video editing. Other than that the regular internet/email/office type work.

What is the performance difference between an i7 or an i5? Will I really notice anything significant in real-life day to day use?

I like the idea of saving 200 bucks, I really do. But I also wonder if I'll later on regret not going the extra mile and shelling out 200 bucks more for the i7 + the extra features. It's not like I can upgrade to the i7 after the fact

I'm really having a hard time making up my mind, some input from you guys would be appreciated

 

Go with the i7. If you are from the US, there is no point in buying the i5 version, the Y580 with i7 is sold at the same price.

 

Sadly, here in Europe (the Netherlands) the price difference is 200 bucks between the i5 and i7 version, and there is very limited availability here in the Netherlands of the Y580. If there were more suppliers, then prices should drop, but not sure when that's gonna happen. In most respects the Y580 comes closest to what I need right now in a laptop (just unsure if I really need the power of an i7 or if I would be fine with an i5, especially given the price difference).

The i7 comes with 64GB SSD, 1TB HDD and bluray (not sure if all that adds up to 200 bucks, but oh well), vs the i5 with just a 750GB HDD, no bluray and no SSD.

 

i7 - because that's the only version which comes with FHD screen and buying this laptop with 768p should be considered as crime against humanity

 

If anything I think the extra 200 is worth it for a better processor and FHD screen alone. i7 is definitely gonna speed up processing images compared to an i5.

 

Go with the i7. I regret not getting an i7 for my laptop just because it's plugged in all the time. Now I get some slowdowns in games when there's LOTS of things going on. When I was mobile for classes and stuff, I found it hard to run out a fully charged battery on "Balanced" mode, since the most I did was video+internet+typing for a 7 hour class day.

 

Here both models come with the FHD screen. Otherwise I wouldn't even consider the i5

 

Well thanks for the input, I'm leaning towards the i7 I guess. I do think down the road I'll regret not getting more power. I'll just try to sell the 64GB SSD and replace it with a 128GB/256GB SSD (mSATA) to compensate a bit for additional costs.

 

Well, I decided to go for the i7 and am now the owner of my first laptop ever. So far so good, it all works pretty snappy.

Will post a review once I've played around with it for a bit (but I won't run any benchmarks, as many people have already done that, I'll mostly focus on the screen and such, as that is one of my main concerns).

The keyboard is great however! Types very nicely, almost feels like a normal keyboard. good feedback (am typing on it right now).

Will probably replace the 64GB SSD with a 128 GB SSD down the road, but for now it works great

 

definitely i7

if you hadn't said that, i would've said i5.