Z480 as a Budget Student Laptop?

As much as I hate signing up for a forum just to ask a question, I am entering my first year of university this fall, and want to be sure I choose the right notebook.

My needs aren't really that intensive. I am entering sciences, and probably won't need to run any programs for that for a couple years, when I can just update my laptop. I am looking for at least 4 hours of battery life (however, this will be when taking notes, so I don't mind if Wi-Fi is off and brightness is way down) , and will be gaming moderately. I will be playing Minecraft, Guild Wars 2, and classic emulated games, but I only need playable performance.

As a graduation present, my parents have offered to pay up to 500$ for a laptop, but the rest is up to me. Though I can afford a higher quality one, I don't want to spend when I don't need to.

Anyways For $599.00, I can buy an Ideapad Z480 with
Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3210M Processor( 2.50GHz 1333MHz 3MB)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Graphics: Intel Integrated HD Graphics 4000
Memory: 6.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz
Display: 14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200 rpm

I know it doesn't have discrete graphics, but I feel the Ivy Bridge integrated chip would be enough to suit my needs.


If this is not enough, I can always spend a little more and buy an Ideapad Y480 for $849.00 with

Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor( 2.30GHz 6MB)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT640M-LE 2GB
Memory: 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
Display: 14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200 rpm

or Ideapad 470p for $699 with

Processor: 2nd generation Intel Core i5-2450M Processor( 2.50GHz 1333MHz 3MB)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7690 1GB
Memory: 8.0GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333 MHz
Display: 14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768
Hard Drive: 500GB 5400 rpm


I have done a lot of research up to this point, and it seems the ideapad series is the best for me, but if you feel there are any better choices, please let me know.

Thanks very much for the help!

 

The first choice should do nicely. I have seen many youtube videos of people playing those games on low to mid settings just fine on the 4000 card. That should be a solid laptop for college. I doubt you will get much time for game playing anyways.