$799 Lenovo Y500 15.6": i7-3630QM, 1080p, 8GB, 1TB HDD, 2GB GeForce GT 650M

Pulled from Slickdeals:

Lenovo Link Here

Note: For SLI you'll need to buy the secondary card PLUS the bigger 170W PSU.

Specs
Intel Core i7 3630QM Quad Core 2.4GHz
8GB DDR3 Memory
1TB Hard Drive
15.6" 1920x1080 LED Display
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230
6-cell Battery
Windows 8

 

Fantastic deal. Thanks for posting.

I've historically given Lenovo's Ideapad line good reviews, it's a good quality machine for the price (especially keyboard/touchpad/speakers).

 

Charles every review/impressions have been favorable. It features a red backlit kybd, a dark grey brushed aluminum case, the screen looks nice and SLI gaming performance is stellar. Again all based on user reviews.

I purchased the SLI version on Amazon, yesterday. It should arrive Weds. In the other deals thread is how I found out about this badboy. I was planning on dropping 2.5/3K on a M18x and decided this was the far better deal for now.

 

Lol you're comparing 2 laptops in completely different leagues, but this is pretty much the best it gets under $1k.

 

Yes absolutely ! :thumbsup:

I prefer bang for the buck. Lately i'm on a roll with that sort of stuff. I recently scored a NIB 13" cMBP (2012) for $650.

 

Glad that my thread helped somebody out. I personally don't think it's a smart investment to spend 2.5K-3K on a gaming notebook only to have it be outdated in a few years. Just think of the kick-a** gaming desktop you can build from the money you saved by going for the Lenovo instead of the Alienware lol.

Anyway, the M18x is definitely not the definition of portable by any stretch of the imagination. At almost 13 lbs (without AC adapter!) it's more than twice as heavy as the Lenovo and probably the biggest "notebook" out there short of those Clevo barebones that house desktop Extreme Edition CPU's. I tried one out at a Fry's Electronics and the sheer size of it put even my old ASUS G73Jh to shame. I'm a college student and the girth of the ASUS was already very cumbersome so I can't imagine having to tote the Alienware back and forth to class all the time. I'm so glad I got rid of the G73 and got the Lenovo because this thing is way smaller while being twice as fast. :thumbsup:

 

As much as I wanted to buy an Alienware M18x, the reasons you listed is what has always held me back. An M18x is basically a desktop stuffed inside a laptop shell. For 2.5K-3K I could build an amazing desktop for the money and it would have a much better upgrade path.

My friends son purchased a M18x dual 675m and spent around 2.5k and that thing weighs a ton. It needs to be plugged in at all times if you plan on gaming for more than 40 minutes. I thought the Y500 was a great compromise for price and performance. Although it's not in the same monster category of the M18x it's roughly a 3rd the price.

 

an 18x can last an easy 5 years if you buy an xm chip after 2-3 years when it is going for 200-300 bucks and upgrade the gpus after 2-3 years....that is actually a vary good system at lasting for half a decade. Figure you get the 2500 option and spend 1000 or so dollars upgrading it over the next 5 years you will almost always play games at 100% max graphics and average 750 dollars a year or maybe less if you count reselling it at the end of 5 years.

The important thing is to buy an m18x at a year that a die shrink exists...IB and kepler was the perfect time to upgrade due to the rare chance of hitting both at the same time.

 

Yeah the ability to upgrade, if you have the dough, is the nice thing about those systems. But just the sheer size is impractical for anything but moving from desk to desk. I remember how much it strained my back to carry the G73 around all the time and it would cut off the circulation in my legs after a while if I used it on my lap. And the M18x outweighs it by 4 lbs!

 

dude i have a bad back and i carry my m17x, external 3.5 hardrive, ~10 cables, phone, ~5 adapters, and a bunch of other stuff and books. my back pack must weight 30-50 pounds and it doesn't kill me. Maybe it is because i have a good back pack? I'll weigh my backpack tomorrow when i go to school and see how much it is. Also like the said the dough isn't that much for the long haul. 750 bucks every year is not a lot...and you can play pretty much every game every year for 5 years at max settings at 1080p. Compared to the 1-1.2k laptop that may be able to play 90% of games at high for only 1 year and now 100% of new games are at medium and you need to upgrade every 2 years so your in 500-600 dollar range with lower capabilities.

 

Ouch !

That's why I tried to find the right balance with the Y500. I don't want to drop $6750 on a laptop for 5 years. I would rather have a good desktop and a decent gaming laptop for the not so taxing GPU games.

I just checked Lenovo's site and the have Windows 7 drivers for the Y500. I plan on ditching W8 and installing W7 when I get it.

 

Proposed solution: 3970X/GTX690 desktop for home, M18x for LAN parties and dorm, Y500 for work/school. Everyone is happy and life is good.

 

After I win the lottery.

 

Doesn't the Y500 suffer from some issues such as the trackpad ?

Is teh Y580m a better option ?

 

Heard about those problems too. This is from a Lenovo rep yesterday regarding the keyboard/trackpad issues mentioned in their forums, don't quote me on it though.

"First the systems that were discussed in the forum posts are of the older top/keyboard cover build. The touchpad is part of the cover that integrates the keyboard and the palm rest. Second after checking with the factory manager in China, there are no 'blocks' for quality in manufacturing for the current Y500 models being produced."

 

I received my Y500 today. I must say i'm not overly impressed with the build quality. I notice gaps on the edges of the palm rest area where the the two pieces of the case meet. This is definitely not MBP Unibody quality.

One thing that is very annoying is the TouchPad area, pretty much 80% of the area you get a slight click if you moderately put pressure on it. Then on the corners you have the left and right click buttons.

Screen quality looks good. I'm happy with that but man I keep staring at the gap on the left corner edge of the laptop. As you follow the gap it then gets flush. I found the power cord flopping around in the box went I opened it. My first reaction was I got an open box but I had to cut the tape seal on the box.

I'll try a couple of racing games tonight, especially F1 2012.

 

Where is this large gap on the left corner edge that you speak of? I agree that it's not MacBook Pro build quality but it's not below average either. The clickpad is definitely the weakest link on the machine. I was surprised at how solid the keyboard feels. Good travel and no flex in normal usage. And the aluminum on the cover and palmrest are nice, although the the screen cover could be sturdier as I can flex it pretty easily by pressing on it with a finger.

The speakers on this thing are awesome. Absolutely THE BEST sound I have ever heard on a laptop. Make sure that you go here and download this version of Dolby Home Theater v4. Just run it and let it update, no need to uninstall the previous Dolby. The version that is preloaded on the machine doesn't have advanced options for you to adjust the equalizer or turn on enhancements and surround sound. This updated version enables everything. Without it the sound on this thing is very good but with it it is phenomenal.

 

Yeah I agree, the audio is amazing. This is the best sounding laptop I have ever heard. It's not a large gap but it's noticeable. It's on the front left corner of the palm rest. I can look down and see a gap.

 

I made a video comparing Dolby off vs. on. Even with my crappy point-and-shoot you can hear the difference.



I don't see any particularly large or outstanding gap on my machine. The only gaps are uniform along the entire edge.

 

Hey nice pics, that laptop looks familiar.

The first pic looking down is the one I was referring to. That's where I notice an uneven gap from left to right on the edge. If I hold the laptop at eye level it's flush like yours. Man this touchpad really stinks. I get to clicks on the left side. I do like the laptop though.

This laptop should run Windows 7, right?

 

So mine doesn't have the gap and yours does? Mind taking a snapshot of it?

 

Kind of hard to tell how severe the problem is as the pictures are really grainy but it looks pretty minor. It's probably within manufacturing tolerances and if the laptop isn't defective in any way then I'd keep it. My iPad 3 has the same issue where there is a small gap between the screen bezel and aluminum back in one of the corners but the Apple Store Genius said not to worry as it is within Apple's supposedly stringent quality standards.

 

the gaps look the same as my R4 :/

Yea rodster you need more light or a better camera...I am guessing it is a light issue. try doing it in day light or something. my lumix ZS-3 or whatever sucks in low light.

 

Wanna know what's funny? The replacement Y500 I received this week (the first one was the one I took pictures of and was returned due to defects) has this exact same problem in the bottom left corner. But the replacement also doesn't have a bunch of stuck pixels and a buggy touchpad. Hooray for Lenovo consistency and build quality! *Golf claps*

Oh yeah and I second using a better camera if you want to show people something here. The quality of that iPod camera is just too poor.

 

What's an R4?

I sent it back to Amazon for a refund. Something wasn't right about that touchpad and the double clicks. The other thing was I thought the Y500 was aluminum or at least that's what I thought I read but the case felt like plastic.

There were some nice things about the laptop but i'll keep looking.

 

I got a quick question:
Are there always deals for the Y500 , and there will be more in the near future? Meaning that despite the retail price of 1300$, the price will always be around 800$?
I'm asking because I would prefer to purchase the computer around May, but if the price will jump back to the retail price - I will take advantage of the low price and buy now.

 

R4 is referring the the Alienware M17x R4 gaming laptop.

Sounds like you didn't give the machine a fair shake. The case IS aluminum, just not all of it. The back of the screen and the entire palm rest and area around the keyboard is aluminum. The bottom half of the case is pretty rigid plastic. I personally have no problems with the build quality of the machine and for the components it has it is a steal.

As for "OMG there's a gap in the bottom left corner!" like I said my replacement has the exact same thing. It's about 1 mm wider along the entire bottom edge compared to my first Y500. Not a big deal for me. If you want perfect build quality go pay a premium for a MacBook Pro and have fun gaming on that.





What exactly was wrong with your touchpad if I may ask? I have to admit that the clickpad design is not great and clicking the buttons did cause the cursor to twitch on-screen, but it is more than useable if I just tap instead of click. The touchpad on my replacement unit is way better but still not perfect. The twitching cursor when clicking is gone and the touchpad module feels much more solid overall and doesn't flex into the case as much when I press it. But the occasional lag is still there.

Did you check whether your touchpad was Synaptics or ElanTech and what BIOS version you had? The first Y500 units with the ElanTech and BIOS v1.03 had the broken touchpads but after Lenovo updated the BIOS and switched to Synaptics hardware it was fixed. Both my Y500's had Synaptics touchpads and BIOS v1.05 and v2.02 respectively. Maybe Amazon sent you new old stock and that's the reason for the touchpad problems?

TL;DR
Go enjoy your laptop instead of looking for the slightest imperfection because looking for the perfect machine is a going to take a long time.

 

Wait for Asus G46 with the 900p screen in a couple weeks.

 

It's overpriced for what you're getting. And don't let 14'' fool you; I used one at Best Buy and it is thick and heavy and bigger than the Y500. Plus, a crappy screen and no num pad. The Y500/Y400 SLI has twice the graphics performance since a GT 650M is the same exact GPU as the GTX 660M. I had a G73Jh before and all the ASUS ROG notebooks since then have been overpriced.

 

650=660??? i don't remember that...notebookcheck

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - NotebookCheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

appears to be so. odd so is one BGA and one MXM?

 

GT 650M and GTX 660M are both GK107 chips but it's the OEM's that specify what clocks speeds they run at to fit their particular power and thermal envelopes I guess. Generally GTX 660M is higher clocked than GT 650M but in some instances a GT 650M will be clocked just as high or higher than the typical GTX 660M. See the Retina MacBook Pro for instance:



Based on what I've seen pretty much all the brands have the GPU integrated on the mobo except MSI, Clevo, and Alienwares since those machines have upgradeable GPU's.

 

asus has mxm boards thats why i said the laptop with the 660 was probably mxm...at least they used to.

 

Some of ROG notebooks have GPU's with MXM connectors but you can hardly call them MXM boards because the PCB shape is all funky so you can't just pop in any standard MXM GPU and expect it to fit the heatsink and the system. Plus people trying to upgrade ran into all kinds of incompatibilities with the BIOS.

I had a G73Jh until very recently and hung out in the G-series notebooks forum for a couple years. That was the only machine that was possible to upgrade within a reasonable degree of difficulty because the Mobility 5870 used a custom MXM board that was only slightly wider than standard. You still had mod your own heatsink and flash with a working vBIOS but it was feasible and many users were able to successfully upgrade to the 6970M/6990M and later to the 7970M. That plus an overclocked 920XM/940XM really extended the life of a 3-year-old notebook.

 

i thought when they switched to the 4xx series gpus they carried standard mxm boards? i know my g51j had reverse mxm which was dumb as hell...otherwise i would have upgraded that thing so my wife could play games with me.

 

No that was the point when they switched over to ridiculously-shaped "MXM" boards that have almost nothing in common with the standard MXM 3.0b layout save for the connector. Look at the comparison here.

At least with the G73Jh you could get a standard MXM 3.0b card to fit with little effort. Everything else that came afterwards either had a custom MXM board or was integrated into the mobo (i.e. G74SX).

 

thanks for the link...this si why i don't buy asus anymore...for laptops at least :/

 

Plus the recent models have lost their bang-for-the-buck.

 

Is there a big difference between these 2 CPU's for gaming 2.4 GHz Core i7-3630QM vs 2.6 GHz Core i5 3230M? Amazon dropped the price on the i7 model to $999 and the i5 $889.

 

Thought you returned your Y500?

If the game is CPU-intensive the i7 will definitely increase performance. You have to realize that the mobile i5 is slower than a desktop i3 and nobody games with that CPU.

 

games like RTS and MMOs normally get hammered by CPU bottlenecks. google for the Ivy bridge CPU gaming review from notebookcheck.net it uses a bunch of CPUs with the 680 i thought.

 

apparently the deal has changed.
y500 749.99 but now the screens 720p !
IdeaPad Y500 - Powerful Gaming Laptop (US)

 

yea 50 bucks is worth a 1080 or more res screen...hell i would pay 100 or sometimes more depending on the laptop for a high res screen....er i mean normal res

 

if i remember right its 849.99 for 1080... i bought the original deal, but they delayed it and now its changed so idk what they are going to send me

 

They are going to send you the configuration you ordered at the price you paid. Anything else and you have every right to call them up and demand a correction.

 

The 750m's are available and according to Nvidia it's a 75% increase? GeForce GT 750M | Description | GeForce

I wonder if they'll offer this in SLI as well? Enhance your IdeaPad Y500 Laptop- 59371965 - Dusk Black | Lenovo | (US)

 

75% increase is just marketing BS without credible data to back it up. Anyway, we already know what the GT 750M is. It's the same GK107 with clock increases. Lenovo didn't pull a fast one this time like they did with the 650M and has allowed full GPU Boost 2.0 functionality, meaning the core can go as high as 1100 MHz if thermal headroom allows. The memory is bumped up to 1250 MHz. Nothing earth-shattering IMO and those are clocks you can achieve when overclocking the 650M anyway. I'd expect a 10-15% increase in most games over a stock 650M.

I got my Y500 with Ultrabay GPU and 170W charger for just a little over the $899 they're asking for the configuration with single GT 750M. Plus you have to wait a few months before they start shipping that model.

I thought the reason you returned your Y500 was due to the build quality and touchpad? Doubt that's changed at all this time around.

 

I did return the Y500 as I felt the trackpad was not up to par with what I have used on other laptops. I'm still looking for a good performing gaming laptop. Hopefully the trackpad issues have been corrected. I'm also waiting for the announcement of the new M18x with the 780m's and the 7990m's.

The 750m configurations are shipping on 4/24.

 

As of my current machine, BIOS v2.02 manufactured 3/13/13, it is a little better than my first machine manufactured 12/26/12 but still probably not up to your expectations.

 

Where did you get that info that 750m configurations are shipping 4/24?